Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance this time. Mr. Speaker, in the government's response to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment's report on the regulatory framework, they spoke to the Building Capacity in Indigenous Governments Program. Mr. Speaker, has this program been fully subscribed since establishment?
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the subscriptions to this program has grown over the years. In 2023-2024, we had six secondments. In 2024-2025, we had eight. In 2025-2026, we had seven. And again, it's well received. This program has actually been through a review, positive feedback all around from the participants. And as such, the program will be continuing with some adjustments to make it even more accessible for Indigenous governments across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister kind of got to my next question which was to be the question of the success of the program. So, considering it's been successful, it sounds like, can the Minister describe the adjustments that are being made to make it more accessible? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the top-up funding that is available, we right now provide $40,000 in funding for each potential placement. This recognizes that there may be some gap between the salaries that apply to a GNWT public servant and wanting to ensure that folks are able to take on these secondments and not facing a gap to their employment level but also not burdening unnecessarily another government or Indigenous government. And so the gap is just to make sure that we're putting that money towards salaries and that in that sense would, again, make it easier to apply for any government to take these positions on. They are valuable for us to have our staff working and learning within the context of Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister did a great job explaining the program, didn't quite answer the question, but I'll move on to the next one.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So right now, Mr. Speaker, if there are more placements or a need for greater salary dollars beyond the capacity of the funding, those funds do come from internal resources to individual departments so sometimes that can be if there's an unfunded position that they can use that money towards, or if there's some other program where funding hasn't fully been utilized they can use that towards this program. Obviously, we had a finite amount of resources in the GNWT and at this time this is not one where I am anticipating anything further going into the budget for this. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from YK Centre.
