Alfred Moses

Yes, I know one of our best programs that we do have at Aurora College is the Nursing Degree Program, and we're also working on this foundational review that's going to address some of the accreditation quality assurance concerns that Members have brought up on numerous occasions. That foundational review, we should have that to me by the end of this month, and we'll be taking a look at those recommendations that are going to be in that final report moving forward. I hear what the Member is saying, and moving forward, we want to make sure that anyone who takes any programs with any of our post...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a little information for Members and the public: the Minimum Wage Committee was made in 2013, and its sole purpose was to meet and review relevant information, research, and data to determine suitable options for a change to the minimum wage.

Every two years, they review this area of the minimum wage. They bring options to myself, and we make the decisions on what meets the needs of not only the employees, but also the employers. We have to make sure that there is a fine balance and that we don't put extra hardships on our employers when we do look at increases to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to also welcome and recognize Catherine Lafferty, Director of Community Development and Indigenous Education for Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, as well her little entourage of supporters and people that do the work in the organization. Welcome. Mahsi.

As Members know, we did make some changes when the Canada Child Benefit came into place, as well as changes to our own legislation for the NWT Child Benefit, to help more low-to-moderate-income families on that area. We have been working with the campuses in Fort Smith, Inuvik, and Yellowknife to address those, and we have heard that as a concern that childcare is important for students who are going to school. We are also working on how to create affordable and accessible childcare in the 11 communities that don't have childcare currently. That poses a barrier in itself, and we have to find...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we can start off in terms of how we support our post-secondary students, Indigenous or non, with our Student Financial Assistance program. We have made some improvements and enhancements to those over the years, but really, what it comes down to is starting very young, and we have made some very big investments in early childhood.

We are looking at our educational renewal initiatives from the JK-to-12 system. We are looking at creating new pathways to graduation in the high school system. It takes a combination of all of those investments that will see more...

I do know that College nordique as well as Dechinta are looking to expand their roles. I think that was a great program that they did this summer, travelling up and down the Mackenzie River. We continue to support these post-secondary institutions, as well as looking at ways we can help sustain the work that they do. That is one of the reasons that we did enter into that multi-year agreement with Dechinta and increased their funding.

As I have mentioned in this House, over a period of time we are creating this overarching legislation that is going to look at accreditation, quality assurance...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we want to ensure that any programs that we provide to residents of the Northwest Territories have the supports and that they have the skills necessary to be into the labour market within the Northwest Territories. We also want to make sure that, when we are investing dollars into our programs, we are getting a good output of skilled, trained workers to meet the labour market demands.

We also support a lot of our other programs. We support College nordique. We signed a multi-year agreement with Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, and we also increased...

Mr. Speaker, the students who are currently in the Social Work Program were given all the information that they needed in terms of moving forward. They are also getting the supports they need to graduate and to complete their program. Once the whole discussion started about the Social Work Program, they understood it, the staff understood it, and Aurora College senior management understood it. The kind of data that we need to look at is evidence-based decisions that are coming out of this foundational review. We'll look at the recommendations. I said, that's the most important piece of work...

We are excited to see what this internal review is going to recommend at the end. As I mentioned, we do have a diploma program with the social work students that are coming out of the program, and we continue to support them to go and get their degree, whether it is in a southern institution or going over to Yukon College.

What comes out of that review, we are not too sure what it is going to look like, but we will take it into consideration. When the foundational review is complete and we have that managerial response complete as well, it will help us set a stage for the long-term strategic...

We don't know what's going to be in the internal review of the Social Work Program. We don't know what's in the final report of the foundational review. Once we get those, we are going to develop a management response, as I've mentioned in this House, that's going to work on looking at the recommendations. It's going to give us an opportunity to consider the feasibility of each of the recommendations. It also is going to talk about the analysis of the recommendations, and how we implement them so that all our stakeholders, that all Members of this House can make evidence-based decisions. Until...