R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, the Member referenced the ATIPP legislation that requires a notice of appeal and appeal rights. The Social Assistance Act Income Assistance Appeals Regulations also contain a provision. It's Section 4(1), I believe, so that is mandated that that has to be done. That is done. I have a copy here of the notice of refusal, which clearly indicates that there are appeal rights. The handbook the Member references, I believe there is an updated policy manual. It's February 2020, and I checked that today, and that does make that reference, although the plain-language...

As part of the apprenticeship or ATOC strategy, we've already committed to that, and we're working on that. We hope to launch the program later this year, and it's going to be similar to the ones in Alberta and Nova Scotia, and it's going to be focused on getting more women in trades. There are other partners in the territory, as well; Skills Canada NWT has launched a program aimed at girls in middle school to help them start getting interested in the trades, as well. There are a lot of people who we could be talking to about this. Five percent of the registered apprentices are women. We're...

I wish I could have more positive answers here for the Member, but the fact is we are not considering this. The work that it would take to actually look into this and do the research is not doable, given what we have been mandated to do by this Assembly. Successive governments over the past number of decades have gone through cuts. The people to get cut are the policy people. We are pretty thin on policy positions. It is tough to do a lot of the work that we want to do. I am not even sure how we are going to do the things that we are mandated to do and that this Assembly is asking of us. To...

First, I just want to address the Member's comments. If any Member is aware of incidents where we are not living up to our standards, please let me know. We have a system in place within the actual offices, but I want to work toward a territory-wide tracking system so that we can identify these types of concerns and move to improve them. In terms of indexing, Income Assistance does pay the actual cost of shelter, of utilities, and of heating fuel, so, in that sense, it is indexed. However, at this time, I can't commit to indexing all of the benefits. We look at our mandate, and ECE has a lot...

Right now, we're open to anything. This is very early in this Assembly, and this mandate item, I think, spring 2021 is when we look to have a plan formed on what this would look like. Of course, we're open to partnerships. I mean, that's sort of been the mantra of this government. Every community is different, and so we have to look at the specific communities. Perhaps the GNWT is the only game in town and we could provide that service, but that is all yet to be determined. Right now, I won't say no to anything going forward in terms of what we're going to consider.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, part of our mandate is to better utilize GNWT infrastructure for early childhood programs, so that’s a definite consideration. Right now, our capital standards don’t say anything about childcare spaces in schools, so we’re not mandated to build them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re prohibited from building it, either, so it’s a discussion that we’re currently having. Thank you.

As part of the mandate commitment, as well, we're working on the Early Learning and Childcare 2030 Strategy, and so there is some work that has been going into that. I don't have the specifics of that, but I can find out and share that with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I hate to stop the fun, here, but the answer for that one is “no,” unfortunately. The contract, or the engineering and design contract, was awarded in June 2019 and that work has already commenced. At this point, it's too late to include childcare space in that plan. However, in the future, if we have room available in the school, that could be used for childcare space, but dedicated space is not in the plan right now and it's too late to add that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I want to focus on one of the successes that has come from the education renewal and innovation framework. The Northern Distance Learning program, otherwise known as NDL, is a way to offer higher-level academic courses to high school students in small communities, to help prepare them for post-secondary. By the upcoming 2020-2021 school year, this program will be available to students in up to 20 small communities across the territory.

The Northern Distance Learning program began at East Three School in Inuvik, under the leadership of the Beaufort-Delta Divisional...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My first set of questions from the Member for Hay River South. It's a big day for me. The total amount budgeted in the previous main estimates was $1.072 million, and that's for the Trades and Occupations Wage Subsidy Program. Thank you, Madam Speaker.