That is all. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Education, Culture and Employment, information item, education and culture, active positions. Any questions? There are none. Page 10-23, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, advanced education, operations expenditure summary, $46.568 million. Agreed? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a few brief questions here. I note that the division provides immigration supports through the Canada-NWT Agreement on Territorial Nominees. I just wonder what activity we had on that file and how many Canada-NWT Agreement territorial nominees we have had in the past 12 years or whatever measure the department has handy. I guess associated with that, do we monitor what areas these immigrants work in, if they are associated with a particular field? If so, I would be interested in that breakdown, as well, if that is handy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chair, up to May 2012, ECE has approved 43 nominee

applications in critical impact worker category and also 13 nominee applications in skilled worker category. Those are just some of the numbers that we have had to date. Maybe I will just get Ms. Iatridis to elaborate more because she is more focused in this area.

Ms. Iatridis.

Thank you, Ms. Iatridis. Mr. Bromley.

That’s very good to have those stats. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So these people have become residents of the Northwest Territories. I am wondering if we know where roughly, by region or something like that, if we have that sort of information and are monitoring that. Thank you.

I guess I would hope that we would be able to find out eventually. I would be interested in having that information reported back to committee, if that’s possible. Thanks for that information.

I know the Minister is aware that, over a number of years now, I and committee have been interested in Aurora College programs, as many people are, and particularly seeing programs developed in the area of Sustainable Communities Administrator Program and in the area of Renewable Energy Technician Program. I was wondering if I can get an update on those.

Just for efficiency of time, I also know that there is work to put a new or revised early childhood development worker program in place. I am not quite sure that I got the timing on when that’s going to be happening in a revised way.

Also associated with that, will we be graduating nationally people that meet at the national standard for qualifications for early childhood development workers? Thank you.

Thank you. Is that in terms of timing or whether they would be qualified on a national, meet the national standards for qualifications? Thank you.

I appreciate that information. Just as a follow-up to my other two on the Sustainable Communities Administrator Program and Renewable Energy Technician Program, if I can get an update on where we’re at on those two programs. Thank you.

That’s it for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll look forward to that update. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, advanced education, operations expenditures, $46.568 million. Does committee agree? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of questions here, and my first question has to do with Aurora College. I mentioned in my opening remarks that I have some concerns about the college. I talked a bit about ALBE and I think I’ve kind of covered my concerns in that area, but I do have some concerns, major concerns with the reorganization that the college seems to have undergone in the last little while, and as a result of that reorg it’s my understanding that it is a result of the reorg that we have a lot of people, long-term college staff who have left the employ of the college.

I guess I would like to first start by asking the Minister how often he reviews the college operations. What kind of oversight does he give to the college operations? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chair, I feel the same way as the Member does, especially when we’re hearing things from the perspective of those individuals. Concerns have been brought to our attention as well. We do have a quarterly meeting with the board chairs and the college chairperson is part of that discussion, and any concerns or issues are brought to our attention and this will definitely be one of the case subjects when I’m meeting with the Board of Governors in June, I believe June 18th or 19th in Inuvik. It is a concern to us, so this will

definitely be addressed at that time. We’ll be closely monitoring the events that are happening now until then, and we are getting a lot of concerns that are being brought to our attention that will be shared with the board chairs as well. Mahsi.

I’m glad to hear the Minister is concerned as well. I guess I would like to know if the Minister would agree to provide information to Regular Members after the meeting with the Board of Governors in June, whether it’s a verbal report or a briefing note of some sort, but I know that I certainly would be interested in knowing where things stand after that meeting. I imagine, and I’m pretty sure, that there are other Members, as well, who’ve heard the same concerns from their constituents. So if he could do that, that would be much appreciated.

I also wanted to ask about minimum wage. I think it belongs on this page in terms of employment, I think. We have had a couple of increases in our minimum wage and I know I’m grateful and I believe there’s a number of our residents who are, maybe not our businesses, but I think it’s a good thing in general. At the time that we last raised minimum wage, there was some talk about setting in place a mechanism for automatic increases to minimum wage based on something and that was going to be investigated. I believe that that investigation was started. I haven’t heard the results of it. So I’d like to ask the Minister, as well, whether or not the research that was required into an automatic increase to minimum wage has been done and, if not, when it would be done. So two questions there: a report on the board meeting and minimum wage increase. Thank you.

Through our department we’ve been considering the information that we’ve gathered, as the Member alluded to, from other jurisdictions and providing some options for consideration this year. There’s an options paper that will be discussed next week by deputy ministers. Ms. Iatridis is part of that discussion and she’s kind of the driving force on this. It will be considered at that time and then brought forward to Cabinet. Once that happens, then I’ll be sharing

that with the standing committees and the committee members. Mahsi.

To my other question about reporting on the meeting with the Board of Governors?