Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [Translation] Masi, Mr. Speaker.  I myself would like to say -- to show respect, I also would like -- also our Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty is here, the Tlicho grand chief, and also Doreen Lafferty Zoe, Charley Eyakfo, Doris Tom, Marvin Tom, Tavy Dechambault, Elsie Mantla, and Elisa Zoe, Daniel Zoe, and Bertha Drygeese, all the ones that I know that are here.  Maryanne Vital from Deline also -- is also -- is also here and also Tracy Smith.  Each and every one of you that are in the gallery, thank you for being here.  Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation Ends] Doreen...

Thank you. You know, there's -- I don't want to take from other regions, but there's a lot of jobs allocated or there's a lot of jobs in the headquarters and some in North Slave. Tlicho is not part of North Slave for -- and there's one job for economic development diversification, and there's about 53 jobs, you know -- and when -- from last fiscal to upcoming fiscal year, 53 jobs created. I mean, there's one job that's added, or two jobs, and nothing in all the other regions. So I just want to ask the Minister do they have a plan in place, or are there -- are they going to transfer or thought...

Yeah, well, income support assistance program and with the mine closure, this is where the bridging program is really -- like, I mean, SFA needs to change their policy to accommodate many of our people that are employed. They've been out of school for many years some of them, and some of them may not want to go to Aurora College. And I don't think a lot of them don't want to go on the income support assistance because they've been self-sufficient and, you know -- and income support it's not an option for them for a lot of them, you know, because they have -- they have mortgages, they have --...

Okay. So when this happened in 2027, so where -- so how -- which campuses are going to be offering these programs? There's Fort Smith, and there's Yellowknife. In Fort Smith, I know there's a lot of accommodation to accommodate. They have the facility. But in Yellowknife, there's limited accommodation so -- and I strongly believe students should be given a choice, and I do believe in the community-based training. So will some of these communities be delivering, or will they be reaching out to the communities to deliver -- do a community-based training, especially for teacher education program...

So as Indigenous students, did they use up to the capacity or up to the 90,000? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for that information. Another one too is a modernization of Education Act. We haven't heard anything about this, modernizing the Education Act. Is there a report, or can the Minister update us on it and where it's at? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Mr. Chair, it is a shame, you know, SFA policy is holding our Indigenous students hostage, fund them only when -- you know, if they are taking Aurora College bridging program. But it's something that we need to work on to improve. Yes, there's a lot of improvement made. You know, like student loans was increased from 60 to 90,000, and at the same time and just like the Minister said, okay, the -- for basic and supplementary funds have been, you know -- there was some improvement made. But living in the Northwest Territories, to rent -- the rent are -...

Thank you. These are mental health workers. We know that it's really greatly needed. And at one time, we had a lot of mental health workers. And I know some of them took courses to get into that field, and especially in small communities. And it's kind of sad because when we were still there, there was a lot of good mental health workers, community mental health workers where some of them took early retirement because they were laying off people due to education level. They were looking for people with Master's in mental health. They were looking for doctors. And since that time, did the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker -- Mr. Chair. I don't mean to discredit the students because I know there's a lot of young people from my region that are taking business administration program and they're taking the nursing programs. I really do appreciate, you know, they're making every effort so that they don't be -- you know, so that they don't depend on the system to survive. And I really do appreciate their choice. But I am just asking that to fund the bridging program -- you know, like, it shouldn't be only -- the bridging program should not be only to the Aurora College should take the OCAP...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what has the GNWT done to prepare for the potential economic and population impacts that experts warn could follow mine closures, especially in our smaller regional communities? Thank you.