Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, with the development of that new overarching legislation for a postsecondary education here in the Northwest Territories, that is the beginning of it, and that is the initial step that we have to do before we can start having those talks. So hopefully, we will have that legislation brought to committee soon.

I mentioned a little bit of this yesterday, as well. The current students of these programs will be given the opportunity to complete their program at Aurora College, but there will be no new intakes, as was mentioned. Former students will also be given the opportunity to complete these programs. Aurora College staff are providing students with the support staff they need to ensure that they have the best chances for successful completion of the program that they're in. Potential future students, as I mentioned yesterday, we are meeting with our access program students to help them align with...

We will get that information to the Member as well as with the report, when it is finally done, and get committee's comments on the report, as well as looking forward to the future work of all our postsecondary institutions here in the Northwest Territories. That includes Dechinta as well as College nordique. We do have partnerships with them. We do fund them.

As I mentioned, we will be developing a new overarching legislation for postsecondary education here in the Northwest Territories that will have positive impacts on all of our postsecondary institutions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this moment, I can't commit to putting anything that has any dollars to it in the House here, but we will have those discussions, moving forward from when we see that report and what is needed and then look at, if we do decide to do a pilot, which community it is. Inuvik would be great.

Currently, we are going through the Aurora College strategic plan, and we have yet to see what the outcome is with that report. The discussions can continue from there. Once we see that report and it is tabled in the House, then we can have those discussions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have made those investments, fully funding junior kindergarten moving forward, so it's not on the backs of children. We work with the school boards to ensure that they get the support they need for student best outcomes, best student success for Northern residents, right from our smallest communities to here in Yellowknife. Those decisions are also made by the school board, how they take that funding that we give them and allocate it in the school system.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, any decisions that the school boards do in their budgetary process is up to the school boards. You did hear clearly here earlier on in the Budget Address that we are going to be fully funding junior kindergarten. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is one of the avenues. We also did a lot of stakeholder engagements with key stakeholders across the Northwest Territories to get their input in how do we look at redirecting the Aurora College program services. That is one of the avenues that we have used. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The $5.1 million to implement junior kindergarten to the rest of the communities is focused on the operations of junior kindergarten moving forward. We still haven't heard the results of what the decision or some of the discussions that have been going on, and also I've got to let the Member know that junior kindergarten is going to be optional for families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In terms of any savings that we are doing, we are always working with the Aurora College board of governors, as well as the executive, on the programs and services that they provide, and we support them. We continue to support them with the dollars that they need to run these programs. So, when we look at the budgets, it is about budget process, and we work with them very closely in moving forward on those.