Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to get clarification. So you're talking about a need of $3.5 million for wages and $3.5 million for compensation benefits. Are we talking about topups for existing staff, or that money would be needed to hire new staff? Can you just explain what we're how you reached that number and yeah, thank you.

That's fine, thank you very much. We will be following up online, thank you.

MR. SPEAKER:

Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'm going to throw this last question at the Minister, but if she doesn't have the stats on hand, I'd be happy to get a written response later, but does she have any idea of the number of people in a year that go to  away to addictions treatment and who might be returning to Yellowknife. She said they do keep numbers on those sorts of things. I'm wondering if she can give us a sense or if not get back to me with a sense of, like, what volume of people we're talking about that are returning from addictions treatment to Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look forward to seeing the new strategy or the extension and the new action plan and making sure  well, from our side, trying to hold the government to account that we make real progress on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my understanding is that the program in Yellowknife will have the capacity to house five to six people at any one time for 30 to 90 days, but if there are more than six people in Yellowknife that need transitional housing after returning from treatment, how can the department still support those people? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So can the Minister explain why under apprenticeship and occupational certification, there is a decrease from last year's amounts? Is that that last year's amounts weren't fully expended? Or what's the rationale there? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the ideas and intentions behind this budget really resonate with me. Practical and realistic that certainly is my style of doing things. I agree we need to pay down more of our debt and live more within our means.

We heard from the finance Minister that this budget is about value and efficiency, not just reductions. I do appreciate the thought that has been put into streamlining efforts of departments where there was previously overlap such as merging responsibilities for immigration and arts funding that were previously split between ECE and ITI and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, well that is somewhat reassuring to hear. The question so on page 46, we look at the budgets for building Skills 4 Success in the NWT, and that has gone from $3.368 million last year to it looks like nothing this year. And so can the Minister explain whether that funding appears somewhere else in the budget? Is it a shifting around of where funds are coming from or going, or what programs are we losing if that program disappears?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Overall, I definitely appreciate that the department seems to have gone through with a fine tooth comb looking for reductions and efficiencies to be found, and some of them seem to make sense. But what I am struggling to see is a clear vision for what we are trying to achieve besides saving money and being more efficient. And the message that comes out to me is that we're committing to do more with less. You know, we're shaving off here and there, we're making do, we're doing more with less, which could be possible, but my main concern is that we actually know what we're...

Okay. I mean, my next question is what tools does the Minister have to be able to hold the board of governors of Aurora College accountable to actually finish the transition to a polytechnic university by a certain date given that their funding is coming from our budget? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.