Kate Reid

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I replied to the last year's budget, I started with a quote. This year I will simply say, the race is not always to the swift.

Mr. Speaker, that is the moral of Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare. For many years, if not decades, the GNWT has been criticized for being too slow and not doing enough. It's a criticism rooted in a truth, which is that this government does tend to move slowly. This is why this criticism is continually repeated. I think there is nuance within that truth, Mr. Speaker. First, however, I want to talk about what I have...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So one thing in that list of items from fiscal restraint that caught my ear just now was a reduction in translator training. Could the Minister please explain why that was a choice that was made? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And just one final question. In both -- in the main estimates on page 59, both culture and heritage and Indigenous language secretariat, both have seen a reduction since the 2023-2024 actuals, and I was just wondering if we could get an explanation or substantiation of that. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for that clarity. And thank you, Madam Chair. On page -- sorry, there's two page numbers on this, 36 or 38, I apologize. But it's in our business plan policy initiatives, speaking to Indigenous language service standards. I realize those standards, I believe, have been released recently, which is fantastic news. But I am curious what monitoring and evaluation plan for review of that rollout, what benchmarks the standards are meant to reach. Is there an available documentation of any monitoring or evaluation that might be occurring for these service standards? Thank you, Madam...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions for this section. In business plan, page 28 for the Minister, it speaks to ECE's desire to include heritage resources in emergency planning. So I note that ECE has updated its business continuity plan. But could the Minister explain if this is just for GNWT assets, or is the department working to support other cultural organizations that it provides financial assistance to? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, specifically, I'm interested in the action under access to health care, continue to promote this program as a tool to attract internationally trained health and social service professionals to the NWT.

Madam Chair, will the Minister have anything to pivot to that she is aware of to help us seek out those health professionals in any federal discussions she's had so far? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you please clarify if this is where I can ask questions about the NWT nomination program? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know the Minister has heard a lot about what our smaller communities are needing for income support, and I'm listening to them too. So in her reply to the Member from Mackenzie Delta, she was talking about market basket measures. And it's a tricky equation to solve for, but I'm thinking if we want to get more people off of income support, we want to have more opportunities for them to get into jobs. And so that ties into my thinking around ECE's annual survey that just went out around the minimum wage.

So the minimum wage in the NWT -- and this is in your...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to my colleagues for raising NGO issues. I'll be asking the Premier some questions about that as well.

So I believe it was last week or the previous week a public service announcement went out about what steps EIA is taking to support the NGO sector, and in that effort they outline some of the steps they'll be taking, and they referenced the strengthening non-profit and charitable sector external advisory committee report. So that report is something that many constituents have reached out to me about in the past. In that report, though, there are specific...

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. It's disappointing that it was trimmed rather than advertised but more of a comment than a question, and I'll cede my time. Thank you, Madam Chair.