Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The Member has raised this issue on a few occasions and we forwarded that to the college. The college, as you know, delivers these specific core programs that are needed, based on the assessment that they have. They usually do their research and their survey, their studies, interviewing students or community members, and based on that, if there is a high need for renewable energy program, then they would pursue it.

At the same time, it is with the college. As you know, there have been some changes within senior staff at the college. I have re-delivered that to the new president and the chair, as well, so I’m sure it’s on the radar and I will be addressing it again when we meet. We usually meet on a quarterly basis. I will address it again to find out the status of it and if they’re foreseeing when it will be delivered, if the program is going to be delivered. I don’t have that information on the status before me but I will provide that to the Members.

Thanks for the Minister’s commitment there. I know the Minister is aware, just from listening in the House, that there are many millions of dollars now just from the GNWT being spent in this area. It is a big project in Simpson, of course, but many other projects such as Diavik’s wind project and many community projects, and our new goal of getting 20 percent of all our thermal communities on solar or deriving their electricity from solar, biomass projects coming on stream quite commonly. Of course, the expertise is coming from the South. That’s the sad thing to me.

We’ve been talking about this for years, knowing that it’s coming, and it’s here and we have not been doing our work. I realize it’s Aurora College. We’re going to be talking about relationships with Aurora College and I will be participating in that discussion. It’s just kind of sad to me when we miss opportunities. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to get an update there.

Just on the Business Admin Program, the interest to pushing to three years. Apparently we are, I think something like 87 percent of our students are having to go south for their final year. There is a big interest in getting it offered locally. I know the Minister is working on that. Is there an update available on that and when we might expect that to be implemented? Maybe it wasn’t 87 percent. It was 87 percent that had families and so their challenges for moving south for the last year of the program were very big. Just to make sure I’m giving accurate numbers there, as far as I recall.

I agree with the Member and the students that brought that petition forward. There should be degree programming through business administration into our great campuses across the Northwest Territories. There is also the Social Work degree program that students wish to be delivered in the Northwest Territories. I just signed off a letter, I believe this morning, pertaining to that, that I would obviously like to deliver a Business Administration Degree Program. This has gone to the chair of the college Board of Governors. As soon as I hear and once we meet, then I can provide Members with the status.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask a question with regard to the Early Childhood Development Program. Earlier in the budget when we were talking about the early childhood development and the money that we are spending in the budget, there was a $50,000 amount mentioned for Aurora College for the Early Childhood Development Certification Program. I know we have one now but it’s not a program which, I gather, provides certification which is recognized across Canada once people are done with that diploma. Could I get an explanation from the Minister on two things? What was the $50,000 intended for? Was it used? Have we changed our program? Will we be starting a new program in the fall of 2013?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Ms. Eggenhofer.

Thanks to the deputy minister. I’m struggling to understand why we would offer a program that doesn’t really provide us with the qualified people that we are looking for to run our early childhood development programs, so I’ll leave that as a statement. Can I be advised when the decision will be made whether or not to go ahead with a higher quality program in the fall?

That’s good.

Committee, 10-37, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, Aurora College, funding allocation. Mr. Bromley.

Just one more follow-up on the early childhood development worker training at

Aurora College and where we might be going with that. Obviously, I think we want our people looking after our children, especially in early childhood where so much is happening, to be fully qualified, and of course, we would need to pay them as such. Now, I’ve heard concerns that we don’t want to train workers because we don’t want to be paying those salaries. This is obviously of great concern to me. I think probably everyone would agree our children are our number one resource here. Could I get the perspective of the department on that?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This is a concern to me as well. It has been brought up through the stakeholders and most specifically with the seniors as well, the elders that we brought in, that they want to have qualified individuals coming back to our communities and working for fair wages looking after our children, similar to teachers. Those are areas that we are looking at as we speak, and even through the Early Childhood Development Framework, it does consist of a lot of entities and it will capture the wages. It has been a concern for a number of years now, and it’s been brought up here in the House, but we are following through with that.

Thanks to the Minister. I wonder if the Minister would commit, just so we know what we’re talking about, if the Minister would commit to developing a briefing note, an information package on what we’re talking about here. If we were to upgrade all of our early childhood workers and their salaries, what would be the cost, in terms of the salaries, salary difference across the government for early childhood workers, just so we know what we’re dealing with and if we need to plan for it. I think that’s a good starting point. That would be great.

We can provide that. We have a lot of information. We have done our research, our homework, even across the Northwest Territories, how much the individuals are making. It does vary from region to region and the most isolated communities versus the larger centres, so we can provide it as an information package to the Members for their review.

Thanks to the Minister. Just to be clear, we would have both what we’re paying now and what we would be paying if these workers all met federal standards for early childhood workers so that we can compare. That’s probably what the Minister was saying, but I didn’t hear it exactly, so I just want to be sure we’re talking about the same thing.

I think we’re talking along the same line, so I agree.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Committee, we’re on 10-37, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, Aurora College funding allocation. Any questions?

Committee, 10-38 and 39, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, work performed on behalf of others. Any questions?

Committee, if I can get you to return to 10-7, Education, Culture and Employment, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $299.611 million. Does committee agree?