Alfred Moses

As I mentioned in my earlier response, we just had initial discussions. That is where it is right now. I do believe my colleague the Minister of Infrastructure has sent a letter of concern to his federal counterpart about some of these concerns with pilots and concerns that the Member has brought up here today. We will keep Members apprised of how this progresses as we have these discussions.

The department does not operate early childhood programs in the NWT. However, the department does license, and we also fund, not-for-profit organizations who administer early childhood programs and centres as such. Under the child daycare standards, regulations require licensed early childhood programs to engage in community involvement, which would include connecting with community elders.

As I mentioned, elder participation is highly encouraged in all forms of education right from early childhood to post-secondary, and I know that, in some cases, elders work with some of the daycares and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we can start off in terms of how we support our post-secondary students, Indigenous or non, with our Student Financial Assistance program. We have made some improvements and enhancements to those over the years, but really, what it comes down to is starting very young, and we have made some very big investments in early childhood.

We are looking at our educational renewal initiatives from the JK-to-12 system. We are looking at creating new pathways to graduation in the high school system. It takes a combination of all of those investments that will see more...

I do know that College nordique as well as Dechinta are looking to expand their roles. I think that was a great program that they did this summer, travelling up and down the Mackenzie River. We continue to support these post-secondary institutions, as well as looking at ways we can help sustain the work that they do. That is one of the reasons that we did enter into that multi-year agreement with Dechinta and increased their funding.

As I have mentioned in this House, over a period of time we are creating this overarching legislation that is going to look at accreditation, quality assurance...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we want to ensure that any programs that we provide to residents of the Northwest Territories have the supports and that they have the skills necessary to be into the labour market within the Northwest Territories. We also want to make sure that, when we are investing dollars into our programs, we are getting a good output of skilled, trained workers to meet the labour market demands.

We also support a lot of our other programs. We support College nordique. We signed a multi-year agreement with Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, and we also increased...

Mr. Speaker, the students who are currently in the Social Work Program were given all the information that they needed in terms of moving forward. They are also getting the supports they need to graduate and to complete their program. Once the whole discussion started about the Social Work Program, they understood it, the staff understood it, and Aurora College senior management understood it. The kind of data that we need to look at is evidence-based decisions that are coming out of this foundational review. We'll look at the recommendations. I said, that's the most important piece of work...

We are excited to see what this internal review is going to recommend at the end. As I mentioned, we do have a diploma program with the social work students that are coming out of the program, and we continue to support them to go and get their degree, whether it is in a southern institution or going over to Yukon College.

What comes out of that review, we are not too sure what it is going to look like, but we will take it into consideration. When the foundational review is complete and we have that managerial response complete as well, it will help us set a stage for the long-term strategic...

We don't know what's going to be in the internal review of the Social Work Program. We don't know what's in the final report of the foundational review. Once we get those, we are going to develop a management response, as I've mentioned in this House, that's going to work on looking at the recommendations. It's going to give us an opportunity to consider the feasibility of each of the recommendations. It also is going to talk about the analysis of the recommendations, and how we implement them so that all our stakeholders, that all Members of this House can make evidence-based decisions. Until...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we made the decision to phase out the social work program based on low enrolment and low graduation rates. It had a history of low rates over the years. The Aurora College decided to an independent, internal review on its own. I do understand that review is going to be completed in April 2018. We will see where that review and what recommendations that review has in terms of moving forward with the long-term strategic plan for the Aurora College. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just to give you a little information here. When we increase the minimum wage come April 1st of this year, about 700 people in the Northwest Territories will be affected, will be getting an increase. Having a living wage, as I mentioned, would possibly have some impacts on our employers. We all know that a lot of our businesses and people who do business in the Northwest Territories don't even pay the minimum wage; they pay a lot higher than that. In the tax-based communities, it gets even higher. You won't be looking at a living wage, and we will continue the same route that we are on. Thank...