Caroline Cochrane

I don't know, actually, why he never applied. I do know that, when Dr. Weegar was hired, we did go out and -- the terminology is called "head hunter"; I'm not sure what the proper terminology is. So we sought someone from outside. I don't know if Mr. Bevan actually applied in that process. This is the first I knew about it.

This position is going to be staying. We have made a commitment that, within the next six years, the Aurora College, the polytechnic university, will be independent. At that point, we will be putting it out to competition for a president. Over this next year, though, we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do want to take a moment to recognize Dr. Weegar for the service he provided to the Northwest Territories. It was great to have him on board. I am not going to stand here and talk about personnel issues. I think that is inappropriate in the House. What I can say, though, is that we are on track, that we are doing the best that we can to make sure that our polytechnic goes forward and becomes an accredited polytechnic university. Sometimes, you make leadership changes that we do not have notice of. To jump to say that we are showing the door might not be the terms that...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the honourable Paulie Chinna will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend meetings in Ottawa, Ontario. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There is a clear separation. As the associate deputy minister for post-secondary education, he reports to the Minister of Education directly. I am in charge of his performance, of course; and, as the president, he actually reports to the board of governors. There is also an administrator there and, of course, we have vice-presidents there to assist him within that position.

The other thing I should point out, and that was just spoken in the last sitting, is that the current Minister of Education has just appointed his Academic Advisory Council, which is advisory people from across the nation...

Mr. Bevan has a long history of being suitable for this position. He has done the leadership skills. He is in the position currently. He was responsible for leading the development and the implementation of our Skills 4 Success initiative. He has done practical linking of training and job opportunities, a key part of the vision for the polytech, and he actually took part in some of the polytechnic review. So, yes, he is very qualified for the position and, again, this is more of an HR issue, so I'll stop at that.

The Member for Great Slave took my glory. I want to recognize my CA, Cathy Olsen, who is in the gallery. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have three people who I would like to recognize from the SADD group, students from the Range Lake riding, even though one of them is a niece for the MLA of Inuvik Twin Lakes, still lives in my riding, Alexis McLeod, Makayla Lane, and Abigail Beck. Thank you for what you do, and thank you for being here.

We are trying to be more open and transparent. I think that was a direction that we were given by the general public. It is a direction that I have given my Ministers. However, I have also heard from MLAs across the table in different areas, "Let's get to work. Let's get it done." My Ministers are also waiting. They have been waiting months to get their mandate letters. We're still in the process. Everybody is just anxious to get them, so I want to get these off. I want to get to work.

I will not commit to going through the process, because from delivering the draft mandate right now, we...

I will try to do a better job of addressing both issues. For clear direction, I may be wrong, but my understanding is that the priorities that are developed by every Legislature are not to encompass every single task that every department will do. It is meant to define what the major issues are that we want to tackle. It does not give clear direction for every single department, nor is it meant to, in my understanding. I am only one Member of the Legislative Assembly, though, so I am open to feedback on that.

For how we deal with other departments, business still goes on. The departments do not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to recognize one of our Pages in the House today, Ms. Brenna Willis, who is a student with Range Lake North, and we are really glad to have her helping us as Page. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.