Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as brought forward by my colleagues in this House several times over the past week, the transition of Aurora College to a polytechnic is in jeopardy of not reaching some of its milestone commitments. Mr. Speaker, as a government, we must ensure that we continue our commitment to this important work. One of those commitments, Mr. Speaker, should be to fund the centre for learning, teaching, and innovation, an initiative that the Aurora College brought forward during the transition process, and, Mr. Speaker, this program provides expertise to develop new...

I now move that the chair rise and report progress.

You know, could I have been a little more aggressive in some areas? Absolutely. And I guess we can all say that about our ridings and individual things that we want to see action based on the business plan and things that are in here. But, yeah, overall, it's a great document, and I appreciate the work that the departments did putting it together. It's a bit of a read, but certainly, it's yeah, so you know, I can point to specific things that I'd like to see but, Mr. Chair, I'll save those for when we go through the main estimates, as we will be going through by department by department. I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We wish to consider Tabled Document 9420(1), 20242028 Business Plans in Committee of the Whole. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. Yes, I'm aware of the $1 million in funding that was received. It was received and was to be used to develop the new Bachelor of Education program, which hasn't been rolled out yet. So what the college has been using that funding for was to develop the general studies program, which will eventually then turn into years one and 2 of the Bachelor of Education program and, if I'm not mistaken, the social work program as well. So that's what that $1 million is currently being used for.

My question is, and I believe the transition team at that budget was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my statement, I spoke about the importance of the transition of the Aurora College to a polytechnic. Mr. Speaker, I spoke about the funding for the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Innovation that the college has been doing for the past three years. My questions are for the Minister of ECE. I'm wondering if her department would consider funding that centre to continue the important work that they're doing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the Tabled Document 9420(1), 20242028 Business Plans, be referred to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight for further review. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sure, I will kick it off with some comments. I will be fairly brief. We have some long days coming, and I'll try not to keep Members here too late today.

Listen, the business plans are great. I mean, I don't know what else I can say. I think there's a lot of excellent work done in there. I think this is

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a territorial government, we do implement, I guess -- I'm not sure how much we control the cost of living offset, or the COLO, for the carbon tax.

Is the Minister willing to consider an offset increase in the COLO for those who burn natural gas to offset the additional increase in this $4.83 that they're burning -- spending for natural gas? Thank you.