Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister's strong commitments. Let's have more than words. Let's see action. Let's see dollar-for-dollar investment in this program. Every dollar he adds is going to dollars into our economy. Again, I will ask: will he commit to including that in a supplementary preparation before the end of this calendar year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The short answer is no. I told the Members that I would look into expanding this program, putting more money into it to the life of this Assembly, not in this budget.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Transportation on his statement that he gave earlier today. I was really pleased to see that caribou got an honourable mention in his statement on the Slave Geological Province access corridor. That wasn't there last time. In his statement, he says that the corridor has been identified: "It will provide greatest economic benefit to the region in the Northwest Territories." Can the Minister tell me whether this corridor will benefit caribou, specifically the Bathurst caribou herd? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is kind of a unique question. We have committed to working with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to get all the information so we can make a fair decision moving forward on this corridor for the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm glad to hear that. Is the Minister aware whether this corridor, that has already been planned by his department, actually goes through any critical habitat for the Bathurst caribou herd?

I believe that is already habitat of the Bathurst caribou range and probably other ranges of caribou from the Arctic coast.

I am glad that the Minister recognizes that this corridor will go through the range, the habitat of the Bathurst caribou, but he didn't actually answer my question about critical habitat, like water crossings, calving grounds, and so on, so maybe I will try a different angle here. The Grays Bay Road and Port Project, that the Minister mentioned in his statement here, would link up with our road, and it is all part of one big project now apparently. Is the Minister aware of whether the Grays Bay Road and Port Project would actually go through any critical habitat for the Bathurst caribou herd?

That is a Nunavut project. I am not the Minister of Transportation for Nunavut. I would have to check with the colleagues in Nunavut. As far as I am concerned, that is a Nunavut project, and I don't have any of that information.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I will help the Minister out here a little bit. How I can help him is that there is a map of the Grays Bay project and the road corridor on our side in my latest constituency newsletter. The Grays Bay Port and Road Project would actually go through the Bathurst caribou calving grounds, what is left of them. Our government has had this position where we have traditionally opposed any development in calving grounds, so is it a position of our government now that we would oppose this corridor that goes through the calving grounds of the Bathurst caribou herd? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have said, that is a Nunavut process. That is their decision to make. We are worried about our territory. I am worried about the Slave Geological Province and how we move it forward. We will continue to work with Environment and Natural Resources to get all the critical information for how we can propose this corridor to move forward.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I was asking some questions of the Education, Culture and Employment Minister. When we talked about the three cuts at the college, they are all lower-entry-level. Did the department or the college actually look at making some cuts at the upper end of the college? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment did work closely with Aurora College to identify reductions. For this upcoming budget, what they identified was the administration area as well as the programs that we have been discussing in the House. To my knowledge, I am not sure if they did look at the upper senior management when they were looking at reductions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Can the Minister commit to coming back to this House to say if the college actually looked at upper management?

Yes, I can get the department to get that information and share it with the Member.

I thank the Minister for his answer. When we look at the college from 1968 to 2008, we had 269 TEP graduates; 78 per cent of them were of Indigenous heritage. The Minister actually talked about 33 students going down South to attend school down in the southern part of Canada. Can the Minister provide a percentage of what Aboriginal students are attending school down South?

I don't have that specific information with me right now, but we can get that information, how many of our students who are Aboriginal attending education programs down south, and share it with the Member.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his commitment, and I am looking forward to that information. Mr. Speaker, when we looked at the cost analysis of making these cuts to the program -- and, if we cut this program, we are going to lose potential students out there who do not want to go down South -- did the department or the college actually do a real cost analysis of the economic effect of eliminating this valuable program to the territories and the town of Fort Smith? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.