Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is planning to develop a small community employment strategy in 2017. As the Member noted, and as we have heard questions in the House, there have been concerns about how we roll out the program. It is a significant increase from the $1.25 million that we had in the two line items. Moving forward, obviously we are going to have to get feedback from small communities, work with the small communities to see what the challenges are, what barriers are in place, and how we can roll out some of this funding, as well as working with the committee to get their...

A lot of these things were indicators in terms of reductions within the program. As mentioned in the honourable Member's statement, he was talking about the indemand jobs that we are going to see in the future. For K12 teachers by 2030, it is going to be 1,354 teachers in the K12 system. Currently, Aurora College graduates an average of seven. We continue to support our outofterritory students.

We have 33 right now down south. For degreed social workers, it is 158. Aurora College does not offer a degree program, but we do work with students who want to go and continue their education down south...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To my knowledge, we didn't ask them to look for thirdparty funding to offset the reductions. When we looked at these two programs, as I have said many times in this House, the department in collaboration with Aurora College did look at efficiencies.

We do give a big investment into these programs. The graduates that we weren't getting out of the program was an indicator. These two programs were both selected and brought forth to this government to have this debate on the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. They have been completed and letters and packages have been sent out to all the education boards last December.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did have an MOU with the Government of Nunavut, that we were storing a lot of their artifacts over at our museum. Since then, they have taken out all of their artifacts and they are in the process, I think, of moving it down to Winnipeg, so that is that MOU that does not exist anymore. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not at this moment. I know ITI deals more on the business side. We deal with individual applications. As I mentioned earlier, the strategy that we are looking at bringing forth and presenting to committee and to the House should be completed by June of this summer.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and we can definitely get that information, more updated information, for the Member on the SNAP program. That program, I would like to say, aligns very well with our Skills 4 Success, but also on another point, you know, the Pathways to Graduation and helping those students who want to get into a trade. That year, I think in 2015-16 actuals we were able to put more money into the pot for Skills Canada, I think. Because there was other funding that lapsed in other areas within the department, we were actually able to put more investment for that year. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The department will have to get back to the Member on that one with more detail on the program itself. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

No, the students were not consulted about reductions moving forward. It was the Department of Education, Culture and Employment that was working closely with Aurora College to identify where reductions could be coming from. Evidencebased decisions on low graduation rates within these two programs were identified. Sometimes tough decisions need to be made, and those were the decisions that were brought forth to this government.

I just want to let Members know that Aurora College is continuing to support the students in these two programs to completion, working with them, supporting them to make...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That decision was made on the recommendation of all the board chairs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.