Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is a good discussion. I would like to see more of this sort of discussion so we can… This has been something that has been bubbling along for a while, but meanwhile the Yellowknife Campus has been festering with overuse. I appreciate Mr. Moses
bringing this to the table. I do agree with his point that we need to come up with a good vision of the role for each of the campuses. I think I have detected really good support. I personally very much support first-class facilities in our other campuses outside Yellowknife. We have put them in place there even to beyond capacity. We are trying to attract people to those campuses and that’s appropriate. I think I can justify expenditure of funds to make sure we have first-class facilities on those campuses even beyond capacity.
But at the same time, we are seeing an overuse of the very modest campus here in Yellowknife. The reality is that students want to come here, as we’ve seen with programs that we have tried to move out to those campuses and the programs have died out. They don’t get the enrolments so they stop being offered or return to Yellowknife.
One of the consequences, ultimately, is that we lose people from the Northwest Territories because students are choosing to go south. Some programs, if they are not offered in Yellowknife, and even if they are offered in other facilities, and even though the support is not the same, they are choosing to go south, and in doing so, they are getting captured in that system and they are not returning 100 percent. That, I think, is why I support Mr. Moses’ suggestion to come up with a good vision.
We haven’t been saying to people, forget about those campuses in Inuvik and Fort Smith and come to Yellowknife. We haven’t been saying that at all. It is the students who are saying that. I think we need to recognize that reality. In the meantime, though, we have known for years that we are over-capacity here and there have been all kinds of things bantered about. Maybe Mr. Moses’ suggestion of let’s come up with a good vision for the three campuses and recognize the realities and then we can work toward that.
I will be supporting this motion at the very minimum, in hopes that it would finesse that sort of examination and solid foundation and basis for moving forward. Thank you.