Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our JK to 12 education system is based on the goal of ensuring that all students are grounded in the rich and diverse history, culture, language, and heritage of our peoples in the Northwest Territories. As you know, we do fund all of our Indigenous governments that play an integral part in working with our schools and in the classrooms. We do have the Elders in the Schools Program, where we are currently revising our Aboriginal languages curriculum, Indigenizing education, and we always promote to our schools to ensure that our elders are in fact...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I believe our program has a lot of incentives for our students who do have a forgiveness loan. We also have zero per cent interest on loans, and the Northern Bonus, as the Member alluded to. Mr. Speaker, because the Northern Bonus is classified as a grant, therefore it is a taxable benefit and recipients are issued actually a T4A slip.

I want to let the Member know that our department is currently reviewing this program, the Northern Bonus program, to determine if there are any alternative ways to provide this benefit without the tax implication on the students. For...

We see the important work that Dechinta is doing, as well as other organizations here in the Northwest Territories that promote culture and language, and we work with those organizations to continue to support it.

Although there is none such as the Member has mentioned here in the Northwest Territories, it is unique, and it is something that we do need to look at it, because we are already doing it in our JK-to-12 system, and that is something we can look at moving forward as we embark on our post-secondary agenda, looking at improving some of the work in that area that the Member has...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Consolidated Annual Financial Reports for all Northwest Territories District Education Authorities and Divisional Education Councils, June 30, 2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker

We have a lot of things that we are doing right now in post-secondary initiatives. It is a very ambitious agenda. We have the foundational review that is going to help us decide the direction of how Aurora College will be providing its programs and services, but we also have this overarching legislation that is going to help other post-secondary institutions come up, do research, and also possibly look at providing degree-granting programs. We have Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning and College Nordique that will soon be involved in that.

If it looks like we can look at providing a...

With the current budget and the current steps we've taken, we are looking at phasing this current program that is currently at the college out after this year. That's why there are no intakes. What comes out of the foundational review, the direction of the college, we will use that information to make evidence-based decisions, and whether or not they will have the degree granting program, or whether they are going to change direction and do other types of degree granting bachelor programs, but we'll have to get that foundational review complete first.

We can possibly review that report. Because it is an internal document and an internal review that the Aurora College has taken on, my understanding is that because it is an internal document, that is not planned for release to the public. I can follow up with the Aurora College on that, though. Because it is their own internal review, it is something that will not be released to the public. As I mentioned earlier, that can help position what that program is in terms of looking at a long-term strategic plan for Aurora College, after all of our other work around the foundational review is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The foundational review was a process that we took on as a government, and we are looking at a whole bunch of different areas, and it's not all focused on programs. There's governance. There's operations and administration. There's recruitment, retention, just give a direction of where the college is going. We are going to use that information to help set the long-term strategic plan for Aurora College. That review, the internal review that Aurora College is doing on their own, that will also possibly help us set the direction moving forward. The main focus right now is...

As Members of the House know, and I'm sure the public knows, we are currently going through a foundational review. I did mention that that review is going to be given to me by the end of this month, and we will be creating a management response to that review. In that review, governance is a topic of priority to take a look at. So once we get that foundational review, we will develop a management response to some of those recommendations. Should the board be one of the recommendations, we will take a look at it, and once the management response and the review is complete, we will be sharing...

Currently, there is no jurisdiction in all of Canada that has legislated living wage as part of minimum wage policy. I feel that, the way we look at our minimum wage and review that minimum wage every two years, we are doing what is best for not only the employees, but as I mentioned earlier, what's best for the employers. I can bring this to Cabinet and have those discussions. At this time, we are going to continue with the process of how we develop and determine what a minimum wage is every two years.