Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just start by clarifying that I am struggling with French, but I am going to try to do the best to answer appropriately as per the interpreter. Thank you for the translation on the mic.

My understanding is that we want to know what formal mechanisms can be used to address and improve on the services identified within the audit. The audit looked at four different areas. It looked at service delivery, how we deliver our programs; active offers, do we even offer people to be able to have service in French; our signage; and our display of public information or our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don't have that knowledge at this point, but we will commit to providing that to the MLA by Monday at the latest. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, later today, I will table the Government Response to the Findings and Recommendations of the Aurora College Foundational Review marking an end of a year-long review process.

This review has provided an opportunity to step back and evaluate where we are today and where we need to be in the future. Post-secondary education is essential to the growth and prosperity of our territory, and Aurora College continues to play a critical role in providing residents with options for obtaining that education in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, in order to better meet student needs and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are focusing on home economics within this coming fiscal year, so we will be doing the same thing. The home economics room is going to get a complete redesign and renovation, including custom millwork and specialized appliances. The two schools are getting the exact same work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is not an addition; it is a renovation, a redesigning and renovation of the space that we have. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Currently, our nursing students do actually utilize the Stanton Hospital for their practicums. That is very important. Hands-on learning is critical within any university, certificate, diploma, or degree programming, so we will continue to work with Health and Social Services on utilizing that. I do note I hear the Member who is saying: can we make the school there? That, I cannot promise. What I can say is that the campus in Yellowknife has outgrown its current headquarters, and that has to be looked at. At this point, I can't say whether it would be part of the old Stanton Hospital or if it...

Yes, it is definitely important. This is a territory-wide issue. Our future for post-secondary is bigger than the people in this House, so it is important that we work with all levels of government, our municipal governments and our Aboriginal governments, for two reasons: to find out how we can best support the students; and the second one is to look at our vision and look at the strengths and identify areas that we can grow on. So, yes, I am seeing that part of the vision exercise is that we would be consulting with Indigenous governments to see what their vision is, as well.

I've said it, and I'll say it again, that we are committed to making this a reality. We will do whatever we can to support the daycare. I'm not even sure what they're called, but the daycare center in Norman Wells. So, if that means working with Infrastructure, if that means helping them to fill out the applications, if that means walking into offices, we will do what we need to do to make this a reality.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really want to start with saying that I'm really excited about Norman Wells' daycare. One of our mandates is to get daycares in every community, as many as possible. There is lots of research. I could go on and on about the amount of research that says early intervention is the best intervention for children to ensure that they are successful in life. So Norman Wells is one that we've been watching closely. We're working closely with that community. I know that they have submitted their application. There are a little bit of processes: they need to get a fire and a...

I do have to say I really appreciate the questions today because the MLA has actually pointed out a lot of the vision things, a lot of our strengths, a lot of the areas that we need to work with. The reason that I'm really promoting to move into a polytechnic university is because that research money is leaving the Northwest Territories. We have hundreds of universities coming across the world up to Inuvik to study our issues, and we're not tapping into that money because we're still a college.

So moving into a polytechnic university will allow us to not only access that money, but it keeps the...