Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Education has made several statements about a need to ensure value for money at Aurora College, and I need to ensure we have adequate programming to support our fiscal bottom line and the contribution agreements -- the government's and Aurora College's fiscal bottom line. I wonder if that's not part of our strategy moving forward. I've asked questions in this House, to the Minister, about an apprenticeship strategy, and I was told money will not be allocated to that until the plan has been put into effect. Do we have a working draft of that plan from our side in how we're allocating money to Aurora College, or is it, as he says, he has no idea what the college is doing, they're completely on their own recognizance, and there's minimal contact between staff at ECE and Aurora College in working on this long-term strategic goal for the college? Thank you.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We currently have a contract with a third party consultant that's going out talking to key stakeholders on what they want to see presented to Aurora College programming and the strategic plan that they're developing. We have a third party consultant that's doing all that work. Once that report is done, it will be presented to Aurora College, the board of governors, as well as our department. Once we get that strategy, that report, we will share it with Regular Members to get their input, as well. I do know that Members have been asked to do a questionnaire and a survey with the third party consultants, so we're already hearing some of these inputs from the Regular Member as well as key stakeholders. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The plot thickens, it seems, with this third party consultant. When was that contract signed with the consultant, and how long has this work been going on for?
I don't have the exact dates, but I could get it to the Member if he wishes. Probably in the fall time was when we made that announcement, and they went out and started doing their consulting.
The honourable Member does so wish it, and I believe honourable Members of the Standing Committee of Social Development would like to see that as well, if the Minister could make that commitment to provide details of this consultant's work with both myself and Members of the Standing Committee on Social Development.
Yes, and I can also pull up some documentation in which I believe we did send all Members of this Legislative Assembly an e-mail talking about the strategy and giving input into the strategy, as well as going on the Aurora College website to give input into that as well.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of the strategic plan, just not this consultant's report. I think that's a very important piece of this puzzle. Finally, Mr. Speaker, given that there is a need to reassess how we are providing funding to post-secondary education, will the Minister commit to looking into enriching the partnership with Dechinta and College nordique, who are private sector, private post-secondary education institutions who have shown exponential growth and an ability to leverage their own funding? Will the Minister commit to making that possible coming out of this review, the strategic review? Thank you.
Yes, we do have a good partnership with College nordique as well as Dechinta. We have made some improvements. We have increased funding for Dechinta. We also went to multi-year contribution agreements, where before it was a year-to-year basis. They know and are given the knowledge that they are going to have funding for the next three years, and then we will continue to have those discussions with them, with any kind of improvements, programs, curriculum that we have, and we will continue to have those partnerships with College nordique as well as Dechinta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
