Thank you, Speaker-elect. I believe we should aspire to a university of the Northwest Territories. We have the Aurora College. I know Dechinta Bush College is also mentioned quite a bit. I know that Aurora College has programs that are affiliated with universities in the South, and even when I was in Tromso, one of the universities there, which is a regional university, was affiliated with Aurora College through the Arctic Research Centre.
Over a period of time, I think we have to have a plan and a vision for eventually becoming a university. One of the ways, one of the areas is the ability to access research money. Because of the designation of Aurora College, we are not able to access the significant amounts of research funds that are available to educational institutions in the South. If we are able to access those, we could expand very quickly. I know a lot of students who have to go south for university or post-secondary education have indicated they would prefer to start their early years of university in the North, and then as they finish their first, second, or third years, then they could move to the South to get their final years if they have to or if they don't deliver it here.
I'm saying it's not out of the question. We need to work towards it. We need a vision and a plan to get to a university of the Northwest Territories