R.J. Simpson

I appreciate where the Member is coming from. I know it's difficult for small businesses across the territory right now, and apprentices and journeypersons are in high demand. It's difficult to compete with the wages that are being offered by the mines and by government and by big industry, so to have that wage subsidy, it helps. If you're a small business and you're going into your third year with an apprentice, you might be concerned that you might lose that apprentice, and we need to help support them, so I am definitely going to look into this. We're going back to industry and to small...

Thank you. We are working on gathering that information. To further answer the Member's earlier question, these pots of money are all fully subscribed. Thank you.

Thank you. No, there is not.

That is correct.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That relates to the grants that go out through that particular division, and there were actually more applications and more money out the door than was budgeted for, and so it's not a decrease in budget. The budget remained the same, but we actually spent more than we budgeted for in the year the Member is referencing. Thank you.

Thank you. If I could hand it to Mr. MacDonald?

Thank you. At this point, we haven't done that work. A lot of times, people are bringing in pay stubs, they're bringing in things from the bank, and those are being brought in for verification. It isn't something that really lends itself, but that being said, I'll look into what other jurisdictions are doing and see if there are efficiencies to be found in that way. Thank you.

We don't have the actuals for this fiscal year yet, as we are still in it, but in 2017-2018, there was $948,000 spent, so nearly the entire budget. In 2018-2019, it was down to $655,000, so there was a carry-over of over $400,000, and that is due to a decrease in the number of apprentices, the new registers, from 92 in 2017-2018 to 70 in 2018-2019.

Thank you, that increase to travel was to support training opportunities for Indigenous governments. Thank you.

Thank you. I will say the department has done some preliminary work on this already, on the funding formula. We are going to have to work together, talk about collaborative fashions, the education leaders, the chairs of the authorities in all of the different communities. There has been a lot of interest from Indigenous governments on this, as well, not just the funding formula but the act and how the renewal or the modernization of the act will relate to Indigenous governments and their involvement. If they are going to have a greater involvement, direct involvement, then they are going to be...