Caroline Cochrane

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Aurora College Foundational Review." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I take that as a compliment, that I could go on all day. I am excited about this portfolio. How many of the targets have been met? As the Member stated, I am just new to the portfolio. I have talked about a few that I have heard about that I am totally passionate about and said, yes, let's go further with those. I have not yet gone through the whole 200 of them, but I am working diligently to go through them, and I promise, I will go through every one of those 200 ones and make sure that we are on target. Keep what's working, expand what's successful, and throw out what's showing not to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The education renewal was to take place over a 10-year span, from 2014 to 2024. Some of the initiatives have been implemented; some of them are just in pilot stages; and some of them are still in development. Are they working? I think that, yes, some of them are working. Do I think that it is acceptable that we have a low achievement in the territories, still? No. That is absolutely not acceptable. It breaks my heart when I hear that children are dropping out, that people are having to do upgrading, so, no, Mr. Speaker, I don't think it's acceptable that we have low...

Yes, education in the Northwest Territories should be about best practices. Best practices does talk about transparency and accountability. I have already been working on them about accountability. Transparency, I will commit that, the next session, we will provide an update to standing committee. I will do a Minister's statement in the House to talk about where we are. Websites are not my strong point, but I will push the department to actually make sure that our website is updated before the next session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I did take note when the MLA did his opening comments and he said that success isn't only academic; it's also succeeding in life. He is absolutely right, Mr. Speaker. It's not just about whether you get an A, B, C, or a D, or if you drop out. It's about can you succeed in life, and so there are some things that we have done that I am really excited about.

We have done a Healthy Food for Learning. There is a direct link that says that children who are not fed properly do not learn well. Every school in the Northwest Territories now has food in it. That is incredible for me. The northern distance...

Mr. Speaker, expanding opportunities for post-secondary education for our residents is a priority of this Legislative Assembly. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment is pursuing an ambitious post-secondary agenda that is guided by the mandate of this government.

For more than 50 years, residents of the Northwest Territories have relied on Aurora College for their adult and post-secondary education and training. The college continues to be critical to our economic and social development, but we know we can and must do better.

The Government of the Northwest Territories has been...

Quality and safe education in the community; I am guessing you are meaning facilities in the community. Student safety is a primary focus within all education systems in the Northwest Territories. Every school has a safety plan. We make sure that we take care of the children as best as possible. Incidents will occasionally happen. As soon as incidents happen, we go in. We do an investigation. We make sure that that issue hopefully wouldn't happen again. We look for solutions for that. I know that, if there are issues with gyms, et cetera, if we don't have that support, then we look at other...

As stated, I did phone the president and was asking where the direction came from, recognizing that she does have the authority to direct the council and to direct the staffing, as the speaker for the whole board. Where did the direction come from? That is something that they are looking at.

I did take note that the MLA did state within her opening statement that it is arm's length, and it needs to be arm's length. Our act says that they can advise the Minister on issues, and I can refer them back to the council for consideration. It says that they can provide assistance to the Minister in...

What is the council doing wrong? I have no idea, Mr. Speaker, what the council is doing wrong. In fact, for the last two years, I have been asking the council to meet with them. The council has only met during session, and I have gone to them when I can meet with them. It is during session, and I have only been able to go in for a lunch hour and say hi and leave to come running right back to session.

I have asked them over the last two years that I want to meet with them. I have given no direction, period, to the Status of Women Council. I know that I have been accused of giving directions, but...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The portables that are coming in actually will be retained by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. In previous years, we bought portables and we gave them to the school authorities, and then it was hard to transfer them.

They will be used for the school that will be replaced. It will be a couple of years, and then, at that time, we will be determining the best usage for them. At this point, we are not handing them over to Infrastructure. They will stay as assets for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to be used where needed. Thank you, Mr...