Alfred Moses

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.

I don't have the exact dates, but I could get it to the Member if he wishes. Probably in the fall time was when we made that announcement, and they went out and started doing their consulting.

Based on enrolments and how many students are going to be in the school system, we are going to be fully funding junior kindergarten this fall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I mentioned, we do have one of the best Student Financial Assistance programs in the country, and we do support our students. We've made improvements to that program. The students who are impacted with the reductions that were brought forth through the Aurora College system, those things are still going to get the support that they need moving forward. Any transitions that are going down south to another institution, they'll continue to work with University of Saskatchewan to make sure that the students get that education and can be teaching here in the North.

As I mentioned, it is a really good news story that this government has stepped up to fully fund junior kindergarten. The next step, after we made the announcement from the budget address, was that our department is meeting with superintendents and working with the school boards to look at how we're going to be rolling out junior kindergarten this fall, and also looking at how we're going to be able to utilize that money that was announced in the budget.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, Aurora College does have the autonomy to make these decisions when they are looking at reductions. As I mentioned earlier, when we have low enrolment rates, low graduation rates, but we still have a full staff, those are decisions that we have to look at, how we spend our dollars more efficiently, the tax-payer dollars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I mentioned, the Aurora College does have that autonomy to make the decisions they need. We did give them direction with the mandate on the priorities that our government came up with at the beginning of the 18th Legislative Assembly. We looked at that labour market information demand. We are going through a strategy right now, and that strategy should be available in June. We are working with the board of governors, we are working with the president to make those changes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just recently in the news yesterday and the information I was given the students, as well as instructors for the Social Work Program, historically we’ve had low admission as well as low graduation rates within that program, although I will say that there have been some successes for the people that did graduate. Aurora College does have the autonomy to make these decisions in where they're looking at moving forward with the programs that they provide. We support those decisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just following up into answering another similar question earlier, that the department is working with the education authorities to address things such as busing, such as school safety and making sure that the implementation of junior kindergarten in all our communities is a smooth transition. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In the Member's riding, junior kindergarten has been rolled out over a number of years. We haven't really heard any concerns from them. We're actually hearing really good positive feedback of how junior kindergarten has been implemented in Nahendeh. The department is working with education authorities, as I had mentioned yesterday, to examine the requirements such as busing, such as safety. Of course, safety is the forefront and priority within our education authorities, as well as at the department. So when we speak with our staff and our education authorities and our superintendents, of...