Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do agree that developing these kind of plans for individuals and students right from K to 12 to post-secondary is very important and we need to look at those kinds of options moving forward. Yes, the college does have a number of policies designed to assist students in post-secondary. We have barrier-free facilities, so all of our campuses include accommodating persons with physical challenges.

We also have inclusive approaches for students when they do get into colleges, but also in terms of making sure that admissions and applications presents fair and equitable...

As I mentioned, there do have to be some changes to one of our acts. Like I said, we have the Aurora College Act and then there's also -- I'll just correct myself here, but it is section 150 of the Education Act that provides that a university or degree-granting institute cannot be created or established in the Northwest Territories without the express authority of an Act. If those discussions need to be made right now, we just support them financially, and that's something that would need to be changed within that act if something were to move forward.

Right now, I believe that College nordique does offer diploma programs and that our department is working with them to look at possibly how we can work with Aurora College at the same time. I know Dechinta has been mentioned in this house on numerous occasions. They have a partnership with the University of Alberta where their students can possibly transfer to the University of Alberta. Dechinta and College nordique do not require any authority of an act to operate this way, and we do fund some of these institutions. Aside from College Nordique and Dechinta, we also do give some program...

I do agree that we need to see some successes moving forward with people that are living with disabilities that want to get that post-secondary education. We want to look at ways that we can make it easier for them to access programs, get into post-secondary college, and offer the supports that they do need. I can advise the Member that the college does review these policies on a regular basis and as I mentioned earlier, they look at other jurisdictions and Canadian institutions for the best practices moving forward. I can work with the department and the colleges and learning centres to see...

I did mention that our three campuses do have these policies in place. I don't have the detailed information, but I can get that information for the Member. We also have 26 community learning centres that also follow these policies, and as mentioned, I can get some more of those details for the Member.

Mr. Speaker, this government is committed to providing quality early childhood development programs that will help our children reach their full potential. We want our youngest citizens to have the best opportunity to become healthy, educated, successful adults who are well prepared to embark on meaningful and rewarding careers.

One of the programs that support this commitment is Junior Kindergarten for four-year-old children in the Northwest Territories. Junior Kindergarten emerged as a result of comprehensive stakeholder engagement with community leaders, parents, families, elders, educators...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the work that all our staff do on all campuses and the important supports that we have for our students. When time permits, we would like to get into the campuses and meet with the staff, meet with students, keep up to date with the Board of Governors. Yes. We can work on scheduling a time. Thank you.

Under the Education Act, I believe it's section 130 that needs to be reviewed if anything needs to be changed with that. We have the Aurora College Act. That's the only institution I can think of that can give out degrees or diplomas.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we just had our mandate done last week. What it really means is we're just looking at post-secondary education and making sure we are providing the programs and that we are doing it right. As Members also know, we have a Skills 4 Success Initiative and next month we'll also be making public the Labour Market Information Report, so we want to reflect our programs to what is needed in the communities. We also want to make sure that we're aligning our post-secondary education with the vision and the priorities of the 18th Legislative Assembly moving...

Yes, when we go through developing our policies we also review the Canadian post-secondary policies and look at what's going on down south. We've got to ensure that any students that are going post-secondary that might need assistance, whether it's financial or whether physical challenges, that they self-identify and let the institutions know what might be some of their challenges to get that education they need. We need all parties to be onboard with this. But yes, in terms of the question, we do look at other policies when we do our review.