Finally, Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Written Question 3319(2) asked by the Member for Monfwi on December 9th, 2021, to the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment regarding communitybased postsecondary education programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To date, how much money has the Government of the Northwest Territories spent on relocation costs to hire non-Northwest Territories residents for employment in schools within the last five years? From April 2016 to present, the Government of the Northwest Territories has spent just over $3.7 million on the relocation of non-Northwest Territories residents to the NWT for employment in schools.
Since 2018, how many northerners have graduated from Aurora College diploma programs in nursing, education and social work? Since 2018, 67 Northerners have graduated from Aurora College in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, 12 in the Bachelor of Education program, and 21 in the Social Work Diploma program. It is important to note that the Social Work Diploma and the Bachelor of Education programs suspended student enrollments in 2017 to complete reviews of the programs. The graduation numbers are for those students that were already in the program when enrollments were suspended.
How many people in the Northwest Territories have a grade 12 education and are on income support? This data is not tracked by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, as this information is not a requirement to qualify for assistance.
Can the Minister provide data, showing how many Indigenous teachers, social workers and nurses are in the Northwest Territories? As of November 30, 2021, 52 of 670 or 7.8% nurses, 36 of 123 or 29.3% social workers, and 126 of 661 or 19.1% teachers employed with the GNWT are Indigenous Aboriginal.
Yellowknife Education District No. 1 or YK1, Yellowknife Catholic Schools or YCS and the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority or HRHSSA do not have an Affirmative Action Policy for hiring and do not collect information on Indigenous status of their employees. YK1 has a total of 215 teachers and YCS has 114 teachers. There are 42.5 Registered Nurse, 23 Licensed Practical Nurse, and one Nurse Practitioner positions, along with six social workers and three social worker support staff positions, within the HRHSSA.
When will Aurora College complete the report on the teacher and social work program, and open doors to students? The timeline for the completion of the Social Work Diploma and Bachelor of Education Program reviews has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, external reviewers have been engaged virtually, have completed their review and provided their recommendations. Following best practice, the external review recommendations are being examined internally by Aurora College program staff prior to the release of an institutional response that will outline next steps for each program. The institutional response from Aurora College will be released in Spring 2022. Although no decisions have been made, it is likely that Aurora College will have social work and education programming in the future. Pending the results of the program reviews and other considerations, such as identifying and securing a post-secondary institutional partner to support program delivery, a Social Work program could be reinstated for the 2023-2024 academic year and the Bachelor of Education in 2024-2025.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
