Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just more a comment at this point on how we are rolling out post-secondary education. Again, I feel like we are very far behind where Northerners expect us to be in providing quality post-secondary education here in the Northwest Territories. I will not argue with the Minister that the Student Financial Assistance program is world-class and gives a lot of opportunities to our kids to pursue educational opportunities across Canada and the world, but it is here in the North that I think we need to do a better job at bringing not only opportunities to students who want to learn close to home, but also research opportunities through these institutions. The college contributions, you know, we could be using these to promote a knowledge economy and to those expanded research opportunities.
Currently, Aurora College does not seem to know what it is doing apart from cutting two programs that are seemingly very popular, or at least an area of concern for many people in the Northwest Territories. So I wonder again if the Minister is willing to retreat from these reductions and reassess the college contributions until such time as the strategic plan is completed and we, as a government, have a better opportunity to decide on the future of the college as the leading institution of post-secondary education in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and this was work that was done collaboratively between the department and Aurora College to look at where they were going to get their reductions from. As I mentioned, we are seeing very low graduation rates out of both programs and decided to go ahead with these reductions and the program. I know we have had full debates on this, both here in Committee of the Whole as well as on the floor, and this is where we had that healthy discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I expect the debate will continue both here and in the House. This reduction around, I guess, around $3 million give or take, did the college decide to do this again because it looked internally and wanted to find efficiencies within and did this in an effort to streamlines its own operations so it provides better service to its students, or was this a decision that came through a mandate letter to identify reductions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and as I mentioned back in September we did meet with the Aurora College with a reduction target. They did some work in collaboration with our departments, and these programs were the ones that were identified. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I will take it from the Minister it was more or less a Sophie's Choice situation with the college board of directors. These programs, I think, are very beloved in the regions where they operate and are seen as opportunities for the students and Northerners who want to take these programs to better themselves, better their lives, and better their communities. So I would hope that we find ways to streamline and improve programs rather than to end them.
Finally, as I frequently do promote the opportunities that our other partners provide, is there any plan to support the continued growth of Dechinta and College nordique apart from funding but through legislative and policy work to help them leverage funding and endowments from third-party sources that they can bring into their own operations? I will remind the Minister that Dechinta had brought in $500,000 from the federal government to offer programming to Northerners. So what is the department doing to support those efforts to leverage more funds and bring more opportunities to Northerners through Dechinta and College nordique? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and we are currently working on an overarching post-secondary legislation that would give the Dechinta and College nordique an opportunity to possibly seek those fundings, and we do provide letters of support as well when they are lobbying the federal government for their programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it is only fair to give the Minister the final word, so I will do that and yield the balance of my time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next we have Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to start with Aurora College here. When we look at Aurora College in the education program and social work program it provides immense value for the NWT residents, but it is also integral to NWT and Canada to the TRC recommendations and some of that. So I guess my first question coming to this is: were the cuts an evidence-based decision? So was there evidence of that besides the numbers? Did they look at it and look at all the valuations and all the recommendations and make an evidence-based decision? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and yes it was evidence based. We looked at the history of the enrolments in the two programs, as well as the graduation rates of the students who completed the program, and took into account the investment that we put into those two particular programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. So with this evidence-based decision making, what was the timeframe? Was it a year, two years, five years, or the length of this program that was from it starting to being where we are today?
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We looked at the history of the enrolment rates in the two programs, then we also looked at the graduation rates in the two programs as well. Over the last three years with the social work program we are graduating on average four graduates every year, and as I mentioned this year we are expecting to have three graduates come out of that program. With the Teacher Education Program, although the enrolment rates averaged decently, we were still only getting seven graduates out of the TEP program. We continue to support our students who want to go and seek education outside of territory, 33 in the education field who we are supporting right now outside of territory as well as 19 social work degree students. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So if I heard the Minister correctly, the last five years they have made this decision, so the TEP program has been 47 years they have not looked at all these numbers and they have just focused on the last five. So again, did the college actually look at their promotion and their recruitment process out there to get students in this program? Was that part of the evidence-based decision making? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I am pretty sure the Aurora College does. I have seen them at career fairs. I have seen them promoting all their programs, not just the two that the Member is focusing on. We do have a lot of other programs within the Aurora College system, spread out among our three campuses, and I am pretty sure that Aurora College promotes them all equally. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I am just going to leave this part because we could spend the next 20 minutes on it and still not get it come out to an answer that satisfies me. I am going to go to small community employment. This program saw an increase of $3 million so, to the $339,000 that was presently used by the program, was that fully utilized this past fiscal year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the previous fiscal year, that funding was not fully utilized. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. So in regards to this program, is it a subsidy or is it a firstcomefirstserved sort of thing? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do two streams with this funding, as I mentioned earlier. There is a wage subsidy option as well as community projects that can be looked at being funded. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. In regards to the community projects, is it a cost share or is it fully funded by the department? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. All the projects through the small community employment support program are done through partnerships.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. So I guess my concern is, as it is a subsidy or a partnership, we didn't access it fully this time and we have added $3 million to it. Will the department look at changing the policy so it is actually job creation and not a subsidy? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thomson. Deputy Minister Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, definitely, we are aware of the fact that the monies have not been fully utilized in the past. We are planning to spend the next several months looking at how we can ensure that additional money is fully utilized with small community employment initiatives. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Haener. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for that answer. So I guess my question is: are we looking at this as removing the salary subsidy and actually just making it job creation, or is it trying to fit within the parameters that presently exist in the policy? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, we are still staying within the same parameters of how we do the wage subsidy or the community projects in partnership with communities, whether it is employers or Aboriginal bands. It is something that we can definitely take a look at, but that is still going to take some time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for the answer. The biggest problem is that, if communities don't have the money, they can't access this program, and if we can't access this program, people can't go to work, and if people can't go in to work, they have to go on income support. We are talking about a couple of months from now, trying to get this rolled out. If this budget is passed April 1st, it is going to come out. I would like to see the money out there. If we are not going to have it out there, or if you can't organize it, will the department look at maybe giving that money to Finance or to MACA so that they can get that money out to the communities so people can get to work and have a employment and a paycheque at the end of the day? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Deputy Minister Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we do intend to look at this fully and the approach to date. We will have a more comprehensive approach and strategy for small community employment by the fall. We appreciate the interest in seeing the money out in communities. We have that desire, as well. Obviously, we would rather that folks are engaged in productive employment rather than, as the Member says, on income assistance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Haener. Mr. Thompson.
