Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke to milestones being missed at the college and the president asserted that they are not adequately resourced to achieve transition. Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister's response to these revelations? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I guess what I can say is just some facts around some funding that has been received by the college. So through CIRNAC, the college did receive $8 million. In addition to that -- so, first of all, those monies were for planning through community and Indigenous government engagement and grants transformation, the centre for research excellence pilot, and also the Western Arctic Research Centre infrastructure. Those being the largest initiatives. So through that, the capital investment of the warehouse was $2.53 million, facilities master plan, $1.36 million, research services team $2.62 million.
In addition to that, the GNWT has also invested $1.04 million in transformation to Aurora College on an annual basis, Mr. Speaker.
And I can also say that Aurora College has also used a portion of their base funding, because they did have two programs that were put on hold through this process, being a social worker program and the bachelor of education program, and they were able to use those dollars as well to invest in transformation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we are coming towards the end of the existing mandate for which a number of milestones have been missed. I'm curious what the Minister's plans are for a renewed mandate and, in particular, how we're going to ensure milestones are being hit in that mandate. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my apologies to interpreters, not a great start out of the gates. I was speeding right through that last one. So I will slow down.
Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Member. So to start off, we've already missed some milestones as the Member referred to in their Member's statement. So I do have intentions of reissuing and working with the existing board of governors on the strategic mandate document with them. I will be issuing a letter shortly here that -- because the existing one expires in July, so shortly I'll be issuing a letter calling on the board of governors to, you know, let's work together and get the next one done. I have an intent to be very -- I don't want to use the word demanding, but I think this is a really exciting project and so why would we not want to throw our weight behind it and get it done. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I would like some further detail on what the GNWT is doing to support the college in showing their commitment to seeing this project through to success.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my role as Minister of ECE within the college is oversight over the post-secondary system for the whole entire NWT. The Aurora College board of governors is responsible for the oversight of the operational matters of the college. So even that being said, ECE does still provide funding dollars for this work to get done. We -- I do have meetings with the chair of the board of governors so that they can identify to me what their priorities are as a board and so that we can work together in order to provide them with support that they do need that is appropriate for ECE to be able to provide.
In the last Assembly, there was legislation passed that made Aurora College arm's length and so we're now in a transition period of really respecting those new roles. So this really is the role of the board of governors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that answer. You know, the board of governors has kind of stated that they need support, financial support is needed. It's clear that they're not able to achieve milestones on their own. So I'm looking for a commitment from the Minister to show the GNWT's commitment to this project and seeing it through and would like to hear further from the Minister on that.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can make a commitment to the Member to follow up with the chair of the board of governors for sure. When I previously met with the chair of the board of governors and asked what their priority was, they identified their priority as housing. Not for assistance with transformation. And so I can go back to the board of governors and ask if -- where they're at, and I can reflect on the appearance before committee because I think that there was some information that was inconsistent with information that I have as well so I think it's important that we align our information and ensure that everyone's supported to move forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
