Alfred Moses

As the Member mentioned yesterday in her statement, we just signed a contract. Right now currently we're working on a work plan with the contractor and our department is working really hard to get that work plan developed. Once I have that work plan I will share it with Members and committee and get their input, as well as Cabinet to get their input into how we move forward. We're just waiting on that work plan, and I can't commit to anything until both the contractor and our department staff have worked on completing it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member also kind of answered this. The NWTspecific data and the labour market information report that we have now will help guide us and Aurora College into the programs and services that meet the needs and educational needs of NWT residents and Northerners. It is going to help us make evidencebased decisions once we see the results. Just moving forward, that information is definitely going to help us. We are also going to be looking at administration, operations, governance, and legislation with this foundational review.

Since the beginning of this fiscal year, we're about halfway in now, and there is a significant increase to the Small Community Employment Support program. I have asked the department what significant investments and changes have been made and seen in terms of getting those contributions out to the small communities. I will get that information, and I can share it with the Members for their respective regions and communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When the discussions of the foundational review had taken place in the May/June sitting, we looked at some direction that has come through, and one of those discussions and directions that were brought forth from some Members was that we look at the governance and we look at the structure of the college. There was a recommendation from the 2013 document moving forward. We took that decision, made that decision, and we are going to be looking at governance as we do this foundational review moving forward, and we look forward to the results.

Because we put the program in April 1st, 2017, we've been trying to get that funding out to more communities so that it's being utilized at a better rate. We are also looking at some of our other initiatives. With Skills 4 Success, working with some of the small communities on projects where we've seen successes, and I think the Member had mentioned some in his Member's statement. We are going to continue to review those and see how we can look at other policy changes that need to be developed, but we're going to have a look at this.

As the Member knows, and as Members of the Assembly know, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in previous sessions, our staff worked with Aurora College to look at some of these proposed cuts and made sure that we made informed decisions based on data and the information that they provided. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, any time we do any major retrofits or replacement of a school, we do meet with community members and leadership to see what that might entail. However, we do have capital standards when we build our schools and infrastructure in our communities, and in some cases we do have governments, Indigenous governments, or other organizations, that want to make it bigger. At that point, we would have to go to a P3 process, but we always do involve community input.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Work at Kaw Tay Whee School in Detah has been on the capital planning list, as well, and needs some work. We are working with committee. Both for Detah and Ndilo, we are looking at addressing some of the capacity issues, but also the age of the school. Right now, a planning study will be undertaken in 20182019 for the replacement of the school.

As I mentioned, there has been a lot of work that was done to Moose Kerr School. I also mentioned that we have a lot of infrastructure within the Department of ECE. After every business, or every capital planning process, we do go back and look at our 20-year needs assessment. There are priorities in every community across the Northwest Territories. We also have 49 schools. We look at utilization rates when we take those into consideration, as well as our own needs assessment criteria, so those things come into play when we have to look at the whole scope of infrastructure needs within our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After every annual capital planning process, the department goes back and looks at its 20-year capital needs assessment. You have to understand that there are a lot of areas that we have to look into; colleges, museums, libraries, information technology, other infrastructure. Last year, in June of 2016, a review was done, it was looked at, and it was done by the Department of Infrastructure, and at that time it was considered to be in good condition. All the work that has gone into Moose Kerr School over the number of years, and the Member had made some mention of it...