Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Finally, under community delivery -- and this is a little bit different; this is the adult learning centres or community learning centres and the adult education portion. There is a decrease as well in that line from 2016-17 to 2017-18. Can we have the substantiation for that decrease, please, Mr. Chair? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As staff noted earlier, that was $300,000 in eliminating the community-based teacher education program that is the line item there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just looking at the glossary on page 54. The community delivery line is programs offered through community learning centres. The Minister just mentioned the teacher program. Is that offered through community learning centres? My understanding is that was offered through the Thebacha campus. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was a community-based portion of that, but we still have a lot of our learning centres that offer many other programs to the community and to the residents. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. That is fine, Mr. Chair.
Next we have Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in our mandate commitments, we do talk about the department supporting Aurora College to develop a new strategic plan. We have talked about that before. We indicate in the business plans that consideration will be provided on the role of Aurora College within the wide spectrum of post-secondary training and education in the NWT. It goes on to say that, once this strategic plan for Aurora College is in place, the department will be working with Aurora College to advance planning and provide options for a stand-alone Yellowknife campus for Aurora College. They are tying this in relative to Mandate 2.3.1. I wonder if the department can please provide some explanation or clarification on what the stand-alone Yellowknife campus for Aurora College really means? What is the vision behind that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member has noted, we have to see what that strategic plan looks like. Only then will we know what kind of space we need, what kind of classrooms we are going to be needing, and where we can provide some of the programs that it is going to entail, what is going to come out of that strategic plan. Until then, we can't really do any kind of work in the stand-alone campus and looking at what we already have for our resources. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know we can't know exactly what this might look like. When we put something to that effect in the business plan, it certainly sounds like we are planning something in that regard. Is this something that there might be some consideration of future infrastructure development or taking up additional space in downtown, or potentially even working with collaborative partnerships such as the City of Yellowknife or what have you to develop a -- what is being used in here -- I will call it a stand-alone campus? A little bit more to what the department is envisioning would be appreciated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Deputy Minister Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know in the recent past the college has received some feedback, for example, from individuals involved in the nursing program. At times, the space that the college currently has hasn't necessarily met the needs for the delivery of that program. That is a specific example where the Yellowknife campus had some challenges recently. We obviously would be working with the college to determine what its needs are in terms of the delivery of programs at the Yellowknife campus. Part of that process does include the work around the strategic plan and the direction that the college will be going in. There is a need to identify what space is appropriate. We have recently worked with the college to renew the existing lease at Northern United Place, but that is not a long-term arrangement. Work needs to be undertaken to determine what makes sense longer-term. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Haener. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is it safe to say that the board for Aurora College has been undertaking this endeavour of potentially building or having a standalone Yellowknife campus, and if so, is this something we can envision having others included in terms of potential partnerships? By that, I mean, you know, potentially the City of Yellowknife, potentially other post-secondary institutes, potentially other entities that could service a stand-alone campus? Whether that is as you would commonly see in other campuses; whether that is services that could help students, whether that is retail outlets, you know, potential food and beverage outlets, that sort of thing. I mean, is there some opportunity here for potential expansion into building other partnerships, whether it's business or education, student services, et cetera? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Definitely those are great potentials moving forward. We do have to see that strategic plan moving forward and the redirection the college will be taking and the programs and services that it will be providing, but definitely all those are great potentials moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the Minister and the department; that's well appreciated.
One thing that I do have to ask about is that we also indicate in our business plans that we began researching possible options for community learning centres that would improve outcomes for northern adult learners. I know that this is probably also inclusive of some of the strategic planning that Aurora College is going to do, but I'm curious to know what, in fact, the department envisions as the improvement for outcomes. I mean, I know that the community learning centres are fairly well used in most of the communities; what are we envisioning as the opportunities for these community learning centres aside from what they're currently being used for? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think a great vision would be to see more of our young adults who have been out of the school system for a while, even adults getting back in and getting the education that they need to become employable. I know there's going to be a big focus on the Skills 4 Success initiative that we've undertaken. We've already got that into the secondary schools, and they want to utilize our community learning centres to the best of their ability so that they can help our residents become educated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate that. I think that at every opportunity we need to exploit these community learning centres in an effort to further advance the goals and the objectives of the communities, but of course our own.
Something that we might be considering with regard to this researching of possible options is maybe even partnering up with other institutes and/or other partners that might be able to use or access the community learning centres to put on programs or workshops of same nature. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, we do have partnerships; that's already happening in some of the small communities, specifically with our Aboriginal governments with the access training, so we're definitely looking at partnerships to utilize our community learning centres a bit more and providing that training and skill development that our residents need. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and this will be last question. Maybe the department can't speak on behalf of the board or Aurora College on this matter, but in this effort to try to fill skills gaps, will Aurora College be able to start developing kind of custom-made skills programs for employers, let's say? I know right now most of the programs are set programs, but if there was a program that needed to be kind of identified specifically to be custom-made to fill a certain gap, would Aurora College be able to, or have the capacity to be able to do that in the future? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure which specific on-the-job training that the Member is referring to, but I know the college does provide that type of training already for certain areas that do need those skills developed, and the training opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Next we have Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I will try my best to be brief. The line description for the information item mentions the Aurora Research Institute. How much of the building and works line in the amount of $7,385,000, how much of that is allocated to the Aurora Research Institute for laboratory and other research equipment?
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's pretty detailed information that we don't have in front of us, so we're going to have to get that information for the Member and we will share it with him. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. As the department will be looking into that, I'll also ask if they could split that between the three campuses so there's a clear understanding of where ARI's facilities are located and what they have available to them. Furthermore, the Yellowknife campus at the NUP building is somewhat notorious for glycol leaks and other maintenance issues that could impact the health and safety of students. Those needs to repair those issues and make those improvements to the building, have those been taken into account in this building and works funding? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do work closely with Public Works and Services, and they do provide that service on behalf of the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm a bit confused. I've asked this question before, and previous to this it was not the responsibility of departments but the responsibility of the college itself. Perhaps the Minister can clarify: is this budget sufficient to solve this problem once and for all, or are students going to go through another academic year or fiscal year struggling with glycol leaks and general unpleasantness in their learning environment here in Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Obviously, there are a lot of partners at play in terms of this question; Aurora College, our department, Public Works and Services. Public Works and Services does provide work on behalf of us. With the Aurora College working with NUP, it's also the landlord's responsibility to look at some of these deficiencies in the maintenance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.
I have nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Any further questions or comments? I see no further questions or comments on these information items; we'll now return to the departmental total. Please turn to page 27. There are two information items related to the departmental total found on pages 28 and 29; these include the revenue summary and the active position summary. Any questions or comments on these information items? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on page 28 I see there is an item called "capital transfers" in the transfer payments, and this year it's worth $4,079,000; last year it was worth $100,000. I am wondering if the department could tell us about why it is almost $4 million more in the next fiscal year? Thank you.
