Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, sorry, I was confused by our procedures. Mr. Speaker, I too would like to ask just some clarifying points from the presentation that Aurora College gave to Members this morning.
For the physical assets of the community learning centres, the actual buildings and physical infrastructure that are present in the communities, what is the fate of that with the shuttering of all these facilities in a couple months? Thank you. What will be the fate?
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, for the facilities that are owned by the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Department of Infrastructure does have an asset disposal policy. While it is imperative that we follow that policy, I also feel that it is imperative that we also speak with communities to find out what their intent is as well, to make sure that we have an open conversation about those assets. We have had outreach from some communities indicating what they would like to use their local community learning centre for, and so continuing those conversations is paramount.
And then in addition to that, there are some facilities that are being used, for example, as classroom space, and so that will be very important that they continue to be that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so these -- we've heard that there's -- we've heard directly -- Members have heard directly from people working in some of these facilities that they're seeing clients, you know, there's some that are very productive. So is there a pathway that the Minister can take -- can keep these facilities going under a different mandate, keep the staff going, doing the work they're doing of offering programs, and then, you know, the ones that are less productive, maybe hand those over to the local authorities, whatever they may be. But, like, I think what Member -- what communities are concerned with is you have some of these places are working really effectively. They employ people. They see people. The Dettah, N'dilo facilities, a hundred people over -- or a hundred students and training them over 18 months. So is the Minister willing to take this on and bring these back under ECE? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that would be a pretty significant budgetary ask and, at the same time, a building is just a building without the staff that need to go along with it. So that is not a question that I have an answer to right here on the floor of the House, and I think certainly would have more information as more of these details get ironed out. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a fantastic solution which is the money that Aurora College that is still being granted to them, take that back and use it to fund these facilities. So will the Minister pursue an exploration with that and see how we can keep these -- the productive facilities that are training students, that are important to communities, that are employing local people who will not have jobs when they're gone, stay open. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, with some of the funding that Aurora College has, they intend to continue -- to pay out staff using their staff retention policy. Some of that funding is being shifted to their online version of the adult learning and basic education. And then some of that funding is going to support the development of their Bachelor of Education, their diploma of social work. They're working on their made-in-the North degree. They're working on -- they shared with this House programming for dental therapy up in Inuvik. And so there's a lot of programming that they're working on in order to offer that to students across the Northwest Territories. And so it's not funding that they are simply pocketing for better -- better use of that word but is certainly funding that they intend to reinvest in ensuring that Northerners have access to education. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Colleagues, we will take a brief break to give our translators an opportunity to take a break.
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