Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a number of the honourable Members on this side of the House have questions for the Minister of Education, continuing the line of questioning this week about the change of affairs at Aurora College. I, too, have questions.
A number of the discussions have been around streamlining program delivery so we can save costs and maximize benefits to students. My question then is: these costs that we are saving by cutting programs, are they being reinvested in the college in other program areas or in new infrastructure, or are we just cutting costs to reduce the contributions, which will help the government manage its debt? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The college always looks at the programs and evaluates programs. The programs that were brought forth in the reductions were a collaborative work between our departments, our department of ECE and Aurora College executive staff, to come up with these decisions that needed to be made. As I mentioned, when we are making those decisions, we want to make sure that we are getting the best bang for our dollar, that the investments that we are making, the dollars are being spent effectively and efficiently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Maybe I was not clear enough. Are the dollars we are saving from identifying these efficiencies being reinvested into postsecondary education, with Aurora College or any of our other postsecondary partners, or back into SFA? Is any of this money going into postsecondary education, or are we just making cuts and the savings are going back into general revenue?
In terms of any savings that we are doing, we are always working with the Aurora College board of governors, as well as the executive, on the programs and services that they provide, and we support them. We continue to support them with the dollars that they need to run these programs. So, when we look at the budgets, it is about budget process, and we work with them very closely in moving forward on those.
So last budget, we supported them to the tune of around $33 million in direct contributions, and this year we are reducing that, we are supporting them $3 million less. That's what I am talking about. That $3 million in support, where is it going? Is it going back into postsecondary, either through the college or through other groups, or is it just being cut?
Those decisions are going to have to be made as we look at the strategic review that is currently under way. We are in an academic school year right now. As well, we continue to provide a lot of great programming through Student Financial Assistance to support our students going through the programs and services that Aurora College currently provides.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister has laid out his position on this, and what it really hinges on is that strategic plan. I again call on the Minister to table that at the earliest convenience and give a firm deadline to this House. It is of great interest to the public.
My final question, Mr. Speaker, the strategic plan seems to be predicated on the labour market analysis that ECE has done. In fact, they have moved their Aurora College operations or support into the labour division within the department. My question is: is this strategic plan that the government is assisting with, is it being refocused solely on a labour market position? Are we redesigning Aurora College for that labour market analysis, or are we allowing Aurora College the academic freedom to determine its own priorities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is one of the avenues. We also did a lot of stakeholder engagements with key stakeholders across the Northwest Territories to get their input in how do we look at redirecting the Aurora College program services. That is one of the avenues that we have used. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
