Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we’re at a critical time in Aurora College development. There’s a widespread call across our Territory to build towards a northern university, a full degree, university-accredited degree programming that could be satisfied very perfectly in the next of what we’ve seen our Aurora College develop into.
I believe that Aurora College offers fine programming today and I believe it must stay true to its roots where it has provided much needed upgrading to students for its 40 years. It must also include a focus that moves forward, not back.
I believe great challenges are facing our college here in Yellowknife. Our local campus suffers from space that is not available in the Northern United Building and with its lease up in less than two years, now is the time to ensure the planning is done to ensure that we build a new local campus that suits the needs of the future.
We must take advantage of the downtown location to ensure that a new campus is seriously located in a way that makes sense to the students, whether it’s close to libraries, recreational facilities, shopping, but good housing as well.
Mr. Speaker, with Yellowknife’s population of about 20,000, our local campus here in Yellowknife only serves approximately 200 students. That’s only 50 more than the Inuvik campus where Inuvik is only one-fifth of the size of Yellowknife. The point I make of this is our campus here in Yellowknife is underutilized for the potential it could provide. Mr. Speaker, one reason I wonder why our campus population and uptake is not higher is because of the space and lack of.
There are private partners out there who would be interested in providing a partnering with the college on doing more and help possibly turn it into a university as such, as we typically would know it. We all know that Aurora College is presently providing that type of programming, but it’s just one step away from that type of university-level recognition. As many people will know, when you become a university you are also able to tap into southern institutional investment where they spend money to come do studies and research here in the North. Mr. Speaker, that would be new investment into the Northwest Territories; much needed investment to the Territory as a whole.
I think there are a lot of advantages that are being overlooked and I think it’s time that we take advantage of the growing interest in our northern programming before we lose any type of interest. We should make sure that we have a northern focus that is based here in the Territories supported by our college. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
