Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member’s statement that I made earlier, I will be asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about some of those issues that arose with Aurora Campus.
Can the Minister let me know, and the people of the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu region, is there an action plan moving forward for the Aurora Campus, whether it’s a five-year or 10-year action plan, short term or long term? Can the Minister give us any indication if there’s an action plan and is it being implemented? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that Aurora College has been exploring, the Board of Governors, for some time now. They are currently in the process of developing a long-term plan, a five-year plan on how they can deal with the community deliverance of certain programming. So we are, as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, also working very closely with the college as part of their overall goals and objectives of what kinds of programs will be delivered, whether it is Inuvik, Fort Smith or Yellowknife and the surrounding communities. So those are some areas we are continually monitoring and working very closely with the Board of Governors.
We want to have our input into the system, as well, because we are currently in the preliminary stages of Skills for Success, where we are identifying and doing a needs assessment for communities and delivering that part of programming into the communities. Mahsi.
It is a growing concern that has been happening over the last two to three years about the programs being delivered, enrolments dropping, and there’s a reason we have a low enrolment. It’s because we don’t have the programs.
With the programs that are being delivered at Aurora Campus at the moment, what is the campaign strategy that Aurora College is doing to try to get students not only from the Beaufort-Delta and Sahtu regions to that campus but from all the Northwest Territories and other jurisdictions possibly? What is the department doing to increase the awareness of the programs to try to increase enrolment at the Aurora Campus? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There is a wide range of marketing approaches happening within Aurora College. The Board of Governors is responsible for the three main campuses, including Inuvik. There are various programs delivered, whether it is trades and apprenticeship, education, health, arts, sciences and business. So we want to expand beyond that. There is the ALBE program as well.
As the Member alluded to, we need to attract more students into our programming. That is the ultimate target of the Board of Governors, and we as a department are responsible for training of those individuals. We have various federal programming, as well, and territorial programming which will be integrated into Aurora programming. Those are some areas we are tackling with the Board of Governors of the college. Mahsi.
I’m glad to hear that the Board of Governors is responsible for the programs and how they are delivered throughout the three campuses here in the Northwest Territories.
How is the Minister working with the Board of Governors? He is the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment in the Northwest Territories. How is he working with the Board of Governors to ensure that we have equally distributed programs in Yellowknife, Fort Smith and Inuvik? How is the Minister working with the Board of Governors to ensure we have equally distributed programs so that all regions can get the education that they deserve? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I agree with the Member that there should be equal deliverance of programs to the three main campuses and also the 23 community learning centres across the Northwest Territories out of 33 communities. Those are some of the areas that I have captured with the board chair and also the president. We meet on a frequent basis, highlighting the needs of the communities based on the needs assessments that we are currently developing through Skills for Success. We are at the preliminary stages, but we are currently re-evaluating our program deliverance and working, again, very closely with the college on this particular subject, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I mentioned a few great opportunities such as satellite farm, fibre optic link and early childhood development possibilities with the great facility that this government committed to with the Children First Centre.
Would the Minister, when he meets with the Board of Governors, look at increasing the programs in the Inuvik Campus and one specifically, especially with our Early Childhood Development Strategic Plan, creating an early childhood development program to train our employees in the Beaufort-Delta region? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi. Yes, most definitely. Those are programs that are currently being discussed by my department and perspective with the college. There’s also federal programing with respect to scientific research programming that we’ve been trying to access for a number of years now. So we are making progress along the way. So those are just some of the areas of innovative programming that we want to be delivered into the three main campuses that we have. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
