Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of ECE. I'm really happy to hear that our NWT nominee program will be opening up again to another intake. We have about two months before the end of the year, so can the Minister please tell me how ECE is preparing to deal with the inevitable rush for applications? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, luckily through conversations, both at the political level and officials' level, we had a tiny bit of pre-warning that some increases would be coming. We didn't know exactly what those numbers would be, but that little bit of time allowed us to work diligently behind the scenes to ensure that we were getting ready, ensuring systems were in place, ensuring staffing was in place. Staff will need to work overtime in order to get these applications processed and have committed to doing their darndest after a very busy year in order to help us process as many of those applications as possible, and so I'm very thankful to the hard work of staff in that department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yes, thank you to ECE staff as well.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain -- we had folks apply in February and July of this year; they didn't make the cut for a space in the NTNP. So how many applicants in this intake will that cover? Will we go back to those original folks, or will they have to reapply again? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, all eligible applicants from both February and July 2025 intakes were accepted and are currently being processed. Anybody who was not an eligible applicant was immediately notified that their application was ineligible, so they will need to reapply for the third intake of 2025. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from the Yellowknife Centre -- or sorry, Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, thank you for that from the Minister. And if we do not fill the full allotment of spaces that we have retained back to the 300 level, will we lose spaces in the 2026 allotment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this was also a concern of mine. I was able to clarify with the federal government that they acknowledge that it will be a challenge to fill all the spots in the remainder of the calendar year. And while they have indicated to us there is no opportunity for carryover of spots into 2026, our inability to process some applications on the back end is not going to have an impact on the allotment that we get for our program in 2026. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
