Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of the changes that were made in the last term, one of them was the removal of productive choices because it was found that people were often doing the same type of productive choice over and over again and wasn't necessarily leading to something that was helping people at the end of the day achieve their employment or education goals.

One of the changes, however, that was made was the ability of people to keep more earned income, encouraging people to go and pursue additional opportunities, but certainly prepared to have more conversations...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is a great question from the Member, and I want to warn you that the answer is not very straightforward. So I'm going to start there, sorry.

Mr. Speaker, Education, Culture and Employment, through income assistance, does have client navigators. Those client navigators hold the role not only of assessing the basic needs of a client, as the Member said, of a resident, but they also can refer people to things like income assistance, career development officers, business development officers, etcetera. And some of the programs that the career...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I see what's happening in the Yukon and Nunavut as a positive for us because it means that there is heightened awareness and increase looking at education in the Arctic and education in the North and, specifically, in the territories. I see this as plowing the way for us and see this as being a great opportunity for us to continue down the path that we are on and eventually get to that point. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely to the Member's question, the answer is yes. I also have to say I've been really excited about some of the creative solutions that people are coming forward with for community learning centres. And I think that's part of our success story here, at the end of the day, is really looking creatively and at communities independently because everybody's needs are going to be different at the end of the day here. I also want to reflect, Mr. Speaker, on what the Member said as far as education being a lifelong journey, and I -- I'm certainly committed to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by recognizing that there is absolutely an impact to communities across the Northwest Territories and specifically the staff of the community learning centres across the Northwest Territories. However, under the Aurora College Act, Mr. Speaker, the board of governors is responsible for operations decisions of the college. I know that Aurora College is working closely with Department of Finance to support staff through the process and that elements of the staff retention process and policy have been communicated to potentially...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to start out with a huge shout out to Kelsey Wrightson, who is the executive director of Dechinta and is very active, and we have great meetings, and I love hearing about her vision. So the Post-secondary Education Act came into force in 2022, and this provides the foundation to build the new system. So through the act, a quality assurance system for the accreditation of certificate, diploma, and degree programs and institutions was created, and this includes the opportunity for designation as a private college. So staff with education, culture and employment...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member's absolutely right. The SKIP program is for centre-based learning. Home-based operators who have preschool aged children with specialized or individual needs are able to receive $5,200, annually while the child is enrolled in the program, and that is the additional supports that ECE currently provides to day homes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECE is certainly open to providing any additional supports that people need. This would be done on a case-by-case basis. ECE has not received any type of request at this point, and if people have a situation where they need additional supports I encourage them to reach out by emailing @email.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we sat in this room back when that first came up when we were reviewing the main estimates, it was discussed that there was a desire to seek wage parity between centre-based providers and people who were working as classroom assistants in our JK to 12 education system. As it stands, our home-based educators have already achieved that parity based on their higher aftertax income that they do have. However, our centre-based providers still do make less than our education assistants. And so the goal there is to use that $3.5 million that, thank...

Mr. Speaker, I don't have that information on hand and could not confirm that for the Member. Thank you.