Page 66, Education, Culture and Employment. labour development and standards, operations expenditures summary, total activity $49,718,000. This is another summary with detail on pages 67. Questions. Mr. O'Reilly?

Thanks Mr. Chair. I just want to indulge the Minister. I think I may have asked this question yesterday, but I see that the contributions in particular, there's a line item here, literacy funding and there's a rather large amount of $2.3 million. Presumably this is some funding that the NWT Literacy Council would be able to access or maybe is accessing. Can the Minister confirm for me that the GNWT's not looking at making any reductions in funding to the NWT Literacy Council? Thanks, Mr. Chair. This might be project based, but if there's core funding being provided to the organization, is the GNWT actually looking at making any changes to its core funding? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.

Yes, we're not making any reductions to the Literacy Council. We do fund them up over $900,000, as stated yesterday. That does reflect a lot of programs throughout the Northwest Territories, but at this moment, no.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that because the council does great work and I'm pleased to hear that we're going to continue to support them in that work, so thanks again to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. I appreciate the comments and that's definitely a priority to increase our literacy rates throughout the Northwest Territories in working with the great work that the NWT Literacy Council does as well.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note on the detail page we've got the $33 million in college contributions. Does the department have a breakdown of what the cost per graduate is based on that level of funding? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.

Yes, we could get the costs. We don’t have that exact detail with us today, but we could look at our enrolment rates for all of our graduates within all the institutions that we fund and get that back to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just noted the Minister said, "all the institutions we fund." Is the $33 million here on the description line says, "Base funding for Aurora College. Includes funding for Aurora Research Institute." Does this funding include other post-secondary institutions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.

Yes, that's correct. It's all the Aurora College Institutes, but I was also referring to our learning centres as well.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.

I thank the Minister for that clarification. The inclusion of the ARI, or Aurora Research Institution, this funding line is somewhat confusing to me. What's the exact number out of this funding that goes to ARI? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's all included in the appropriation that we have before us. We could get the detail on what's given to ARI and provide it to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to confirm, that detail can't be provided today then? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.