Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of ECE.
Given the clear need for small business supports in regions like the Deh Cho, what specific steps is the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment taking to reduce regulatory barriers and streamline access to programs and resources for entrepreneurs in remote communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think we're going to Minister of ITI. Minister of ITI.
Luckily, it's the same person. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in regards to what ITI is doing to streamline access to programs and services, we have migrated all of our funding programs under the same grants and contributions policy for consistency. We also have regional decision-making as far as our grants and contributions go. I am happy to say that a significant amount of funding flows both from ECE and ITI and also Prosper NWT across the regions, and as far as Prosper NWT is concerned, actually 83 percent of dollars from Prosper flow outside of Yellowknife. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The regional economic development plan highlights the lack of skilled workers as a major constraint to business growth. What investments is the department making to support workforce development and improve access to training in the Deh Cho riding? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's a long list but I'll keep it short in the interest of time. And I'm always happy to speak about this in more detail with the Member as well.
So as a few examples, we do mentorship sessions in all of our regional centres. Three of those happened in the Member's riding. In addition to that, we also have career development officers as well as economic development officers across the Northwest Territories. And they all came together and gathered for a conference to share ideas, share information about programs that they could take back to their regions -- I want to slow down, Mr. Speaker, sorry. And that conference just happened last week so I'm very excited to hear the success of that time together.
In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, education, culture and employment also does have workforce development training programs that are available to employers to help employ Northerners who need a boost in skill sets in order to meet the job that employers are working to get them into. So we have both programs that support the development of an idea and programs that support the development of a workforce. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the high cost of living and limited infrastructure cited as barriers to small business success, how is the department working with other GNWT departments to improve internet connectivity, housing availability, and transportation infrastructure in the Deh Cho riding to support economic development? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Industry, Tourism and Investment is involved in the increase of infrastructure both within its department but then also by the opportunity I have to work with my colleagues. So specifically for the Deh Cho region, there's infrastructure when it comes to tourism. That's a program that is housed within ITI. Then when it comes to housing for example, the Minister and I do work together on ideas for how we can grow a skilled workforce. And we've got a couple that we've been pairing up on that we're still baking that cake, Mr. Speaker.
And then in regard to the departments working together, the department is working very closely with ITI and housing right now on as far as how can we work together to build micro clusters of industry across the territory. As far as myself and the Minister of strategic infrastructure, we sometimes work too closely together and end up repeating or finishing each other's sentences, and so it's not just infrastructure development just for one region or another. We really do look at it from an all of territory perspective because this is really the time we need to capture opportunity for the entire Northwest Territories. It needs to be now. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
