Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, currently we budget about $2.2 million for this subsidy every year. We added approximately half a million dollars using internal resources in 20222023 and then again in 20232024 in order to acknowledge that heating fuel costs have gone up. While we recognize that heating fuel fluctuates throughout the year and when it is higher than usual, we do try to put more funding into this subsidy. But like I said before, we cannot afford within the department to continue to fund from within. We would need to have increases done to the program as a whole...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. As the Aurora College is arm's length and it is its own institution, the chair would be able to be contacted by the committee and be invited to appear in front of committee. I think it would be a great idea for committee to form that relationship with the college and be able to understand the board of governors' vision and where they'd like to take the college. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in short, none. And the slightly longer more informative answer in that is that under the Act, because Aurora College is arm's length, the board of governors oversees hiring of the president and the president reports directly to the board chair. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to the peer group placement, I want to start there. And what is really crucial about that and what determines if, you know, a student well, what it calls on is that a student stays with their age group because studies have shown that has a huge benefit to students. And what's really important there is when students stay with their grade level, that when they go up to the next grade that they are given an education plan that outlines the student needs and how those will be met in the next grade level to ensure that we are still meeting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while the department doesn't practice social passing as a policy so to speak, it does endorse peer group placement for students in the Northwest Territories. This is researchedbased education practice, and it's used in many jurisdictions across Canada and worldwide. What I want to add here, though, is that peer group placements do not prevent parents, students, teachers, and also even the education system as a whole, from holding appropriate expectations for students to continue growing in our territory. And I think it's really important that amendments...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think this is a really important question, and I can't assure the Member what she is looking for here today from me. But access to services in Indigenous languages are found in section 11(2) of the Official Languages Act, and that guarantees that people have the right to communicate with and access government services in Indigenous languages from their community area and also regional offices. So the Member reflected previously on the disbandment of the languages bureau in 1997. And since then, each Minister is now responsible for the delivery...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Member, first off, for reflecting on the fact that this is the only jurisdiction that has a whole month dedicated to Indigenous Languages Month, and so I very much appreciate that. The theme this month is Say It In Our Language, and I also want to thank the Member for speaking her language in the House here with us on a regular basis.

In addition to Indigenous Languages Month that's celebrated every February, Mr. Speaker, ECE continues to partner with seven Indigenous governments to deliver the mentor apprenticeship program. In...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are in a position now where the Aurora College is at an arm's length relationship from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. That being said, ECE does provide funding for interpreters to support training through the interpretertranslator funding program, and there's also connections with other jurisdictions to explore possible training options for future interpreters. And I think it's also worth noting here the Indigenous language instructor employment plan that is currently a pilot within the Beaufort Delta and the Deh Cho...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can answer that by saying absolutely yes, because the funding didn't exist before for schools to be able to hire the personal support workers unless they were getting funding through Jordan's Principle. And so just that alone means that schools who are having those recruitment and retention issues for our clinical counsellors can now turn around and go get personal support workers, wellness counsellors and Indigenous counsellors that are more responsive to the cultural needs of the school as well. Some schools have even been able to hire elders...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a review of this program was launched in the last Assembly, and this review was jumpstarted based on feedback that was received by education bodies along with the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association. And what it was responding to ultimately was the need for the unique instances in each of our communities to be acknowledged and, really, for us to be able to acknowledge, along with education bodies, that the needs of our communities are different from Yellowknife to regional centres to small communities and the ability of education bodies to...