Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke about the importance of building a knowledge economy in the North and the idea of transforming Aurora College into a polytechnic. I know that the Minister is engaged in a strategic review process working with the Aurora College leadership. I am interested to know when honourable Members, here in this House, will be able to see that strategic plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; we were just awarded the contract for the work to be done. We are going to be engaging a lot of our stakeholders. It is a key priority of our department to make sure that we are working very well with Aurora College to develop the strategic plan. We are going to reach out to community governments, Aboriginal governments, GNWT departments, staff, students, as well as Members. As this has just started up, once we get a timeline and schedule, we will share that with the Members and get their feedback and input into this action plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister just indicated a list of stakeholders and those sound like a good start. There are a number of examples of community colleges or smaller colleges that have evolved into polytechnics or university colleges. We are seeing that process happening in our neighbouring territory, the Yukon. Will the stakeholder consultation also involve speaking to those experts and seeing how they were able to transform their post-secondary vocational institutes into formal polytechnics and university colleges?
We always look to see what are the best practices throughout other jurisdictions; however, we just released a labour market information report and the Skills 4 Success Strategic Framework and Action Plan which is going to help guide this strategic plan moving forward with the Aurora College in developing their programs. We should have something in place after all the consultations and engagements are done. We also want to utilize more of our learning centres. We have 23 learning centres in the community that we want to utilize a lot better to get the training, the skill developments and help some of our employers with the in-demand jobs and the needs that they need.
So we're going to look at what's being done, but we really want to have it guided by the Skills 4 Success Action Plan as well as the labour market in-demand jobs and needs assessment that were released earlier this year to help our communities and our business get northern employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister's answer, and that's exactly why we need to do more with Aurora College. We have a real labour market shortage and a shortage in education; however, I think Aurora College now is focused on a wide variety of issues. Recently, the government moved it from education to labour market development, and we've seen in the recent capital budget a new heavy operator training facility. So we are making some decisions about the future of Aurora College.
I guess my question then, Mr. Speaker, is: are we going to continue to make these decisions as they meet our needs and as opportunities are available or are we going to wait until that strategic plan is completed before proceeding any further with redeveloping Aurora College?
That's exactly why we're going out doing the consulting and engaging with all our stakeholders. We do have three campuses throughout the NWT that meets specific needs for different communities, different groups. We want to make evidence-based decisions and we're going to wait until that report is done, it should be ready, as I said, June of 2017, and be ready for implementation in the 2017-2018 academic year.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for providing some clear timelines. My last question is going to be a difficult one to answer because it's about capital, and Aurora College currently does not have a Yellowknife campus. One of the components of Aurora College is the Aurora Research Institute, and currently they have office space, they do not have laboratory equipment, they do not have research equipment at all.
Clearly, there are some necessary upgrades if we're going to expand our research capacity and expand training and education opportunities for Aurora College. That building is also riddled with maintenance issues, glycol leaks, it's a real mess.
So in this strategic plan is the door open for a new campus facility, a standalone design-built campus facility in Yellowknife? Yes, I know we have limited resources, but this is a priority for our job market shortage. So is the door open to a new campus facility in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Once the strategic plan is done and ready for review, we'll see what kind of space is needed for the program services that are going to be offered in the next academic year. But we can't make those decisions until we see that strategic plan.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
