Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I too am getting some questions when you are out and about around town, for sure. I will say, though, the best place for people to get answers is certainly from their education body. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment works quite closely together with teachers to do professional development and to support them through this transition. So I just want parents to know that they can also get that information there.

To answer the Member's question, though, and to put this all to rest, it is absolutely not putting students in any...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, for further details about kind of how this project will go about and what kind of disruptions might occur, like there might be materials that need to be brought in along the road and so that might have an impact, but I'd have to follow up specifically with the Member on the construction schedule, what that would look like. And we can make a commitment as well to make sure that we are advising park users what that will look like for any disruptions that might occur. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment would not have information about late fees from every student, and every institution also doesn't operate the same way. While some institutions might have late fees, not every single one of them does, and not every single student would have incurred a late fee. There's also the issue that there are a -- not everybody. A lot of students had their applications fin online -- or in on time, and so I want to make sure that everybody hears me when I say that, but not all applications are in on time and not...

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can confirm it's much more affordable than outhouses in other parts of the territory but certainly infrastructure like this does carry a cost at the end of the day, so I just encourage us all to help one another take care of our infrastructure. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, while both programs are found within education, culture and employment, the purpose of the program is different. So with income support, it is intended to cover the basic needs of residents and therefore it is expected that residents won't have the funds in order to cover late fees and so it is covered under income assistance. As far as what a policy does or does not say, I don't have that information in front of me here, but my understanding is that there is no mechanism for that to happen through the student financial assistance stream....

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, I'm happy to say that the Member and I have explored some common ways to approach this. And, unfortunately, there is not a desire from our partners to see that this is piece-mealed, and concern as well with the fact that at the end of the day the MARS system needs to be programmed. And it can't be programmed under our current legislative regime; it needs to be programmed under our next legislative regime.

My next concern, Mr. Speaker, is that by piece-mealing these regulations and doing them in a step by step way that we actually slow down the entire process...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the answer to my first question I did say I'm always happy to go back to the department. And what I'm saying here, Mr. Speaker, is that it is expected that students have, from their summer student jobs, some dollars that they can afford to pay their tuition and then student financial assistance comes back and supports them. This is not a regular occurrence. The Member is absolutely right. And I am doing what I can to ensure that we are following up and making sure that processes are as efficient as possible. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, within the Intergovernmental Council, we have a protocol that we follow in how we work together and how we co-develop legislation. And so we are using that protocol to make sure that we're doing this legislation with the best integrity. And while we will be the last jurisdiction to have online map staking, we will be leaders as far as how we go about doing mineral claims in the future and our expectation on both industry and residents. And so while on one hand we're catching up, on the other hand we are leading the way.

In regards to the Member's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, this month I had the opportunity to sit down with the NWT Early Childhood Association. We talked about some different ideas like this to increase flexibility and also make sure that we're working together to best serve residents of the Northwest Territories. I agreed with them that I would work with them on some of these ideas. Age range is one of those ideas, and the department continues to work on that, and I'm happy -- sorry, I'm speaking way too fast because I'm excited about this one. So yes, very happy to work with the Member and continue working...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on my left I have Pamela Strand, deputy minister of industry, tourism and investment. And on my right, I have Nina Salvador who is the director of finance and administration for industry, tourism and investment. Thank you.