Alfred Moses

I think the Member made a few good suggestions there. We are also looking at making the focus on our labour market needs, as well as the students’ needs, moving forward. I did commit, in my opening statement earlier today, that we will provide the terms of reference and get input from standing committee on the terms of reference. That terms of reference is going to help guide how the review will take place, and Members will have an opportunity to provide input into that terms of reference before we go out into the foundational review, itself.

As I have mentioned before, the staff complement is going to be still in place to support the students that are currently in the program. We want to continue to support these students so that they can complete their studies and we can get them graduated as well as become part of teaching in small communities as well as getting our social workers out and working for government as well. We are going to continue to support the students that are currently in the program right now.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the funding was always going to be there as we were looking at phasing out the programs over the next two fiscal years, and three fiscal years for the TEP program. That is going to obviously be put on hold until we sit down with committee as well as sit down with our stakeholders at Aurora College to look, as we move forward, at refocusing Aurora College and making sure that they are effective and efficient and meeting the labour market demands as well as the students' needs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As we have had this dialogue, Members said that nothing should be done until the strategic view has been in place as well as looking at a foundational review, so we have put everything on hold. We are not going to continue with the intakes. With the decisions that were made, we believe that it was appropriate, working with Aurora College with the reductions in the TEP program and social work program, so we are going to wait until the review is complete before we continue to make any further decisions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As previously noted throughout the course of the dialogue in session, we are going to continue to support the students who are currently in the program, support them through to completion for the years moving ahead. As I mentioned, as the Member mentioned and the Finance Minister, there will be no intakes for the upcoming year until these programs are reviewed and the college is reviewed, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have heard time and time again about these two programs: rather than cut them, why don't we fix them? I think, moving forward in the direction that we are taking as a government, we are going to sit down with Aurora College and look at the two programs that were in question. We are going to see how we can fix them. We will work with our staff to make sure that we do provide quality education that is efficient and effective for our students, but that is going to come with the review as we move forward. We are going to be working with committee to get their input on...

It will be looked at during the supplementaries that we are going to be bringing in later. That is how it is going to be effected.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Moving forward with Aurora College, we did send a letter off to standing committee, and we will be giving standing committee more of an update early next week.

We have two students in the access program for TEP and five who were going into the social work program. The staff at Aurora College has been working with these students to help them look for programs in other institutions, so they have all had a plan in place for their career goals as well as their academic path moving forward.

As the Ministry of Education, Culture and Employment, we want to provide the best services for our teachers, our families, and our students, and we represent all communities across the Northwest Territories. Junior kindergarten has been implemented in 20 of the communities to date. It is working well.

We are seeing some good results, and we are going to continue that. With the 13 communities that are remaining, we want to offer them the same opportunities that we are providing to all 20 communities. Any concerns, questions, we are continuing to consult with our education authorities moving...