Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, the planned transformation of the polytechnic university must be made public to the people of the NWT, especially to the residents of Fort Smith, where the headquarters is now situated. Morale and stability of jobs must be protected. My question to the Minister is: will your department be accountable and transparent and consult with the ongoing concerns of the community of Fort Smith?
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank my colleague for bringing this forward. I completely understand the concerns. We had a foundational review, and the third party who did the review of the College suggested moving the headquarters to Yellowknife, and so I understand why there was this concern coming out of Fort Smith.
You know, Fort Smith is the headquarters, as they say. It is the home to the corporate services of Aurora College. I believe there are 40 jobs in corporate services. There has never been a plan to move that out of Fort Smith. There is not a plan now to move it out of Fort Smith. There has never even been a discussion about moving that out of Fort Smith, so I want to give the Member that assurance.
In terms of the engagement she talked about, one of the first things I did, again in the first meeting I had with the Aurora College transition team, was talk about the level of engagement that we have. I said that, if you want to be successful in this transition, the staff has to buy in at Aurora College, you know, the staff in Fort Smith. I made that point very clear, and so, going forward, we are on the verge of creating some working groups within the College, so that a staff will be fully engaged in developing and implementing plans going forward. There is going to be a three-year strategic plan that Aurora College is developing.
Right now, there is an online survey that any member of the public can fill out, and that is open until January, I believe, 10 of 2020. We are going to do a regional needs assessment that will include engagement with Indigenous governments and communities across the territory.
The other thing I said in my first meeting was that, you know, this Assembly committed to implementing the United Nations' declaration on the rights of Indigenous People, and I am not going to get ahead of ourselves in the mandate, but it is clear that we need to have more engagement with Indigenous governments. I wanted to make sure, and I told my department that we need to have the right kind of engagement with Indigenous governments. The department is going to reach out to the Indigenous governments and define what that engagement is going to look like, and that includes Salt River, and that includes the Metis in Fort Smith.
Mr. Speaker, I want to ensure that engagement is one of my top priorities and not just for the sake of saying, "We did it," and checking a box. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
[Microphone turned off] ...assurance to commit enrollment in all of the courses is not frozen in any way or form, business continues as usual at Aurora College headquarters must be maintained.
No question?
No question. I want to make sure that the business is [Microphone turned off] that there is…
Member, please wait for your light to come on.
Okay. Sorry. Mr. Speaker, I want to ensure that the commitment to enrollment in all courses continues as usual. I want to make sure that Aurora College, at the Aurora College headquarters -- because some of the courses have not had any student intake, and, therefore, I want to ensure that the business continues as usual and the enrollment is not frozen in any way, shape, or form.
I think we all know, in 2016, the intake for the social work diploma program as well as the teacher education program was suspended, and those programs are currently undergoing program reviews. These aren't just regular program reviews like the college would normally do. These are academic program reviews that are part of a new framework that are up to national standards. They are, let's see, the Ministerial Statement on Quality Assurance of Degree Education in Canada, released by the Council of Ministers of Education, is what we are conforming to. The college, as it was, has been around for 50 years. It should have been, you know, the jewel of the North in terms of education but for a number of reasons, the academic standards and the quality were allowed to slip.
What we are doing right now is we are implementing reviews to ensure that that doesn't happen again. We are implementing reviews to make sure that we create solid programs that serve the needs of the people of the Northwest Territories, and we are putting the structures in place to ensure that we don't get to that place again where we need to suspend those programs.
That is what is going on right now, so I am not going to say that we are reinstituting the Social Work and the Teacher Education Programs this year or next year, because those are being reviewed. The goal of this is to create a polytechnic university in the North that will serve the needs of Northerners and give Northerners the best possible education. That is the goal, and that is how we are going to base our decisions on what programs to deliver.
I think I would appreciate a commitment from the Minister of Education to visit the community of Fort Smith and Aurora College early in the new year to assure the residents of Fort Smith that proper consultation on the plan of transformation to the polytech university is discussed.
As the Minister of Education, I plan to travel to lots of different schools, and, of course, I plan to travel to the college. I am not sure what the schedule is for the new year. It has been relatively busy. It is hard to find a free moment. At some point in the new year, at some point, I'm sure, in the first part of next year, I will be travelling to Fort Smith, and I will be having discussions with staff.
I am always open to sitting down with the Member, as well, and having conversations. The Members are the voices of their communities, and I want to hear from the Member about what she has to say. I get emails all the time from concerned citizens, as well, and I read those and consider that information. My door is always open.
Once we have the proper standing committees, as well, I am more than happy to give a presentation or have the department give a technical briefing to the standing committee. I wanted to put that out there, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
