Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So absolutely, Madam Chair, the Member is right, there is a significant increase to the investment from 44 -- sorry, in 2024-2025, it was $43.8 million, and now it's $44.6 million there for income assistance in that line item. The actuals were lower in 2023-2024, and that was because of the delayed implementation of the new program. So the increase that you see there is just under a million dollars from main estimate to main estimate comparing those, and that is from the -- the Member is right, it is from the new program. And the other increases that you see...

Thank you very much. Our commitment was to relaunch the program after hearing from them. So we listened to them. We took into account their perspectives and relaunched the program. Madam Chair, there was no commitments made at the meeting because, of course, needed to ensure that we were weighing all of the facts and balancing everything out and putting together a program at the end of the day that we felt was fair. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, Madam Chair, I would hope that at the end of the day all adults, including all of us, are being respectful of one another. But I would also love for teachers to share with my kids how to exercise their civic responsibilities and civic duties and get them involved in politics and that -- you know, politics is everything from do you think you should be allowed to wear a ball cap in a classroom. And so I think that at the end of the day making sure that while teachers aren't indoctrinating kids that we absolutely are ensuring that our kids are developing critical...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, the reason that this program was certainly implemented back in the day was in hopes of seeing more students return to the North in hopes of ultimately seeing our population numbers grow. It was part of the strategy for population growth. We did not see, as everybody knows, our population grow as a result of this program. Certainly, if the intent was to see this program returned to the budgets of the Legislative Assembly, I would not have the authority to just start doing it again. I would have to go to -- through regular budgetary processes in...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that's the first order of business, is deciding how we would like to work together and to give us an idea of kind of how that will look from start to finish, I'd like to be able to pass to the deputy minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that would just be Aurora College.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the wage grid is done. It's in regulation. So the process that's happening now is people are either providing their degree paperwork or their diploma paperwork and going through that certification process. People who don't have any post-secondary education are required to complete that 54-hour modularized course that the Member and I spoke of earlier in this sitting, and so there -- some people are in the process of still completing that coursework. And as we talked about earlier, ECE is happy to also support people to complete that work and help them...

And, Mr. Chair, if I might add (audio).

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, within that line item, we had the movement of our school-based mental health and wellness over -- that was moved -- that was previously in our junior kindergarten to grade 12 education system services, and it was moved down into the inclusive schooling section, and then in addition to that, we also have adjustments due to the UNW and the NWTTA collective agreements. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if the Member will just give me one quick second, I would be delighted, and there's no such thing as a silly question.

So historically we have an under spend of fees and payments. These typically go to costs for fees, licensing permits, registrations for workshop, development and training within the department. So as I said, historically we had an under spend of fees and payments and so that's what -- that's the difference that we are largely seeing there. Thank you.