Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I was asking some questions of the Education, Culture and Employment Minister. When we talked about the three cuts at the college, they are all lower-entry-level. Did the department or the college actually look at making some cuts at the upper end of the college? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment did work closely with Aurora College to identify reductions. For this upcoming budget, what they identified was the administration area as well as the programs that we have been discussing in the House. To my knowledge, I am not sure if they did look at the upper senior management when they were looking at reductions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister commit to coming back to this House to say if the college actually looked at upper management?
Yes, I can get the department to get that information and share it with the Member.
I thank the Minister for his answer. When we look at the college from 1968 to 2008, we had 269 TEP graduates; 78 per cent of them were of Indigenous heritage. The Minister actually talked about 33 students going down South to attend school down in the southern part of Canada. Can the Minister provide a percentage of what Aboriginal students are attending school down South?
I don't have that specific information with me right now, but we can get that information, how many of our students who are Aboriginal attending education programs down south, and share it with the Member.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his commitment, and I am looking forward to that information. Mr. Speaker, when we looked at the cost analysis of making these cuts to the program and, if we cut this program, we are going to lose potential students out there who do not want to go down South did the department or the college actually do a real cost analysis of the economic effect of eliminating this valuable program to the territories and the Town of Fort Smith? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we looked at, also, the graduation rates. We are not seeing a big number of graduates coming out of the social work program or the TEP program for the investments that we are making. It was a decision that was made by both the Department of ECE in collaboration with Aurora College to find where these reductions were.
I just want to emphasize again that we are supporting the students who are currently in the program. We want to see success. We want to see better outcomes, and we want the students who are in these two programs right now to become part of the public service here in the GNWT, and we want to support them on their career paths. We continue to support students who go to get postsecondary education outside the territory.
