Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. In my statement, I talked about the importance of training Northerners as social workers out of Aurora College. The program has been in place for 35 years, and some of those who completed the training when it began are still working in the field. My first question is: what kind of information and analysis on the low completion rates for the Aurora College Social Work Program have been used by the Minister in making the decision to cut the program? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, the department had worked with Aurora College to identify reductions. On average, there are about 38 students who are enrolled within the program. Over the last three years, we have graduated four every year. This June, we are expecting to graduate three students out of the social work program, as I mentioned in this House before; two of the students in the TEP program, as well as the students in the social work program. I encourage them to work hard, study, and complete their programs through the course of the years. We are slowly phasing out these two programs, but we looked at the enrolment rates as well as the graduation rates when we were making these decisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Rather than cutting the program, what does the Minister think he could do to help the college remove barriers to completing the social work program and improve graduation rates?
I am not really too sure of what a lot of these barriers were for students who enrolled in both programs, and we got low graduation rates out of the two. We also currently support students who are going down South, I believe 19 students who are taking a social work degree. We continue to support them. I am not too sure what some of the barriers were. Obviously, everyone has their own challenges when they're going to school, and some of those are probably taken into account. Our department, they have a great Student Financial Assistance program that supports students financially, and the Aurora College also has support staff who try to work with the students to help them succeed and get the best outcomes.
I am shocked that the Minister is not sure what the barriers are and that he didn't spend or have his department spend any time looking at what they are in order to understand why both graduation and enrolment rates fall off so dramatically over the period of time that the students are in the program.
Will the Minister commit to looking at these barriers so that he can make an informed decision to reinstate the program?
As I mentioned, I know the Aurora College does have a good support staff to help their students graduate in whatever program that they are currently enrolled in. We can take a look and see why students weren't graduating from the social work program or the TEP program as well, and what the successes we have down south are in terms of the 19 students who are going to school down south. We can take a look into it, and definitely with the Aurora College strategic plan and review coming into place, or the strategic plan, hopefully we'll have some good outcomes of that and get better supports for the Aurora College.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it seems like an exit interview for people who are dropping out of the program would really facilitate collection of information about what the barriers are. In my statement I noted that social workers with degrees and diplomas will be in high demand over the next 15 years, a total of 600 jobs, so we want people who live here to take these jobs, not come for two years and then move away. Doesn't the number of people required in this profession make the case that social work training is, in fact, a going concern? Masi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are going to be needing social workers over the next 15 years. It was recognized in the in-demand jobs that are going to be needed here in the Northwest Territories, and we continue to support students who want to go get that degree education, and the students who are currently in the program, we want to continue to support them should they want to come out of that diploma and go and seek a degree down South and help them with that smooth transition. We are continuing to support them as the program itself gets phased out to make sure that all students who are in that program can complete the social work program and become part of the public service here in the NWT.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my questions are for the Minister responsible for Transparency and Public Engagement. Mr. Speaker, we made a commitment as a government that we would ensure that the public has the opportunity to be involved in our process and that we would certainly be better informed in our decision-making. So I want to ask the Minister: his shop is responsible for establishing the open government policy; can he please maybe provide us an update as to what the status is of the policy, what's included in the policy, when are we going to see a draft of the policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for Public Engagement and Transparency.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can advise that we have been having sessions with the public; we've had one in Fort Smith, and several days ago one in Hay River. So we're waiting to hear from the public as to what their concerns are and ideas are, and once we've accumulated that information we will be bringing forward a policy. Thank you.
I guess I've got to continue to elaborate on this line of questioning just for a moment and maybe ask the Minister if he can explain a little bit more to us as to how much more public consultation is going to take place on this and when does he, in fact, anticipate a draft coming forward to the House or to Members?
Thank you for the question. We will be visiting approximately another nine or 10 communities, and I expect that will take place in the next two months. So as soon as that process is completed and we've heard from the public we will be developing policy.
I appreciate the elaboration from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, we indicated as well, as one of our mandate items, that we will develop and implement an effective communications plan to make residents aware of the mechanisms available to appeal government decisions. In there, we referenced that we will implement an effective communications plan. Can the Minister describe for us what that communications plan is, what it consists of, and when will that plan be coming forward?
Yes, of course, we do take seriously all of the items that are in the mandate. Perhaps I could undertake to supply the Member opposite with some more detail. I know that this is an important aspect of the mandate and we are working on it, but as to dates and progress, perhaps if I could undertake to give the Member opposite more information directly.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and, yes, most certainly, in the interests of open government, I would appreciate that the Minister provide additional information when he can.
To that, Mr. Speaker, my last point. Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't raise the aspect of the ombudsman and the legislation that we are anticipating coming forward from the Minister's shop on this matter. So again another question is: where are we at with the draft legislation with regard to the ombudsman? It's expected that we would see something within the first two years of this Assembly, but are we waiting for the 24th month to present that or are we going to see something sooner? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members will recall we met in the summer in the caucus retreat, at which time we discussed this very issue of the ombudsman. There were several options that were discussed, and I can advise that we will be coming forward with a legislative proposal by the end of the summer.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Transportation. In follow-up to my Member's statement earlier, I'd like to ask the Minister: can the Minister explain why the chartered community of Tsiigehtchic was asked to hire a contractor to deal with the overflow that has been dealt with under the highway maintenance contract in the past? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd have to get the exact particulars from the Member of which incident he's talking about and the location. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Maybe the Minister wasn't paying attention earlier during my Member's statement, but I was referring to Georgetown near Tsiigehtchic. Mr. Speaker, for many years this has been an issue. Will the Minister please answer that question again?
I guess I can go into a little story about this situation. There was a place built there in 2000, where the Member is referring to, just off the access of the Dempster Highway. This was built in an area where a lot of drainage was a problem. The Department of Housing got involved; the Department of Transportation got involved. We moved the particular residents out of this area at the two departments' expense and relocated them. Another individual has now since moved into that location, knowing that all the particular problems were there. Along the course of that timeline, a couple of culverts were put in at the departments' expense to help alleviate the problem, which was off the access of the right-of-way, which is not even on our right-of-way, but we went ahead and did that to help with the drainage situation.
As far as the overflow going, it doesn't impede the safety of the highway or the travelling public to be able to travel up and down the highway. I believe at some point that it did, and we went in there and spent almost $5,000 on a contractor to clear the slush and snow out of the area to make sure this highway was of a safe usage. We will continue to monitor the situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. That is quite a story.
---Laughter
Actually, just to add to the Minister's story, people have been living there for as far as I can remember, which is early 1980s, even into the 1970s, Mr. Speaker. With climate change, like everything else, things change. Will the Minister agree to get a contractor to divert the water at kilometre 142, as he is doing between Tsiigehtchic and Inuvik?
I will have a look at the situation. We will get back to the Member, but if it is not impeding the safe usage of the highway, we will not be looking at doing anything.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the overflow may not be running directly on to the highway at the moment, but it is running along the highway, which is flooding out all of the belongings of the people who are staying at this location. A lot of their stuff that they have there is under water at the moment. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: what steps has the department taken to permanently deal with the overflow issues in these problem spots? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Department of Transportation, we continue to monitor all our embankments on the highway system and make sure we have safe travelling public, proper drainage on the highway system, and we will continue to do that. I can update the Member after session if he wants to have a bigger discussion around this issue.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since raising the issue of the Mineral Incentive Program, I have been flooded with correspondence from the public in support of increasing this program. I am going to ask the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment today if he will commit to increasing the Mineral Investment Program to $1 million, support our industry, and grow our exploration sector? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we have had this conversation in Committee of the Whole, I said we had a great opportunity at mineral roundup to get input from all stakeholders in the industry. We put our budget forward. This is what we have in there. I made a commitment that, in the life of this Assembly, we will look at what we can do towards increasing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister. His predecessor said the same thing. Furthermore, the mandate says, "makes a commitment to implement the Mining Incentive Program." Could the Minister clarify what that commitment means? How are we going to implement the Mining Incentive Program? Is it currently not implemented? What does that exactly mean?
I think there is a play on words here. The Mining Incentive Program is already in place. It is well received. It was actually oversubscribed in the past year. As I said, I commit to looking, in the life of this Assembly, to find a way to put more money into this program in coming years.
I would argue that the line of the mandate for implementing the mineral would be expanding it. A million dollars to this program would increase the return on investment to somewhere around the level of $8 million. Does the Minister agree that an additional $5 or $6 million injected directly into our economy through boosting this important subsidy would be a benefit to our economy and to our mining industry?
I am going to make it quite clear: I see the significant value of this program. It is under my portfolio. It is very important for us to bring mining to the Northwest Territories. We have a line item of $400,000 currently in this program. I have said I have made a commitment to the Members that, during the life of this Assembly, I will look at ways to try to increase that to bring more economic opportunities to the residents of the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister's strong commitments. Let's have more than words. Let's see action. Let's see dollar-for-dollar investment in this program. Every dollar he adds is going to dollars into our economy. Again, I will ask: will he commit to including that in a supplementary appropriation before the end of this calendar year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The short answer is no. I told the Members that I would look into expanding this program, putting more money into it to the life of this Assembly, not in this budget.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
