Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This was the first year that a Minister has given the board of governors a mandate letter to go out and do the work on behalf of residents of the Northwest Territories in working within the Aurora College system. We can get copies of the mandate letter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Those decisions are going to have to be made as we look at the strategic review that is currently under way. We are in an academic school year right now. As well, we continue to provide a lot of great programming through Student Financial Assistance to support our students going through the programs and services that Aurora College currently provides.

We made the announcement that we're going to be funding the remainder of the communities in the House here. With inclusive schooling, we're still funding inclusive schooling above the legislated percentage that we do. Funding models haven't changed, and we are looking at a revised approach where we are clarifying rules, expectations, and processes with inclusive schooling; but we're still funding it above what we're legislated to do, and that hasn't changed at all.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The college always looks at the programs and evaluates programs. The programs that were brought forth in the reductions were a collaborative work between our departments, our department of ECE and Aurora College executive staff, to come up with these decisions that needed to be made. As I mentioned, when we are making those decisions, we want to make sure that we are getting the best bang for our dollar, that the investments that we are making, the dollars are being spent effectively and efficiently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, those discussions are happening right now. We're working with the superintendents and the school boards to find out how we address some of those concerns that are being brought forward. We'll wait until we get the results out of that meeting and how things are going to be progressing, and we will give updates to the Members on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Aurora College currently receives $36 million in base and contribution funding from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, as well as an in-kind contribution from other GNWT departments. College senior management, with direction from the senior board of governors, is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the college, including decisions around when and where programs should be offered. As the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, I did provide strategic direction to the college through a mandate letter, and we continue to work closely with the college to ensure...

When we are implementing junior kindergarten in the fall in the schools, students in the JK system will have access to all programs and services provided in the school, so there will be some supports there for them.

The Social Work Diploma program, like many other Aurora College programs, is recognized by southern institutions and post-secondary institutions as well through transfer agreements and through individual course equivalency processes. With the strategic plan that we're going to be looking at having developed this year, hopefully we will see other programming fit, reflective of the Skills 4 Success action plan that we have and strategy that we have, as well as the Labour Market Information Report that we tabled in the House last year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, we do have a good partnership with College nordique as well as Dechinta. We have made some improvements. We have increased funding for Dechinta. We also went to multi-year contribution agreements, where before it was a year-to-year basis. They know and are given the knowledge that they are going to have funding for the next three years, and then we will continue to have those discussions with them, with any kind of improvements, programs, curriculum that we have, and we will continue to have those partnerships with College nordique as well as Dechinta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, we do have those contribution agreements with other institutions, such as College nordique and Dechinta, and we do look at increased funding with those organizations as well moving forward.