Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. And I apologize if -- I believe it was asked; I'm not sure if it was answered. But given that the Aurora College now will be closing down, or intends on closing down, the early learning centres, is the department of education and culture now going to pivot, pull that funding back in, and then continue those programs through ECE?
Thank you, Member from Boot Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, right now Education, Culture and Employment is working with Aurora College to gain clarity on what aspects of adult learning and basic education that's delivered through CLCs is going to continue to be delivered through CLCs and what parts will not be. From there, ECE will be able to determine a go-forward plan because they still do maintain the responsibility at the end of the day of ensuring that there are access to education and access to employment opportunities within communities. So depending on what parts of that Memorandum of Understanding that ECE has with Aurora College continues to be maintained, that will determine what portion of the funding continues to be afforded to Aurora College and what part is no longer afforded to Aurora College. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I apologize, I said early learning. I meant adult learning education. So, yes, so our mandate is to provide that. The buildings are certainly still going to be there. So then just for clarification, then, the intent is, moving forward, once the negotiations or once the discussion happens with Aurora College, that we continue to provide that service and those learning centres will be opened and staffed as they were previous to the college making those decisions. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad that the Member asked the clarifying question because that's not what I said. So I want to be very clear that what that looks like going forward, I cannot say. I cannot say how those opportunities are going to be afforded to communities. I know that, for example, one of our community learning centres is currently being used as classroom space for some high school students in a community that very much needs it and very much needs that that part -- for that community learning centre to continue as that type of space. I can say that some Indigenous governments have reached out to ECE or to Aurora College and have said, hey, we have a different plan for what we want our community learning centre to be. And some post-secondary institutions have also reached out as well. And so I think that we're -- although this has been certainly a shock to the Northwest Territories, I think that we're in a really good position and have an opportunity in front of us to re-envision what these centres become and what adult learning looks like in communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the Minister for that. And she kind of answered a little of my last question which would be has the department now reached out to, certainly in the areas where the Indigenous governments are very much involved in adult learning, have their own programs running through, and has the department now kind of looked to -- and I know the department works with Indigenous governments to expand that given that there's likely going to be a gap here that needs to be filled. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in multiple instances, the department of education hasn't even had to pick up the phone. As soon as the media articles hit the online waves there, the phone started ringing. My phone certainly did and as well as the department as well as Aurora College. So once we have clarity as to kind of what the landscape looks like, then would be the opportune time to start making phone calls and being able to actually have concrete conversations about how Aurora College intends to go forward so that we can have conversations based on known factors. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
