Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do certainly understand that there are many other kinds of benefits that come from diamond mines besides royalties themselves. I wonder if -- I just -- the contrast in the numbers is quite stark though, in terms of the amount of money required apparently to, you know, verify or valuate something versus the royalties coming from that product. Are there any ways that the Minister has explored to try to find cost efficiencies or savings? Is there a, you know, less fancy version of diamond valuation? I'm not sure, I don't understand much about this area of work but are...

Thank for that explanation. Nothing further. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it sounds like we are hopeful that we will exceed our revenue estimates or expectations for this year. I do hope to see that and certainly open to future conversations if we're encountering continuing challenges and barriers on how we can keep improving our fishing sector, which is very important.

I wanted to turn now to another one of ITI's goals in the business plan is to ensure there can be a transfer of skills from mine closure into new areas, and this is specifically listed under the housing priority. So I would interpret that to mean that the intention is to...

Thank you for that. I think it's good to get the word out about these opportunities.

I have a question on commercial fisheries, and this relates to the revenue summary also back on page 230 but, you know, we're continuing to support our commercial fisheries, and we had predicted in 2024-2025 that revenues from fish sales were going to increase from $1.2 million to $1.6 million but last year the actual sort of sort of revenues ended up being more like $1.2 million, and now we're predicting again for this coming year still at $1.2 million.

Can the Minister explain what was the hope in terms of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister justify why we would spend public money on Aurora College developing online programs when many students already access online learning programs from other places and, in fact, that's the entire sort of attraction of online learning, is that you can get it from anywhere. What would Aurora College's niche be in this space? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

So this morning, Aurora College informed committee that they would be reallocating about $2 million of the funds that previously went to the community learning centres and CLC staff towards online learning, including hiring three online program coordinators, hiring three new tech support staff, and 1-800 support lines and online platforms, possibly buy everyone a computer as it seems they were promising to ensure that everyone would have access to modern technology.

Does the Minister support this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after our public briefing this morning with Aurora College, I want to speak further about the community learning centres because there remains so much misunderstanding and confusion as to what has been happening at the CLCs, what the vision for starting them was in the first place, and then what is the path forward that communities have been trying to sketch out.

The community learning centres are rooted in an initiative started by Frontier College in the 1960s and '70s and was rooted in a philosophy of community development. So that means providing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess my final question on that is is there much competition in this sector of diamond valuators? Do we have, you know, various firms that are bidding on this kind of a contract, or are we kind of stuck with just one option in this case? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have to be really quick.

Okay, so I see in the revenue summary under minerals, oil and gas royalties, you know, last year we ended up getting $1.6 million and this coming year we're expecting $1.7 million. But then I look at how much we're spending under minerals and petroleum resources on diamonds, royalties and financial analysis, and that's $4.3 million. I do understand from ITI's previous information that we have a diamond valuator contract to valuate the diamonds that has been increasing this year and we're up to $2.7 million just for the valuator contract this year...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Literacy Outreach Centre here in Yellowknife has been a partnership between Aurora College and Inclusion NWT since 1997. The program even won the Premier's Award in 2023 for its excellent results.

So when Aurora College first made its announcement about closing community learning centres, it wasn't immediately clear that the Literacy Outreach Centre would be affected. The staff hadn't even been informed, and enrolment had been high with 39 students in the current winter semester. The program was working. It was award winning. So surely it wouldn't be...