Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Mr. Speaker, I'll do this in my language for the opening comment -- I mean for the opening of the statement.

Mr. Speaker, [No translation provided].

Mr. Speaker -- I'll do it in English now -- a few days ago, last week, in response to questions about the closure of the community learning centre, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment mentioned that a GNWT in What We Heard report and the 2024 facility report. Mr. Speaker, we can see from these reports that learning centres are at the heart of college programming in small communities. Of the 19 centres being closed, the facility report...

Thank you. I appreciate that, the answer.

Healthy choices fund went up from 2023-2024, and healthy family program stayed the same. I mean, those two are very important for many of our communities because I know it's being used a lot. I'm on page 206. So why does healthy family program have not changed? Is it going to continue well into the future or, like, is there -- because it just stopped at that number, stayed the same from 2023, didn't move or didn't go down. That is an important program for many of our communities, and healthy choices fund as well. Thank you.

So it was mainly for compensations and benefits within that area, okay. Okay, thank you.

Another one too here, community wellness and addiction recovery support program. You know, we don't have no treatment program and we do have addiction issues. We have a crisis among our young people, and it's all the communities in the territory are affected, and we all know of someone who is suffering with addictions. And then there's mental health and addiction recovery fund. There's mental health and addiction recovery capacity building funds. You know, it's good there's programs but there's one here...

Yeah, that's -- I have no more further questions regarding this topic. Thank you.

I know I saw that two positions that's with the Department of Finance, but there's going to be 33 positions cut, and I'm sure it's not just with the Department of Finance. It's probably for other departments as well.

The highest that I see here, you know, there's a South Slave and Delta, and Tlicho region is minus four. So it's probably with the other departments as well because South Slave correctional, but -- yeah, for -- so in Tlicho region, there's minus four. You know, every job that comes to our community, our region, it's greatly needed. So I just wanted to ask the Minister so which...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will an Indigenous young person from a small community like Gameti applying for GNWT jobs right out of high school have an advantage under this policy? Thank you.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to know what steps the government are taking to increase the number of Indigenous youth working for the GNWT in their home communities? Thank you.

Thank you. So now since we're talking about jobs in -- or active positions here, and, you know, every position is important to all the regions to sustain the region. So I just wanted to ask the Minister right now, because she's with us here, so what work are they doing to move jobs to support regional employment? Some -- as decentralizations of program and services, is it on their budget for the next fiscal year? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This has to do with human resources. According to the budget here, payroll, payroll tax, it decreased for 2025-2026 from 2024-2025 fiscal year. I just wanted to know because in here with the active positions, all across the regions there's going to be 33 positions that's going to decrease in all the regions, and even for Tlicho region, there's -- we're going to be down four positions. So I just wanted to know because payroll tax is down and it's not just GNWT that's, you know -- it's probably other organizations as well too. But with this, can the Minister tell...

Thank you. Will the new Indigenous employment policy apply to internships and summer students employment program? Thank you.