Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 188-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2015-2016, continuing with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and, time permitting, Public Works and Services. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. We’ll commence with that after a brief break. Thank you.

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Thank you, committee. I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. I will go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty. Do you have witnesses to bring into the House?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Mr. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses to the House for the record?

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. To my left I have the deputy minister of ECE, Gabriela Eggenhofer; to my immediate right is Olin Lovely, assistant deputy minister of corporate services within ECE; and Dana Heide, associate deputy minister with ECE.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Committee, we are on page 65, education and culture, operations expenditure summary, $244.200 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to the department again. I have two areas of questioning regarding this activity summary. First is the culture and heritage main estimates of the $7.1 million. I noticed we did approve, a few pages back, the care and storage of Government of Nunavut museum and archive collection for a little over $1 million. Can I get an idea of what the cost is for the Prince of Wales Museum? Is it the $7.1 million and are we minus the revenues we are getting from Nunavut? So, is it costing us $6 million or is there another type of math that I should be looking at? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Museum had an agreement with Nunavut to store their archives. There has been a decrease in funding. I will get my deputy to elaborate more in detail. There are some agreements in place as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Deputy Minister Eggenhofer.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you. I do appreciate that. I appreciate the fact that this is not a long-term solution and I am pleased knowing that. I’m also pleased knowing that the Regular Members did play a key role years ago and making aware that there are archives being stored and there was no return. So we were appreciative of the fact that the government negotiates its restitution or at least some compensation for doing those activities.

That being said, the question of the math, what is the cost of operations of the NWT archives operation at the Prince of Wales? Again, we are seeing $7.1 million and we have revenue from the Nunavut government of over $1 million. Is this offsetting each other or is it costing us $7 million at the end of the day to operate that museum? Thank you.

Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess in essence, $7.1 million is what it’s costing us and we have an offset of a little over $1 million. So it’s costing the taxpayer about $6 million. If and when the Nunavut archives are removed from this facility, do we have enough artifacts that are also in storage to meet the needs or at least to put into exhibit or at least curator exhibits? Maybe just a brief description of how many of our archives, NWT archives, are also put to the side as a result, or is this just involving storage behind the scenes and not really being showcased as exhibits?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Eggenhofer.

Thank you, Ms. Eggenhofer. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it’s safe to say that at a point in time in the future that the museum itself will have a lot more space to deal with more of its own artifacts. Would there be the probability that we could also, with the new space, if and when that indeed comes to fruition, this new space can be used for artwork, local artists showcasing some of our unique culture that may not have had the opportunity to have that type of exposure? Is there a possibility of the department opening up the doors to more local artists to have an opportunity to show their wares?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. We are currently doing that already with some of the local artists from across the Northwest Territories. We want to showcase each of the regions as much as we possibly can in the hallway of the museum, and even go further. If we have more additional spaces then we’ll take advantage of that as well.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Dolynny.

That’s good to hear. I think we have a lot of talent here in the Northwest Territories and the space is going to be always at a premium within our four walls, and I’m very appreciative of the fact we’re going to open some doors to some of our incredibly talented artists.

I’d like to continue on with my questions on this activity but changing gears ever so slightly. This category contains compliance with the NWT Child Daycare Act as well as the child daycare standards or regulations. As the department will remember, this committee felt very passionately about wanting to put more money into daycare facilities last year. So much so that we wanted to put an extra $500,000 to augment existing daycare facilities. This committee felt that there was a need in the Northwest Territories. Of course, at that point in time it didn’t come to fruition through the process. That being said, I still want to highlight the fact that there is still a dire need in our communities to have those types of daycare supports. Many of us have talked to many of the key stakeholders in the communities around their family resource centres. These would be perfect vehicles. We already have a lot of infrastructure in place that is not being used 100 percent.

To the question of augmenting daycare facilities, what are the plans for this department to enhance that service and, if so, can it share some of those highlights for this upcoming budget year?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Deputy minister.

Thank you, Ms. Eggenhofer. Mr. Dolynny.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the deputy minister’s reply on that. To the subject of daycares, daycare operators in general and the communication and interaction with the department. There have been, I guess, some barriers to that in the past, as a Member trying to facilitate a better collaboration with our daycare providers. What is the department prepared to do in this upcoming year to reach out to daycare providers in the Northwest Territories to engage them in a fulsome discussion, talk about their issues, engage with them in terms of what’s best for them and best practices? Is there a plan of action that we can share with those of us who have daycare providers in our riding that our department is going to be there for them this year?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Lafferty.

Mr. Chair, most certainly. The daycare operators have been actively involved, giving us feedback and advice on these recommendations that were brought to our attention, and we want them to be involved along the way, as well, as part of our working partners. There is a communication plan, obviously, being drafted, as well, how can we best approach those stakeholders. We will share what we have on file, what we’ve developed with the standing committee so they can share with the operators, because we want them on board as well. If we are making changes and additions to what’s been highlighted

here as part of recommendations, we need to hear their perspective as well.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Next on my list I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m going to continue on with some questions about daycare from where Mr. Dolynny left off. With regard to the review, it’s going to be completed fairly soon, I gather. The end of the month, I think I heard the DM say. I asked some questions of the Minister, I can’t remember, within the last couple of weeks, in the House about consultation and what consultation was undertaken for this review. I asked the Minister if operators had been consulted, and I think he advised yes. Then I asked who those operators were. Can I get, from the Minister or the department, an indication of the names of some of the operators that were consulted, because from what I hear, they weren’t.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Deputy Minister Eggenhofer.

Thank you, deputy Minister. Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the deputy minister. I haven’t seen the response. If it’s been written, it hasn’t gotten to my desk yet, so I’ll look forward to that.

I wanted to ask a question, as well, with regard to the training that Aurora College does for early childhood educators. I’ve not managed to figure out exactly the length of the program and I guess the viability of people who are educated under that program if they transfer to another jurisdiction.

My first question would be: What is the length of the Early Childhood Educator Program that we deliver through Aurora College? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We’re just looking for detailed information on the actual delivery through Aurora College. There have been some programs in addition to what we’ve had before, where we had certification in early childhood programming. Through our southern institution partners, we’ve also been involved and engaged with developing diploma programming. That’s still in the early stages. Those are just some of the discussions that we’re currently having. We’re just trying to get the most detailed information from the college, what they currently deliver, and we can provide that information to the Members.

In the absence of that information, I’m not sure if this question will also be able to be answered. It’s my understanding that the program delivered by Aurora College doesn’t meet national standards for sure. I don’t know if it meets the standards in any other Canadian jurisdiction besides the NWT. If somebody is educated and receives an early childhood diploma or certificate, whatever it is that we produce through Aurora College, how portable is that certificate or that diploma when they go to another jurisdiction, Alberta or Ontario or Quebec for instance? How does our program stack up against other programs across the country, provincially but also nationally? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, obviously we want our Aurora College programming to be adaptable and comparable to southern institutions. That’s why it’s key to have key partners involved with delivering these core early childhood programs, even through our venues of Aurora College campuses and throughout the Northwest Territories. We’ve had this discussion. It was brought up in this House, certification diploma programming. That’s when we came out with the different initiatives on staff grant money and the scholarships. Based on scholarships, obviously we want to attract those individuals to come back to the North who are taking either diploma or degree programming in early childhood in southern institutions, for them to come back. We’re working very closely with the college to identify those key programs, whether they be certification or diploma. We want it to be recognized inter-provincially across Canada, even through my other portfolio as labour market. Even provincial jurisdictions are recognizing those other college programs as well.

We want to deliver a program that’s recognizable by other provincial jurisdictions. That’s our overall target. I will get my deputy to elaborate a bit more on the dual credit for early childhood studies. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Deputy Minister Eggenhofer.

Thank you, deputy minister. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to hear that there’s an uptake on that dual track or whatever course that you talked about. The Minister, in his response, totally used future tense. We want to be portable. We want to be equal. I’d like to know where we stand right now, whether our early childhood education certificate – I think it’s a certificate – whether it equates to any other certificate or diploma or degree elsewhere in the country. If it does not, when are we going to get to the status that the Minister referred to in the future? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Deputy Minister Eggenhofer.

Thank you, deputy minister. Next I have Mr. Bromley on the list.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll just follow up on a couple of things. On the last series of questions, I think the relevance is we are putting in place early childhood development programs knowing that we don’t have a lot of expertise here. The last time I looked, our graduates from ECE programs at Aurora College did not meet federal standards. It sounds like some work was done and we decided we can’t afford that. That’s unfortunate, but I do appreciate the effort to support, through scholarships, early childhood students who choose to pursue those qualifications through other routes. It would be nice to try and build that here when we can.

Also, on the ALBE programs, I want to reiterate the concerns that Ms. Bisaro had put forward last time we chatted on this page. I think had this been an Auditor General report, then last year they would have been all over this with a second report saying, “What the heck is going on here?” There’s been no response. In this case, it was our own Program Review Office that did the analysis in a sort of parallel mode to the Auditor General, and they said we have serious issues here. We don’t have a clue what’s going on, and four years later we don’t see things happening. It’s very, very disappointing.

Moving on to the culture and heritage division, I see that they oversee the Aboriginal Languages Secretariat. Is that a new role? How does that work? Typically this has been run by the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, our cultural programs, but is this new? How is this working? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is new from what we’ve heard. When we had the Aboriginal Languages Symposium we heard from various stakeholders and the general public that we need to do something about our language preservation and revitalization. They wanted us to have a system in place similar to the Languages Bureau that we had back in the 1990s. This is a similar set-up where we have an associate director in that position in the past, a director of official languages, and having a couple key staff within the museum to work very closely with the language groups. We also provide funding directly to the language groups to have a coordinator approach. This is a fairly new initiative that we’ve established. We’re at the preliminary stages but we want to make some changes that will benefit the communities. If I missed out on key points, maybe my deputy can elaborate more in detail.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Deputy minister.

Thank you, Ms. Eggenhofer. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that response. It’s good to learn a little bit about that. I guess I would just ask, are they physically in the museum and is that taking up space and is there a budget allocation to the museum to help support that, or is it more a virtual administration by the museum staff?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Ms. Eggenhofer.

Thank you, deputy minister. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the deputy minister for that response. My next question is in the area of early childhood development and learning. I mentioned I was very pleased to see the $1.24 million investment into this program. I wonder if I could get some specifics on what the intention is with these dollars and confirmation that these are new dollars. So, are these new dollars and where they’re going, and maybe I’ll just throw out another part to the question on the financial side. I don’t see this reflected in the budget. The budget, in fact, has gone down from the revised estimates for the current fiscal year, so I’m just wondering how this fits with that situation. Three parts to that question.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lovely.

Thank you for those details. Of course, I’m horrified to see more iPads out there. I know that’s going to hurt us more than it helps us. I still haven’t had an explanation. Was this reallocated from inside the early development and learning program? Have they taken the early development and learning program dollars and reallocated them to early development and learning programs?

When the Minister highlighted this in his opening remarks, this budget proposes an investment of $1.24 million. These dollars, in fact, were proposed and implemented several years ago. Is that correct?

Just moving on to education operations and development, let’s see if I can get through this smoke and mirrors here too. Just on student achievement, obviously, the slight rise. I think the deputy minister had it right. One data point does not make a trend. What other monitoring do we do on student achievement and do we have other sources of information other than the EDI?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Eggenhofer.

Thank you, deputy minister. Next on my list I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to follow through on the early childhood but I’ll leave that, I think. No, I have to ask the question again. The certificate that we are currently issuing through Aurora College for early childhood educators, how portable is that to other jurisdictions within Canada?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I believe my deputy answered that, where through our partner from the southern institution it is an accredited program that’s transferrable to other jurisdictions across Canada. Dealing with universities from southern institutions, they are recognized from other provincial jurisdictions as well. Once we deliver that program here in the Northwest Territories, through our affiliated university partners, they are recognized in other places as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m really confused. This is a one-year course, I think, or less. I’m not sure. It may be recognized as being part of a course in the South, but can I get a certificate here in the NWT, go to a daycare or an early childhood facility in Alberta, for instance, in Edmonton, and be accepted as a fully trained early childhood educator and meet the requirements of an Alberta certification to be an early childhood educator? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Deputy minister.

Thanks to the deputy minister. I appreciate that things are not always equal

between one jurisdiction and the other, but I guess I would have thought that if we are putting on a course, we are certifying people and we are certifying them against the Saskatchewan standard, we would know how that measures up in other places. I would think that would be something that we should know as a department.

I want to change course here and ask a question about junior kindergarten funding. I have struggled to get… I don’t know if I’m asking the question incorrectly or whatever, but I’m trying to find out in terms of junior kindergarten funding, whether or not the plan that was outlined by the Premier last fall is still going to go ahead. That was a three-year plan for funding junior kindergarten. Year one was certain funds deleted from education authorities’ budgets. Year two, some more funds from certain education authorities’ budgets. Some got it back if they had JK. Then, year three, the same thing all over again.

In year one education authorities had some funds removed. JK was put in place in 22 or 23 communities. We have now put a stop to that. In school year ‘15-16, I am presuming that we will have, from what the Minister told us a few days ago, 18 or 19 schools providing junior kindergarten. My question is whether or not there is any reduction to education authority budgets to fund junior kindergarten for the ‘15-16 school year. Thank you.

I’m really struggling with this. If we take Yellowknife Education District No. 1, for instance, I believe it was $450,000 that they had their budget reduced by last year, and you’re now telling me that they’re going to again get a reduction in the ‘15-16 school year. We’re not increasing the JK Program. The money that was collected from the reductions in the education authorities for the

first year of implementation of junior kindergarten, the ‘14-15 school year, that money you already have. It’s in your base now because you’re not giving it out to the education authorities. So why is it that the education authorities have to be reduced again? There’s no additional cost to JK in the ‘15- 16 year. Why are we charging the education authority, so to speak, more money when there’s presumably no bigger cost? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi,Mr. Chair. Again, when the decision was made October 30, 2014, it was decided that we would continue with rolling out of junior kindergarten in 19 communities, based on the feedback that we received, and 18 the following year, not to proceed with the second and third phases and to continue with re-profiled funds from education councils. That was the decision that we went with.

Last year, 2014-15, it cost us approximately $1.8 million. In 2015-16 it will be approximately $1.3 million. That was the decision that was made by our government to move forward. That is what we’re doing, unless my ADM has a bit of detailed information. By all means, Mr. Lovely can answer that.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Ms. Bisaro.

Maybe I need it to be written down. I don’t understand. I don’t know how to try again.

I understand that education authorities are funded by pupils. In the 2014-15 year they were funded by pupils and then they were reduced $400,000. Are you telling me that they’re going to funded to the max by pupils in ‘15-16 and again be reduced by $400,000? Except for enrollment, is it going to be an equal amount of funding in ‘14-15 for the education authorities as it will be in ‘15-16? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Next I have on my list is Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m going to take a break from junior kindergarten. I’ll let the department take a rest.

Mr. Chair, I know the Minister is deeply passionate about Aboriginal language, especially getting Aboriginal language programming in the communities. He spoke very passionately last week, actually this week on CKLB. I myself have been equally passionate about trying to aid an organization that has been saddled with a number of old debts and has been dealing with aging infrastructure, aging transmitters and, quite frankly, very stagnant in Heritage Canada funding and also funding from the GNWT, but to a lesser degree, through our community broadcasting grants.

The Minister indicated that there has been some recent activity in the last week or so with respect to the Native Communications Society and its executive director. I’m asking, at this time, if the Minister can provide some clarity as to where this radio station stands, and will we expect to potentially hear this radio come back on the air in some form or fashion in the very near future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. When I spoke about it last week, I did indicate that I had met with the chair of the NCS that looks after CKLB. It was made clear that obviously both he and I want CKLB back online because it is the voice of the North.

My department has been contributing, for a number of years now, our portion of $202,000. We’ll continue to do that. That’s our commitment. Obviously, through the federal government there is approximately $464,000 that goes to the CKLB. There have been some challenges, obviously, on the reporting mechanism.

I did meet with Shelly Glover, as I indicated last week. This is very important that we need to resolve this issue, once and for all, how to best deal with the next step. The next step, I’m hoping that the federal Minister will be receptive to us taking the funding over from the federal government so we can work directly with NCS and CKLB. That’s where it’s at right now.

As the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we will continue to deliver our

contribution. I believe the chair has stated that they’re in the process of discussing amongst the board to see if we could offer some sort of CKLB broadcasting to some degree. Probably not full- fledged at this point, but those are discussions that they are currently having.

We’ve been in constant contact with them and we will continue to do so. Mahsi.

I’m encouraged by what I’m hearing from the Minister. I strongly know he is committed and passionate about wanting to get this back on the air, and I’m pleased to hear that the funding model might come under the one-roof model which would be administered through the GNWT.

But there are still some key areas of operational challenges that CKLB is still facing. The first one is the ongoing debt that this organization has been saddled with for so long. This debt is an albatross around its neck which prevents it from getting to the next level as a business entity.

What opportunities are there for this organization to deal with that debt moving forward?

When I met with CKLB and the NCS chair, I offered, from my department, a financial accountant to deal with their bookkeeping challenges, their debt load that we’re aware of. So, the offer is on the table with the board chair and also to deal with the board members. It is at their discretion if they want to take advantage of that, but we offered that. We are offering as much support as we possibly can, as a department, to the organization because we want them to be back up and running. That’s what we’re offering at this point. Mahsi.

I’m encouraged to hear that we’re providing that financial management support, and hopefully CKLB can see that as reaching out by this government and I strongly encourage it to take advantage of it.

That being said, the so-called 600-some thousand dollars of programming dollars isn’t enough to keep the doors open per se. I mean, that’s just a smidgen of the amount that’s required to pay wages, operational costs and everything. One of huge undertakings that CKLB is facing today, and has faced for probably over 10 or 15 years, is its community transmitters are in dire need of replacement. As I referenced once, not that long ago, I refer to them as a Timex watch in a digital age, and I meant that. Because we have to not only look at providing some funding, we have to look at how we can help with upgrades or at least open doors to investment dollars or investors who come forward to help bring those much needed dollars to make those upgrades to electronics and equipment. So, to the question, knowing full well that this is another hurdle in the success of this radio station,

what is the government prepared to do, or doing, to look at this dated equipment? Even if you throw money at this, this is a freight train. If you don’t deal with this equipment in due course, this organization is going to be facing the same problem.

So, to the question of aged equipment, what is this government prepared to do or are doing currently? Thank you.

Madam Chair, since we’ve been in discussion with CKLB, capital infrastructure has been brought to our attention on numerous occasions. Obviously the federal government plays a key part in this.

My department, obviously, provided support. So the organization can submit a contribution proposal to CanNor. We’re providing support at that level, even as far as developing a business case proposal to be submitted to CanNor. That’s what my department is offering, as much support to deal with those matters at the federal level. We’re behind CKLB when we’re speaking to the federal government. When I met with Shelly Glover, Minister responsible for Canadian Heritage, in January, that was the same message I reiterated, that the capital is a challenge to CKLB, so she is fully aware of it. The CanNor is her counterpart, Leona Aglukkaq. We’ve been dealing with those Ministers as well. Mahsi, Madam Chair.

All I know is that as of July 31, 2014, programming ceased. There are just a minimal amount of updates to the website and some sponsorship messaging that continues to go on this radio station.

When will the department, in conjunction… It sounds like we’re involved with the federal department, as well, as well as NCS itself. At what point in time will we be able to see something publicly come forward with a plan with a timeline and with an investing model so that the public can be reassured, and our Aboriginal stakeholders and our communities will be reassured that we’re going to see this radio station back on the air in its rightful place? Thank you.

Those are questions that I had with the board chair. What kind of resources do they need to be back up and running? Obviously, he needs to sit down with his board and highlight those key areas of what it would require to establish CKLB online again. At the end of the day, it’s the federal government that’s the process we have to work with, but we’re doing what we can as a department while we’re waiting for the federal government to push that forward.

So, I met with the board chair and also with the board to decide on the next steps. Again, financial accountant, we offered that, we offered proposal writing as well. So we’re doing the best we can to

support NCS and CKLB and I told the board chair that I’d like to meet with him again as a follow-up. So there’s that constant contact that we’ve established. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Page 65, education and culture, operations expenditure summary, $244.200 million. Next on the list I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks to my colleague for that reprieve. I’d like to get back into it just for one moment to see if I can penetrate the finances, which I’m sure are my shortcomings, not the Ministers.

Just to follow up on the last response with regard to the board funding, I understand that the reduction would be less this coming year than in the current one. Does the thing return to zero every year, sort of zero-based funding? In other words, it’s not cumulative and the funding reduction will actually be less this year or this coming year than last from the original amount at the beginning of this fiscal year. Am I understanding that correctly, if I said it at all clearly? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Mr. Bromley.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess the significant thing to me is that the starting place, the amount per student doesn’t change each year. So they start over again with a clean slate. So I appreciate that explanation. I think I’m getting there. I’m starting to get there, I think, according to the Minister’s staff.

I just had a question on the education renewal. I heard in a response yesterday that the education renewal includes a number of initiatives, which are one or two-year pilots, and I heard that many education renewal initiatives are one or two-year pilots. Can I get an idea of what those pilots are? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty

Mahsi, Madam Chair. Part of the pilots that I referred to before, there are a couple of initiatives that we’re undertaking. Elders in school and also resiliency programming. We wanted to test pilot that into some of the small, isolated communities. One of them, obviously, is Ndilo, and supporting self- regulation programming through specialized equipment.

So those are just a couple of initiatives that are on the go. I’m sure there will be others as well. As we’ve done in the past with the family resource initiative that we’ve undertaken and building on that, working on health and social services, those are just of some of the areas that we’ve initiated with our department. There’s also e-learning through the Beaufort-Delta. We’ve expanded that into other communities, as well, based on the success of the Beaufort-Delta. Now we’re expanding to other isolated communities as well. Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister for those examples. I assume we would be seeing an evaluation of those. Unlike the junior kindergarten pilots, we would actually see an evaluation of those before deciding to make them operational. Thank you.

Mahsi. Most definitely. There will be evaluations. We’re currently in the process of developing MEA accountability on monitoring, evaluating and accountability on all initiatives that are before us because we want to monitor them and we want to evaluate them because we’re accountable to deliver that. So of those initiatives, there will be evaluation processes as well. Mahsi.

Thank you to the Minister for that. I’ll look forward to those. I’d like to just move to Aurora College now. That’s a big figure there, adult and post-secondary education, $37 million. I know $33 million or $34 million is for Aurora College.

I’m trying to understand how it is that Aurora College has now developed an ongoing and running surplus of $9 million. I’m trying to read the annual reports. It looks like they’ve overspent in a number of years. As an arm’s length they get granted more money and then go and spend all of that and it builds up as surplus and now it’s running at about $9 million. Am I understanding correctly how that process occurs at in fact Aurora College? Because their annual report says it’s running about a $9 million surplus. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lovely.

That’s good. Thank you. Just how they got there, was I right in that interpretation? They’ve been overspending and then being granted extra to cover that. I’d appreciate any understanding on how they get there, and for that matter, where is the final accounting for the capital so that I can understand exactly what’s going on here? Thank you.