Caroline Cochrane

The community learning centres is an area that I can't, right at this point, say is going to be expanded into all communities. Right now, they are offered in 21 of the communities. We need to do a whole review of the community learning centres, and not only on where they are. That is something that I could commit to looking at, where they are located, but also the services that they are providing within that. That is part of the polytechnic review, the process that we are working on, so we are a little bit ahead of the game today to say that we will expand it when we are trying to figure out...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is not correct. Actually, it does. The $1.676 million actually increases for additional clientele accessing income support services. I will give examples. In 2015-2016, there was 20,007 people, and that year there was an increase of 1,592, so 2016-2017 it was adjusted to 21,599. Then, at the end of that year, there were an additional 3,283, which in 2017-2018 gave us 24,882. So, each year, we are keeping stats of the numbers, and each year we adjust it based on the actual people who are accessing services and then the forced growth for additional costs for the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If it is all right with committee, we can get that information to you, a breakdown of how that works, and provide it to standing committee ASAP. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, they are allowed to hold on to 7 percent, and as of 2017, the surplus throughout the 10 education bodies was $13 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Originally, the direction was, if we were leaving those positions, to take the money away. It was a decision that was not favourable, and so we stopped that, and we said, "No, Aurora College will still get the same amount of funding." They have a lot of work to do, Mr. Chair. They need to develop an implementation plan. They need to do an evaluation. They need to look at the programs. That money will still be needed.

When we give funding to all of the schools, we give funding based on enrolment or based on teachers needed or other factors considered, but we don't prescribe...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are two ways to meet the needs of adult learners that can be done. If people are looking to do upgrading, they can do that, actually, by addressing their home community school. Often they will take students who are over 21. That is common within the smaller communities. As well, within community learning centres, we try to upgrade their credentials. Through Aurora College specifically, we offer two upgradings. One is through the Occupations and College Access Program, and the other one is the University and College Access Program. Those are two that pertain...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The funding that comes for junior kindergarten is from both the GNWT and the federal government agreements. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The realization that our numbers are declining in enrolments and the struggles that some of the smaller schools would face within that is the reason that I committed to doing a review of the funding formula, so that will impact it, as well. I am more than willing, if not myself because I am pretty busy, we are more than willing to meet with the education council to discuss their needs and a strategy and to look at what their issues are. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The way it is possible to do that is because, when the previous president actually stepped down from the position, we used an acting position from the VP of student services. Of course, then, that position does not get two full salaries, so there were some savings there. As well, we haven't taken any of the funding away for the social work or education programs, so there is extra money in the college at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.