Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Education assure me, and the constituents of Thebacha, that Fort Smith is still the intended location for the main campus and headquarters of the future polytechnic university? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the time that our Premier was the Minister of Education, the messaging has been that the idea of a main campus is outdated. We have three campuses, and we have a number of community learning centres that all form one organization.
That being said, there is no plan to move the administrative headquarters from Fort Smith to Yellowknife. I think that some people perhaps, you know, saw that there was something happening with the campus in Yellowknife and assumed that everything was getting sucked into the capital. That is not the case. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please provide some clarity regarding the meeting that took place on May 30th at city hall of Yellowknife about the polytechnic university. What is the intended purpose of that meeting? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The City of Yellowknife, ECE, and Aurora College have been working together to, you know, identify a site for the future polytechnic university campus in Yellowknife.
If anyone is familiar with the current campus in Yellowknife, you would know that it is small. It's cramped. It is in a location that is inconvenient for many people. There's limited parking. And there's no possibility for growth there. And so there is a need for a new campus in Yellowknife. That has been, you know, discussed many times here. And there's also need for new infrastructure in the other campus communities of Inuvik and Fort Smith as well.
The meeting that took place with the City of Yellowknife was to discuss the MOU between the City of Yellowknife, Aurora College, and ECE regarding the Tin Can Hill site as a potential future site for that campus and just to discuss how everyone can work together to work through the process to transferring that property. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to have ECE and Aurora College staff meet with the mayor and council of Fort Smith to have a similar meeting, as they did with the Yellowknife city council, to discuss plans for the future polytechnic university. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A similar meeting isn't necessary because it's not a similar situation in Fort Smith. That being said, I was on the phone with the mayor of Fort Smith and a number of councillors on Friday discussing this very issue. I wanted to give them assurances that this was not a situation that, you know, some people are now assuming that it is, that there is going to be a single campus in Yellowknife or Yellowknife is absorbing all of the campuses or anything like that. I wanted to let them know that this was part of the ongoing process of developing a facilities master plan that will guide infrastructure investments in the polytechnic university for decades to come. And in order to do that, we need to have sites identified as well as the needs of the polytechnic and the students identified. But that being said, if the mayor and council want to meet and have a discussion, I'm happy to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to provide this House with an updated status on the polytechnic university at its earliest possible time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I gave an update last week with one of my Minister's statements, and I'm always happy to discuss this exciting project. So yes, I will provide an update to the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
