Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain what the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has done to consult residents in small communities about the closure of the community learning centres? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question.
Mr. Speaker, under the Aurora College Act, the Aurora College board of governors is responsible for operational decisions of the college. So this was not a decision that was made by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, so they wouldn't have done community engagement or consultations with communities for a decision that they did not make. Thank you.
Thank you. Now, so will the adult learners in small communities now be expected to attend high school classes in regular K through 12 programming? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, at this point we don't have the clarity we need, based on the plans going forward of Aurora College, to understand what parts of the adult learning and basic education components they plan to continue to fill and which ones and how they plan to roll some of those back. And so without that clarity, we can't put a plan in place going forward. But I can say that some communities have reached out as well to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment because they have plans as to how they'd like to see the community learning centres used. But at this point, the work that's being done by ECE is working with Aurora College to understand their go-forward plan so then we can create a plan as to what the future looks like. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. So does the department have a plan to expand services for academic upgrading and basic programming in small communities to something more developed such as GED certificate programs or partnership with the college to offer more trades programs locally? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have said as well, ECE still remains responsible for ensuring that there is access to enhanced education and employment programming in small communities. So with that in mind, that will be some of the work that happens once we gain that clarity of their go-forward plans from Aurora College. And one of the things that I think is really interesting happening within some communities within the education and employment space is some dev corps are really looking into working with the government in how they can use government existing funding and existing programming to be able to work in partnership to create more education and employment opportunities for communities and by pairing up some of the projects that they're working on. And so there are some different exciting pieces that don't relate to CLCs that are happening, and I'm more than happy to talk about that with the Member as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
