Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in multiple instances, the department of education hasn't even had to pick up the phone. As soon as the media articles hit the online waves there, the phone started ringing. My phone certainly did and as well as the department as well as Aurora College. So once we have clarity as to kind of what the landscape looks like, then would be the opportune time to start making phone calls and being able to actually have concrete conversations about how Aurora College intends to go forward so that we can have conversations based on known factors. Thank you...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for providing me with the opportunity to speak to this.

I want to start by acknowledging that this would definitely be a very concerning time for people who are waiting for the opportunity to put their name into a very limited number of nominations that the NWT currently has. Our numbers were cut from 300 to 150 by the federal government. So we did put a pause on the program so that we could get together with some of our stakeholders and partners to reevaluate what this program could look like upon reopening it. And so what I can...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, right now Education, Culture and Employment is working with Aurora College to gain clarity on what aspects of adult learning and basic education that's delivered through CLCs is going to continue to be delivered through CLCs and what parts will not be. From there, ECE will be able to determine a go-forward plan because they still do maintain the responsibility at the end of the day of ensuring that there are access to education and access to employment opportunities within communities. So depending on what parts of that Memorandum of...

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure how I'm not being very clear right now or how I'm not being -- or how I'm being evasive but that is definitely not my intent. I started today by saying that I understand that we are dealing with real people's lives and that this is very important. It is very important to the Northwest Territories on many different levels. I have long been committed to the success of this program. And we are seeing great success in the territory in this program. The way that this program works is the federal government tells us exactly how many people we get for our allocation...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have said as well, ECE still remains responsible for ensuring that there is access to enhanced education and employment programming in small communities. So with that in mind, that will be some of the work that happens once we gain that clarity of their go-forward plans from Aurora College. And one of the things that I think is really interesting happening within some communities within the education and employment space is some dev corps are really looking into working with the government in how they can use government existing funding and...

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Aurora College transformation has a very detailed website. The one thing I will note is that the dates associated with the timeline need to be updated. But it does have a website that outlines everything that needs to happen. It has GANT charts. It has timelines with all the details of all the different steps, who is responsible for those steps. Three of the remaining transformation outlines include the GNWT. Those would be things like the legislation that I was referring to. And then there are some that are definitely under the purview of...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the board of governors is currently working on a new set of timelines for the transformation and once those are finalized, those will become public. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, well the contractor is the one that is making a commitment off the hop on a commitment they are making through a contract and through a bidding process to the government. So they would, I would hope, would know what commitments they're making in their own tendering process right from the hop. That being said, one of the things that we will be implementing coming up here is training for contractors so that they understand the expectation of all contracts, they understand how businesses are registered and comply with BIP, that they understand...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, a few things, businesses have to meet the eligibility requirements of BIP and then those businesses, of course, are audited on a biannual basis. And then also we have our vendor performance management policy as well as the -- which was put out in 2023. And then in 2024, the guidelines were put out so that both the staff of the GNWT would understand what is expected and required, and staff do undergo training. And then in future we will be putting out training for contractors as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the timeline of the transformation has everything from new legislation that would be polytechnic university legislation. It has a new funding formula for Aurora College. And it has things like very program-specific things like, you know, when different programs will become available through the college. Thank you.