Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are some arts funding programs through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The one that immediately comes to mind for a project like this would be the small arts grant. The small arts grant provides funding up to $5,000 for art projects across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is correct, Mr. Chair. Students who currently access northern distance learning will still be able to access northern distance learning. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, 3 million of those dollars were focused on small communities, and 1 million of those dollars were focused on regional centres. And so the change in that reduction would signal a desire to kind of change the policy work behind that funding to ensure that funding is directed at communities with the highest unemployment rates. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that would be to support recruitment and retention. So it would be for both of those. And just in regards to why is it not in here, you know, there are a lot of difficult decisions to make. I am sure that every single one of the Ministers you will see come sit in this chair would say that, you know, if $20 million fell into their pockets tomorrow, they could have it spent in a minute and so this is why we have these difficult jobs is we have to decide where we're going to put that money and what the priorities are going to be right now given our...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to pass to the deputy minister to be able to speak to this. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my role would be to provide political direction. So for the operational detail, I'd like to pass to the deputy minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As acknowledged in this House before, there have been delays that are based delays based on the timeline that is published online for Aurora College. But as far as what other people are saying who aren't in this room and who have not communicated that to me personally, I would not be able to speak to. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right I have Mr. Mike Saturnino, who is assistant deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment as well.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that reduction is a decrease due to reductions in the trades and occupation wage subsidy program. And so that would be dollars that are historically unspent that we have removed from the budget. In addition to that, there's also some savings in there from the apprenticeship trade and occupational certification committee pivoting to virtual meetings as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, definitely in our February sitting, we spoke a lot about wage grids and about funding to the sector. It was repeated quite a bit that in order to be able to increase the wage grid to be more on par, for example, with education assistants in our education system, that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment would need additional funding to be able to do that. That I have not been shy about repeating and, to be honest, I was surprised not to see an ask for additional ELCC funding come out of the report that was tabled by Regular Members...