Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, even with the support initiative funding, we're still asking all education bodies to still put in their applications to Jordan's Principle and Inuit Child First Initiative. So even with those applications and that funding arrangement that we do have and have applied funding for, there still is a responsibility to make sure that we're still submitting applications to the federal government, and the same encouragement would apply for the question of the Member in regards specifically to funding for the speech-language pathologist.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment continues to support education bodies with support letters for that work as well and for those applications. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So given that any applications that are still being made usually require substantiation for each child and often letters of support or assessments by a specialist, is the department able to assist either education bodies or individual families with even just getting those assessments done or getting access to the therapeutic specialist, just to be able to make those applications in the first place? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the support of a healthcare worker on those assessments is a change that was proposed by the federal government. We continue to go about doing our applications with education bodies in the same way and making sure that at the Department of Education, Culture and Employment that we're providing the support letters that our education bodies need to be able to facilitate that application process. So that support that we've always provided is still maintained and still provided. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and apologies for earlier.
Mr. Speaker, in June 2024, I spoke to and tabled the Greenland Economic Council report as an example of how economic analysis could be incorporated into strategy. Has the department considered how it could better incorporate such analysis into our new upcoming investment strategy? The question is for the Minister of ECE. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we had a great conversation earlier this week, the Member and I, on how we incorporate some of that data. So we do incorporate data into the work that we do. We incorporate it into strategies like our film strategy, our fish strategy, into our art strategies. So that's work that we continue to do in all of our planning, in all of our programs that we do at the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and work that we will continue to do.
Mr. Speaker, I'm more than happy to continue having conversations about how we can incorporate more of this work, more of this data, into work done by not just industry, tourism and investment, but also the government as a whole. I'm very happy to continue working with other Ministers on that as well, with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister's point yesterday that we don't want to waste time strategizing and focus on doing. So how does she suggest we communicate our economic plans effectively and ensure they are effective at addressing our challenges? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while I said to the Member that we don't want to do strategies left, right and center, and make new door props for departments to use, that we want to make sure that we're using our public servants effectively and efficiently, we still do have programs, and we still do have metrics in our programs. So continuing to use our data that we do have is incredibly important.
Mr. Speaker, I'd also say that it's really important that we are very clear in our communication that we have accessible messaging as a government in all of our economic initiatives that we're doing and that our outcomes are things that matter to the people that we all individually and collectively serve.
I would say that some of this is very clear under the direction of the Premier with our federal engagement approach that we have adopted this term, and we've been very effective at communicating how life is different in the territory with the federal government, and those are some of the approaches that we will continue to employ as a team. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I do note that in the Budget Dialogues document, again it came up that a cohesive economic vision is something that we're missing in the NWT, and so stakeholders were saying we need to establish something. So I do encourage us to put that vision forward.
Mr. Speaker, does the Minister feel that this kind of high-level economic analysis and planning belong just in plans created by ITI, or should we be taking a wider approach perhaps attaching this kind of analysis and planning to the government mandate or having finance report on it alongside our economic review? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, government-wide, we have adopted a macroeconomic policy that we use in all the work that we do, not only across government but also in the Financial Management Board. That said, Mr. Speaker, we also do have -- you want me to keep going? Okay.
Mr. Speaker, we also do have our budget address, which our Minister of Finance delivers every year, that also includes an economic outlook, and I would be more than happy to work with the Member to make sure that we're capturing some of this and some of the other reporting mechanisms that the Member is pointing to, and working in conjunction with my colleague, the Minister of Finance, to make sure that we have robust reporting that we're doing every year. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. Sorry for my distraction. Colleagues, I'm just going to stop the clock for a sec and going to recognition of visitors in the gallery, and I am going to turn to the Member from Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks for allowing me to do this. I want to acknowledge two visitors in the gallery - Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors for the Government of Alberta, Minister Devin Dreeshan. And also with him is some staff there, Jerry Bileka. Hopefully I got that right; sorry about that. And welcome to the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly.
Welcome to our Assembly, and we don't usually do that. Usually I do it, but I think it's more appropriate that the Minister does it.
Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a couple more questions for the Minister of Finance. Sometimes reviewing business plans feels like we're squishing round pegs into square holes; the actions don't quite fit our priorities. Why do business plans have existing government actions that have tenuous connections to our priorities of this House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I suppose that may be a matter of interpretation in the sense that departments certainly are very well aware of the priorities of this Assembly. It is incumbent on, obviously, Ministers as being politically accountable, deputy ministers as being operationally accountable to deliver on the priorities. So to the extent that the business plans do not align with the priorities, that really should come forward.
Every main estimates, that's why we put them with the main estimates. It gives a good opportunity for Members here in this House to critique the main estimates, critique the business plans alongside them. Both here and also in the committee process that we have.
So Mr. Speaker, if there's specific examples that we want to raise, again, happy to deal with it. I'm sure colleagues will do it on their behalf because we do want the business plan process to be effective. Anecdotally, we've heard that putting them together, the business plans and mains have been better. Doing a four-year business plan has been better. It is easier to understand and more clear direction. So happy to continue that process improvement. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Members from the Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate --
-- Let's try this again. Great Slave, thank you.
I just assume you mean me, Mr. Speaker. Thank you so much.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister's answer, and I do have more questions on this topic.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Finance does oversee the process, and there certainly are occasions where there'll be discussion back and forth, particularly at an operational level, to ensure that the quality of everything that's being brought forward meets the standards that we were expecting them to meet, that when it comes to the financial management board, the financial management board becomes satisfied as information that we require. And also, Mr. Speaker, the financial management board has the benefit of an entity known as the management board secretariat.
These are analysts that work specifically for the financial management board to help provide analysis of business plans, and frankly, it's an opportunity to point out if a submission or business plan does not meet that standard. And that can then influence the decisions of the financial management board. So those are processes that are baked in, and we utilize them.
Again, I think this is a valuable opportunity. It's not always well known to the public what we do. I'm happy to keep finding a way to make it better, Mr. Speaker.
Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister ever contemplated making the business plan even tighter to our political priorities such that it's not just a massive list of everything the government is doing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have had concerns raised at times, certainly in this government, where we had a very narrow set of four priorities. It was raised at some departments or at least divisions since the work that they did every day that they believed was for residents was not going to be reflected in business plans because it didn't necessarily, at least on first blush, reflect overtly or directly the priorities. So, again, I appreciate it. I think there's probably some back and forth to be had.
Too much information is of no benefit to the public to understand or to Members to act on, so I am certainly happy to look again at what we can do before we come back here. Our business planning process is underway, and we want it to be effective for the House and effective for the public. I will certainly look back again and see if we can meet that standard. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to follow up a little further on the trades matter in a little bit of a different direction, but the same sort of overall concept about making sure we have a good operating program.
There used to be called, and I think it still exists in some form or another, it was called the Territorial Trades Advisory Council, and it may have changed its form, but some of the members in the past who were on it resigned because they felt they were no longer being used. Is it defunct, or has it evolved into something else, including a different type of purpose? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
So, Mr. Speaker, it's called the Apprenticeship Trade and Occupational Certification Advisory Board, so ATOC Board, and they are still very much in play. Their current board all has current membership, and I actually rely on them quite a bit and source them for their expert opinions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not necessarily for my next question, but I kind of anticipated that was the only thing I could find that related to it.
Mr. Speaker, my next question is about in not that long ago, some members who were on the old trades advisory council, which is basically the same thing just rebranded, were sent to Fort Smith to do what's called marking desks, and that's when you send tradespeople to ensure that the teaching and practices have met a standard but yet they're not involved anymore, and I'm returning to the trades marking desks.
Mr. Speaker, is there any reason tradespeople aren't brought in for this overall final project marking desk anymore to ensure they're trained to a good standard? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would need to go follow up with the board of governors of Aurora College and their trades program specifically. I can tell you that their trades instructors are all people generally who have worked in the field, who have a tremendous amount of experience, and the apprentices then also go and work directly with employers across this territory as well. Given that it's a small territory, I would assume if there is something up that we would definitely hear about it, and I can say that I certainly like to keep my lines of communication open with our employers and businesses across this territory, and so far none of them have been shy to give me a call.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and linking to my second question, I'll just say it's about the standards. Mr. Speaker, how do we know that the standards are being taught equivalent to what's being offered in other jurisdictions, whether they go down to NAIT or SAIT, etc.? I've been told that students aren't receiving equivalencies. Now, that said, I'm asking the Minister, how do we guarantee that they're receiving the same standard of trades education here in the Northwest Territories or as to other locations? And I can name them, but we don't have the time. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our programs are accredited, so they go through a process of accreditation before they can be offered, before they can be deemed programs that people turn around and then can use in life. We want to make sure that we are being safe, that we have appropriate training for people across the territory, and make sure that we're offering a program that is competitive with the south. If the Member has a specific concern about a specific program, I'm more than happy to follow up on that with him, with the college, and make sure that I can provide him with the detailed information of that, so that I can put any of those myths aside and calm them, because I definitely want people to feel that, at the end of the day, they have access to quality programs here in the territory. Both Aurora College and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment work hard on the programs that they offer, and I can say also that the post-secondary division at Education, Culture and Employment has been working hard to increase the offerings, accredited offerings, in this territory over the last year. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm sure you're aware, as are everyone in Canada right now, but the Blue Jays are doing quite well in the World Series. And when all eyes are looking at sports, they are seeing one thing in between the innings, advertisements for sports betting.
And currently in the Northwest Territories -- well, hold on. Currently in the Northwest Territories, we have a gray market situation. There are a lot of sports betting and there are no regulations for online gaming. We brought this up on the floor of the House before.
Without that, there's no consumer protection, there's no addiction programming that can be available to it. So when will the Minister take action on the gray market and regulate online gaming? And that's the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member bringing this up. So we've gone through a few things here with this. We've done a little bit of research on how this works with the iGaming stuff for sports betting and all the other stuff that goes on online. The department has spoken to a few other agencies who deal with this. So there is a little bit of work being done in the background and hopefully we can have something for the Member here, you know, within the next few months. There is a goal to move this forward and hopefully encompass some of this online gambling that's happening in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake has brought up the loss of funding to Arctic Winter Games. This is a real hit to our kids, to sport. How much longer are we going to lose money as a territory due to revenue leakage by not regulating iGaming in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure the Member can understand that this is a very sensitive issue. We have to work through a little bit of a process here on how this is dealt with and how we control it. You know, there is issues with shortfalls in our lottery funding. That's related to numerous things. As I think most communities can appreciate, there's a lot of issues that have happened with gambling over the past few years, including impacts to our local bingos. So There's lots of changes around on what people are doing with their extracurricular money. But going forward, just so the Member is aware, there is work being done in the background and we'd like to get this moving as quickly as we can to try to get some of that money back into the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do want to point out that as long as it's unregulated, we cannot prevent harm. So if we want to do harm reduction for addictions related to gambling, we need to regulate this market. Will the Minister agree to meet with the responsible gaming council to learn more about how his department can do this? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we're willing to meet with anybody in regards to this topic. There's a lot of agencies out there that deal with this. I don't think there's one particular group, but more than interested in working with anybody to try to move this forward. And like I said, this isn't just something, you know, that's not being done. There's a lot of work in the background being done and we'd like to hopefully have something here in the next little while. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
