Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're certainly at an interesting juncture in the life-span and chapters of Aurora College. So Aurora College has a mandated responsibility for accessing -- or for community members to be able to access educational opportunities. So that still exists within their mandate agreement which is why they continue to find different ways to deliver that programming but because they have autonomy over operations and how they choose to deliver that, that is entirely up to them as a decision. And because of the noninterference clause, I don't have the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the programs and services afforded by Prosper NWT are everything from debt financing, which is primarily in the form of loans, venture investments, digital support programs, and also business services. So for example in the form of accounting or human resources support as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we're working through MACA. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So that's the -- that we call -- so the SCAP funding is agriculture funding. It was afforded to ITI by the federal government, and that funding is for different agriculture projects across the territory on an application base. It is very well tapped into. I believe by October, it was already 75, 76 percent allocated for the year, so it is a very popular program in the territory. And some people end up using it for equipment. Some people, I believe, use it for mentorship opportunity -- or training, rather. And so it has a fairly diverse range of what people can...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I do support here is the college looking at different ways to access our learners across the territory in a more efficient way. What they've identified is that -- concerns over access to the programming that students want. With those additional positions that the Member referenced, there's also six adult learners that will also support that program in addition to tech support and online mentorship and wraparound services. These are the types of services that they could not afford to -- students across the territory before looking at a shift...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So I think the question is in regards to when would the government not use a local BIP'd company or -- yes? Okay.

So the government puts out tenders through procurement shared services over in the Department of Finance. And then depending on what -- or who applies for the different programs and the status of those programs, they would be assigned bid adjustments that would be based on our business incentive policy if they qualify and match the criteria. And then those bid adjustments would then help procurement shared services determine who is the successful...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through yourself, I would like to pass to assistant deputy minister Cyr.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, I cannot explain to you how much I'm wishing that Prosper NWT was still sitting next to me. But, Mr. Chair -- and I'm going to very uneloquently describe this, but essentially those are their investments into loans, and so it's not cold hard cash, so to say, sitting there in their bank accounts not doing anything. Their role is to continuously invest dollars in northern businesses and to grow those businesses. And so it's not a bank account with $35 million sitting there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the changes to the program did allow for more unearned and earned income to be maintained by residents. Should residents be, you know, full-students or be pursuing post-secondary education, we do have a very robust student financial assistance program that we can move them into that does also come with living allowance supplements as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, yes, there's data; however, the finer details of that data would be better -- questions better placed to my colleague from the Department of Finance. They're the ones who maintain that policy and maintain the data that goes with it. Thank you.