Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for the question. So in regards to the Student Financial Assistance northern bonus program, the changes that you see within this budget are still reflective of that. The reason being is that we passed the previous year's budget in May/June, so it was different from how we normally do it. And so because the northern bonus program had already had an intake in April of last year, it meant that we had already spent that money. So we were able to reduce the northern bonus program in 2024-2025 by $360,000, and the remaining amount, the $240,000 needed to be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am more than happy to send the letters that I have sent to the federal government and share those with committee.

Yes, please, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We've never met our allocation before. So this is new. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, in regards to that line item -- and forgive me, I'm just working to pull that up here. And that was in my -- that's -- sorry, and I apologize because it was in a previous year's budget, so I don't have it readily available in front of me. And, sorry, it -- so for that specific program, it was historically undersubscribed, so we were able to kind of trim off the top without trimming in to what was traditionally used by people accessing that program. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's not a situation where I'm going through their budget line by line with them. They have base funding that they get through this process here. If, for example, if they have a need for forced growth -- a great example of that that I believe is in this is their -- it, sorry, it is in this, is the forced growth for their lease payments and such. That's something that would come through the financial management board. It would go through our normal vetting processes with that. But line by line, they're not going through the budget with me, and I...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's a nontaxable monthly benefit paid to families based on net family income, the number of children, and their ages that they have. I can also just -- the Member couldn't find it here because it actually falls under the Department of Finance, and it's under the Income Tax Act, so it doesn't appear here. And our -- it's very common that our residents don't realize that we pay this benefit because it is provided alongside the Canada child benefit. The Member is correct in that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'd be happy to provide both the letter that I received from the federal government and the ones that went back. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the department certainly is a group of very enthusiastic and creative people. A lot of them used to actually be in the classroom and wanted to move to the department to hold different roles within education in the territory. So certainly creative, certainly looking for other ways. Whether or not they have partnered specifically with Ecology North, I couldn't say. I can say that as a student in the Northwest Territories, had the opportunity to have Ecology North be within our school system in certain ways and other NGOs across the territory.

Wha...

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, those 60 applications came in prior to the pause last year. So that was a commitment that was made last year before we paused the program in July. And so, really, the decision to honour that commitment was made to be fair to the people that the commitment was made to and then beyond that, we used the 90 -- the 90 allocations that we had left to ensure that we were focusing on urgency and retention. Thank you.