Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement, I have a question for the Minister of ECE. I may ask her to change hats halfway through, but.
In her what I am assuming are her regular meetings with the Aurora College chairperson, Mr. Speaker, I wonder could she commit to bringing the urgent plight of the Innovate Centre in Inuvik to his attention and have a conversation around why Aurora College has decided that they will no longer be supporting this organization in Inuvik. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can certainly have a conversation. As the Member has outlined, with the chair we end up having quite a few meetings or phone conversations, and I would be happy to bring up the Innovate Centre. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I certainly appreciate that. We'll look forward to a reply on that. If the college is no longer interested in funding this, again this important organization, at least for another year so they can seek funding in other sources, would she commit to looking at either the department of ECE or ITI to look at ways we can at least short-term fund this organization for a year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. A little creative but I will allow it. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker; that's dangerous precedent setting.
Mr. Speaker, so ITI has funded the Innovate Centre over the course of the last few years just over, I believe, $420,000. There's different funding avenues that might be available to the Innovate Centre, so I definitely suggest that they follow up with ITI specifically. Examples of potential funding pots for that that would be -- that already exist are the SEED funding avenue. There's also the large arts grants, depending on types of programming that they're looking to offer to residents of Inuvik. And there may even be avenues where we can look at potential business incubator type sites. So I certainly recommend a follow-up with the ITI regional staff for sure.
As far as ECE is concerned, that one would be a little bit trickier because there's not the same type of application-based funding, but I am certainly happy to continue the conversation with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECE and ITI. You did a really good job of getting back to ECE. Thank you. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for your indulgence, certainly appreciate it. And I do understand there's been some funding, albeit not all through the core funding. I think the core funding they receive two times, 25K, for some of the infrastructure and some of the equipment that they purchased and whatnot in there. Other fundings were gotten, I think, through organizations who use that Innovate Centre because it is a membership-based centre, Mr. Speaker, where people can come in and access these fancy pieces of equipment, learn how to use them, maintain them and operate them, and so on.
What this does say, though, I mean -- and I know the VP position of Aurora College was out of Inuvik, is now based in Yellowknife, for various reasons I am sure, but maybe it's time we start looking, Mr. Speaker, as we've talked about in this House before, is having the Minister have a look at maybe putting ADM positions outside of Yellowknife and, in particular, somewhere like Inuvik where there's more than just this happening there as we know and to get some senior positions out of Yellowknife and into the regions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, where -- well, education is a great example where a lot of their staff are actually based regionally but whenever there is job applications for within the department that do go out across the government, I know that we as Cabinet Ministers encourage departments to use the remote work policy so that, really, people can be based across the territory if appropriate. So I can confirm for the Member that that work is done.
As far as Aurora College, as the Member knows, the operations of that really do fall under the president and the chair of the board of governors, so that's not one that I have control over, but the Member certainly has my commitment to continue encouraging regional representation within departments that I am the Minister of. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
