Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I talked about innovation and the supreme importance of creating an innovative and competitive economy for the Northwest Territories by investing in a knowledge economy. I spoke about a future skills lab. This is an initiative that the federal government has agreed to provide $100 million in funding for. Obviously, we can't do that with our fiscal capacity here, but there is an opportunity to build a northern skills lab that would create unique northern solutions by partnering with the federal government and with various other partners. Is the Minister open to that idea of partnering with the other territorial governments and with nongovernment partners to create a future skills lab for the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any partnerships we can create and have that will help bring better outcomes for residents of the Northwest Territories, we are happy to get in those discussion, whether it is federal or even triterritorial with our northern partners. We are already having some meetings, as you know, with the curriculum that Alberta is developing, and our input into that, but any type of partnerships are more than welcome to have those discussions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister is open to the idea. How much time would it take to see something like this materialize? Are we talking about broadbased public consultation, the development of action plans and strategies, or could we put something like this to work within the end of the term, or is this something that is going to take years to start to see development?
Currently, we are going through the Aurora College strategic plan, and we have yet to see what the outcome is with that report. The discussions can continue from there. Once we see that report and it is tabled in the House, then we can have those discussions.
I appreciate that that postsecondary development is an important piece of knowledge economy initiatives. This future skills lab, though, is, again, an opportunity for interested parties to partner on an optin basis and would provide cofinancing to initiate pilot programs in skills and competency development.
I think of our remote Northern communities. We often have to develop new techniques to solve problems, and this would be an opportunity to finance innovation in that kind of problemsolving, so I think it is very separate from Aurora College. Again, is the Minister willing to look at this and develop a proposal that he could share with the other northern governments so we can create a triterritorial approach to innovation?
I also agree that we need to build and develop skills within our small communities, remote and isolated communities especially, in getting our people back to work. Any way we can figure that out innovatively, using our community learning centres a lot better, working with our Aurora College to look at the programs that are being developed, but also working with industry and the private business sector to see what is needed and how we get a betterskilled workforce coming out of the postsecondary system. Those discussions, we'll have as soon as we see that report and what is in that report.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for his response. I will just ask again because I really want to nail this down: will the Minister consider developing a future skills lab pilot? Then, perhaps, let's put it in Inuvik instead of his home riding so we can make use of that fibreoptic link and the college there. Will he commit to developing an Inuvikbased pilot for a future skills lab; that we can get this project rolling in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this moment, I can't commit to putting anything that has any dollars to it in the House here, but we will have those discussions, moving forward from when we see that report and what is needed and then look at, if we do decide to do a pilot, which community it is. Inuvik would be great.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Question 543-18(2):
Merci, monsieur le President. The Minister of Education seems to be very popular today, so I have got some extra questions for him. In my statement earlier today I talked about how we can build a real postsecondary education system here in the Northwest Territories. I know that there is some sort of a strategic plan being developed for Aurora College. Can the Minister tell us whether this plan will contain any ideas on how the college relates to other institutions, such as College nordique and Dechinta? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aurora College's new strategic plan will not directly involve other private postsecondary institutions in the Northwest Territories. It will look specifically at how the college can best serve the interests of the NWT residents. We did have NWT residents, as stakeholders, give input into that strategic plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Minister for his honesty there; a bit of a disappointment, though. He just was talking about partnerships and so on, and it is too bad that this strategic plan for Aurora College is not going to consider linkages with other postsecondary institutions.
There must be some sort of terms of reference or a contract scope of work for this strategic plan. Will there be any effort or investigation of a broader postsecondary education framework or strategy? Perhaps the Minister could agree to share the terms of reference for that strategic plan with this side of the House?
We will get that information to the Member as well as with the report, when it is finally done, and get committee's comments on the report, as well as looking forward to the future work of all our postsecondary institutions here in the Northwest Territories. That includes Dechinta as well as College nordique. We do have partnerships with them. We do fund them.
As I mentioned, we will be developing a new overarching legislation for postsecondary education here in the Northwest Territories that will have positive impacts on all of our postsecondary institutions.
Thanks to the Minister for that response. I have spoken about how Canada is the only circumpolar country without a university and that federal government is looking for transformative change investment opportunities. Has the Minister had any discussions and made any approaches to the federal government regarding investment in postsecondary education in the Northwest Territories?
Yes, we have.
Laughter
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Boy, if we could only get the Minister to answer "yes" or "no" to some of the other questions that he has had over the last week, that would be fantastic. I guess I was hoping for a little bit more detail. I am sure he can provide that in response to my next question, as well.
Can the Minister commit that during the lifetime of this Assembly he will work with Regular MLAs and the public to develop a full postsecondary education strategy and action plan for the Northwest Territories that includes a university? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, with the development of that new overarching legislation for a postsecondary education here in the Northwest Territories, that is the beginning of it, and that is the initial step that we have to do before we can start having those talks. So hopefully, we will have that legislation brought to committee soon.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
