Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
So this morning, Aurora College informed committee that they would be reallocating about $2 million of the funds that previously went to the community learning centres and CLC staff towards online learning, including hiring three online program coordinators, hiring three new tech support staff, and 1-800 support lines and online platforms, possibly buy everyone a computer as it seems they were promising to ensure that everyone would have access to modern technology.
Does the Minister support this dramatic shift in approach from face-to-face learning to spending those same funds on essentially tech support and online platforms? Does that approach fit within the current mandate agreement laid out given the Minister's expectations of the college? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I do support here is the college looking at different ways to access our learners across the territory in a more efficient way. What they've identified is that -- concerns over access to the programming that students want. With those additional positions that the Member referenced, there's also six adult learners that will also support that program in addition to tech support and online mentorship and wraparound services. These are the types of services that they could not afford to -- students across the territory before looking at a shift in the programming. And what has been passed along to me is that along with a program that has a borrowing system for hardware, for computer hardware, for students across the Northwest Territories who need it, there will also be people that support with -- you know, how to learn online, student life, being able to really support the whole student wholistically.
I think it's also worth noting that there was community learning centres in 19 communities before, and now an additional 10 communities will have access through online learning to these post-secondary programs which afford them not only access to the adult learning and basic education but also the programs that they might want to transition into after that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So if we fully embrace this vision that the future is digital and if the college changed all of its programs to online programs, does the Minister consider that in that case the college would still be fulfilling its mandate? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's very difficult for me to base all of my answers on hypothetical. I think what the college is looking at doing is exploring how this works for Northerners, and I would expect that they would be consistently evaluating this shift and this change.
The other thing that was referenced today was different opportunities that communities are taking advantage of with additional partnerships both through Indigenous governments and through community governments. And I think that those will continue to flourish in the territory as well. We do have relationships through Dechinta, through College Nordique, through Wilfrid Laurier University, and, of course, Indigenous governments are also forming their own relationships and their own workforce development plans, which I intend to continue to support through our workforce development funding as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister justify why we would spend public money on Aurora College developing online programs when many students already access online learning programs from other places and, in fact, that's the entire sort of attraction of online learning, is that you can get it from anywhere. What would Aurora College's niche be in this space? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're certainly at an interesting juncture in the life-span and chapters of Aurora College. So Aurora College has a mandated responsibility for accessing -- or for community members to be able to access educational opportunities. So that still exists within their mandate agreement which is why they continue to find different ways to deliver that programming but because they have autonomy over operations and how they choose to deliver that, that is entirely up to them as a decision. And because of the noninterference clause, I don't have the ability to reach in and tell them to do it how I would like to see it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
