Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, I want to be clear that Aurora College indicated that they would not be keeping the bricks and mortar facilities open as part of their new plan. They have yet to divulge what their plan will look like going forward.

I also know that myself, along with the Aurora College board and chair, as well as the Aurora College president, will be at a briefing with standing committee I believe next week, next Thursday, and so certainly look forward to sitting with Aurora College as they inform committee of what their plans are.

As far as the dollars, so for...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, one of the things that has happened that has come into play right now is that the Student Financial Assistance program was also improved in the last Assembly at the same time that the income assistance review happened and the income support review. So through -- and the way that the changes happened were increases to basic grants, monthly living allowances, and that also expanded the remissible loan for all residents of the Northwest Territories, and that is a key difference here. Before it was only for students schooled in the Northwest...

Sorry, was the question did the program relaunch itself?

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, that was not my words. I literally said it is not the role of teachers to indoctrinate children. I also, though, did say that I think it is very good and very important if our kids are learning about politics in the classroom and they are learning about critical thinking and they are learning to stand up for themselves. I think that a teacher needs to be fair in how they do that, but I would be more than happy to share any of my other perspectives about parenting with the Member after we're done this today. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, the increases in programming, the bulk of it comes from income assistance, and that is from the review that was done in the previous Assembly on income assistance that separated seniors and persons with disabilities into their own income assistance. And so there was additional funding put in to that and put into income assistance. There was also adjustments made on the market basket measure to ensure that the dollars that Northerners were getting were reflective of the actual costs, for example, of food in the Northwest Territories.

There's...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Certainly, I will continue my advocacy, and I appreciate the amount that this topic has come up on the floor. I certainly talked about it frequently in the last term, and I'm happy to continue the honour of being able to work on it on this side. So thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, certainly appreciate the Member referencing that the community learning centres are still captured within our main estimates book. Certainly the announcement from Aurora College came after the books were printed and in all of our hands, so that change is not reflected here.

So regardless of whether or not Aurora College plans to operate the 21 community learning centres, there is still a responsibility for adult learning and basic education across the Northwest Territories and from the perspective of the department of education, a mandate to...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, this was $600,000 that was previously going to people who had completed their post-secondary education and if they returned to the North and they had remissible loans, they were able to remiss those loans quicker, and if they had repayable loans, they were also able to apply for that bonus up to a maximum for both instances of $10,000 within their lifetime. So for people who had remissible loans, the indication there was that the expectation was they stay and live in the North longer, and people who have repayable loans were expected to then...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, any outreach that I have received, I have responded to. And then the overall response would be meeting with stakeholders to determine their feedback through consultation, and then the results of that is the program that we announced on February -- last Friday, 21st, February 21st, and that's the program that relaunches this week here. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it is very helpful so thank you to the Member for being specific about what they're looking for. And so we do, in the Northwest Territories, have safe schools regulations. It is the responsibility of all schools across the territory to ensure that they are providing safe, equitable, and an inclusive schooling environment to their students. And, of course, safety takes many different shapes and forms for different students across the territory. And education bodies are required to hold staff accountable for how they behave in that regard, and ECE...