Mr. Speaker, while I quickly ran upstairs to type a written question, my office was contacted again by someone else who had another unhappy experience at the Thebacha College, which I referenced.
Mr. Speaker, the point is — I hope it is being well made — that there is something strange going on there, and the fact is that if students are not feeling safe or their safety is being put in jeopardy in any way, I hope that message is being to delivered to the Minister of EC&E.
Mr. Speaker, with all that I’ve said right now, will the Minister be willing to put this so-called review on pause just so we can have a quick look at these terms of reference to make sure that the problems that are being identified are being looked into and effectively dealt with?
Mr. Speaker, the review we talked about earlier is before us, within our department. That has been conducted ECE and also Aurora College on apprenticeship and occupational certification and the program set that we’d deliver.
Of those issues that the Member is referring to — some of the areas that have been referenced as well — he listed intimidation and fear. Our department is aware of things that are happening within that community. We do have a team that is reviewing these documents. There’s more ongoing communication happening within our department and Aurora College on that specific item. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, without hurting anyone’s feelings or insulting anyone, I have to tell you when the Minister says that ECE and Aurora College are doing this review, it’s like putting the fox in charge of the hen house, for goodness’ sake. I mean, why doesn’t he say to me that the president is reviewing the effectiveness of the campus in Fort Smith — by the way, where he lives and runs the program. Wow, I’m sure that will be independent.
Mr. Speaker, what I’m asking for is an independent review. What I’m asking for is: will the Minister bring to Members — maybe just myself, but I’ll tell you that I’ve heard more concerns from other Members…? Would he be willing to bring forward the terms of reference so we could have a look at them and make sure that we’re doing a proper review?
Mr. Speaker, we are willing to work with the Members on any issues that have an impact in their riding, whether it be Yellowknife or Fort Smith. We are willing and accepting any recommendation, any advice, any input that Members can provide to us that can benefit the community, that can speak for the community. How can we improve at the community level? Program delivery, where students are living — as much information that the Members can provide, we’re willing to work with it. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I had a mother tell me that her kid woke up in the health centre in Fort Smith because he got a beating. Like I said, he woke up in the health centre.
Mr. Speaker, I had another person tell me about being chased running to the store. And the stories go on and on and on. I’ve heard that the students feel intimidated throughout the community; it’s like the community doesn’t want them.
Mr. Speaker, I want to know exactly who is doing this review? Who? Do we have a name of who’s doing this review? And how much is this going to cost us, and where are we going to take it?
Mr. Speaker, again, our department is working with the community of Fort Smith, identifying what’s happening out there — the incident the Member is referring to — because it does reflect on the programs being delivered, the enrolment and so forth. So I’m not going to specifically say this person is responsible. It’s all departments that are conducting the review. Mahsi.
Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
As I said earlier today — and I’ll reference again that people don’t want to go there — we have a Social Worker program that people don’t want to go to. It wasn’t fully subscribed to, cancelled, moved to Yellowknife and was fully subscribed to and even over-subscribed. The trades have dropped by 67 per cent — two thirds. So the fact is that people aren’t wanting to go there.
What is this Minster doing about this process, and is he cutting back on the college’s budget and funding because people don’t want go there?
For the campuses, we’ve delivered many, many graduates, post-secondary, in Inuvik, Fort Smith, Yellowknife campus, especially with the journeyman ticket holders. We’re proud to say we’ve graduated those individuals from the communities over the long years that we’ve serviced the communities. So we’re very proud of that. The programs we deliver have been very successful in the communities.
There may be some issues that we may be tackling, but it’s all workable within the three campuses. Three campuses are working together to remedy the situation.
