Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member's statement, there is a review of the social work program under way now at Aurora College. The report is due on April 10th. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: why wasn't this review completed prior to making the decision to phase out the social work program? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we made the decision to phase out the social work program based on low enrolment and low graduation rates. It had a history of low rates over the years. The Aurora College decided to an independent, internal review on its own. I do understand that review is going to be completed in April 2018. We will see where that review and what recommendations that review has in terms of moving forward with the long-term strategic plan for the Aurora College. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
When the Minister gets the report, can the Minister request the report? What does he plan to do with it?
We can possibly review that report. Because it is an internal document and an internal review that the Aurora College has taken on, my understanding is that because it is an internal document, that is not planned for release to the public. I can follow up with the Aurora College on that, though. Because it is their own internal review, it is something that will not be released to the public. As I mentioned earlier, that can help position what that program is in terms of looking at a long-term strategic plan for Aurora College, after all of our other work around the foundational review is completed as well.
What I am asking the Minister is: this college is under administration, so he has a direct role in its governance. When he asks for this report and receives it, what is he going to do with the results? I am not asking him to make it public. He has a terrible record of making things public. I am asking what he is going to do with the report.
We are excited to see what this internal review is going to recommend at the end. As I mentioned, we do have a diploma program with the social work students that are coming out of the program, and we continue to support them to go and get their degree, whether it is in a southern institution or going over to Yukon College.
What comes out of that review, we are not too sure what it is going to look like, but we will take it into consideration. When the foundational review is complete and we have that managerial response complete as well, it will help us set a stage for the long-term strategic plan at Aurora College. We will see what recommendations come out of this internal review and how that will impact it as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the foundational review and/or the review of the Social Work Program recommends that the program be continued or expanded into a degree program, is the Minister willing to reverse his decision to phase the program out? Thank you.
We have a lot of things that we are doing right now in post-secondary initiatives. It is a very ambitious agenda. We have the foundational review that is going to help us decide the direction of how Aurora College will be providing its programs and services, but we also have this overarching legislation that is going to help other post-secondary institutions come up, do research, and also possibly look at providing degree-granting programs. We have Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning and College Nordique that will soon be involved in that.
If it looks like we can look at providing a degree-granting program, we will definitely look hard at that, because we want to make sure that we do meet the needs of the labour market here in the Northwest Territories, as well as in all three northern territories and, if possible, other jurisdictions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
