Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's other programs within the government that I think would really welcome a million dollars a year in order to run a transformation and to run a program. So currently, the Government of the Northwest Territories is giving $1.04 million to Aurora College. At this point, I have not had communication from the board of governors as to a requirement for additional dollars, but if they do provide me with that request, I would definitely sit down and talk to them about it.

The other piece of this is when you are at arm's length and you are working...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So in the life of transformation, Education, Culture and Employment has funded an Aurora College transformation team of eight public servants who helped do a lot of the work in conjunction with Aurora College getting ready for this transformation of which has three phases, and there are roughly 80 milestones in that project and 66 of those were completed by the transformation team. The federal government kicked in $8 million for transformation, and, in addition to that, this government also put in $1 million a year...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that it's fair to say that given the investment of dollars from the GNWT into the Aurora College transformation, along with the investment of dollars from the federal government into the transformation, that there are many people that want to see this happen. There's also a number of people who are sitting on the board who have said they are passionate about seeing this happen. It's also worthwhile acknowledging that the positions through the Aurora College transformation also came from the surplus of Aurora College. Aurora College carries...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that the board of governors has identified that as their primary goal of how they'd like to start building some new infrastructure. They've identified that not just in Yellowknife but also in Fort Smith and also down the road in Inuvik. And I can also update this House that it is something that they're very focused on and that they acknowledge that it is a need in the territory in order to make sure that students have an opportunity to have somewhere to hang their head at night so that they can make it to class, and that place needs...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm definitely committed because I see the great value in this project. I want to ensure that I am providing the support that I can provide to the board of governors who really is in charge of the operations of the college and the remaining work that remains to be done as far as transformation is concerned. I think it's really important, though, to note that the process of going through transformation is not just about a shiny new campus or anything like that. It also has to do with the programming that's being offered by Aurora College and being...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like the opportunity to look at where all the deliverables are in the milestones for Aurora College and come back to the Member on that question so that I can make sure that I'm giving him the most up to date information based on some of the delays that have occurred. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to say I have a very good working relationship with the board of governors' chair. I speak with him approximately twice a week. I spoke with him as well or I received an email from him last night. I spoke with him last night again, carrying on with that twice a week timeline as well and following the meeting with SCEDE, or with the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, actually reached out and said this. And if there's something that you are looking for, I encourage you to put it in a letter from the board of...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, in addition to the dollars I've just said, the million dollars a year are what Aurora College is currently getting. And then in addition to that, they do have their operational funding dollars that they're able to redirect towards that as well, which is the dollars that they would normally use for the Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Social Work program that are currently not running. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's a really big question. ITI is constantly working to support other sectors. As well we heard today in the budget address additional dollars going to film. That said, there is an absolute recognition that other sectors within the Northwest Territories do not even begin to replace our mineral resource development sector. And that being said, I think there is also it's also important to acknowledge that any other one of our mines do not replace a diamond mine. These are world class billion-dollar diamond mines being operated by huge...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this might take me a little bit longer than 30 seconds to answer.

I wish I could say yes to this, but it's not even a million-dollar question; it's a much more than a million-dollar question. It was something that Education, Culture and Employment saw as a need in schools, and so they put together a territorialbased support team with the dream of being able to bring rehabilitation services to schools. That team was originally put in place in Yellowknife with a dream of one day having regionalbased territorial support teams so that all schools would have...