Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and this was work that was done collaboratively between the department and Aurora College to look at where they were going to get their reductions from. As I mentioned, we are seeing very low graduation rates out of both programs and decided to go ahead with these reductions and the program. I know we have had full debates on this, both here in Committee of the Whole as well as on the floor, and this is where we had that healthy discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I expect the debate will continue both here and in the House. This reduction around, I guess, around $3 million give or take, did the college decide to do this again because it looked internally and wanted to find efficiencies within and did this in an effort to streamlines its own operations so it provides better service to its students, or was this a decision that came through a mandate letter to identify reductions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and as I mentioned back in September we did meet with the Aurora College with a reduction target. They did some work in collaboration with our departments, and these programs were the ones that were identified. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I will take it from the Minister it was more or less a Sophie's Choice situation with the college board of directors. These programs, I think, are very beloved in the regions where they operate and are seen as opportunities for the students and Northerners who want to take these programs to better themselves, better their lives, and better their communities. So I would hope that we find ways to streamline and improve programs rather than to end them.

Finally, as I frequently do promote the opportunities that our other partners provide, is there any plan to support the continued growth of Dechinta and College nordique apart from funding but through legislative and policy work to help them leverage funding and endowments from third-party sources that they can bring into their own operations? I will remind the Minister that Dechinta had brought in $500,000 from the federal government to offer programming to Northerners. So what is the department doing to support those efforts to leverage more funds and bring more opportunities to Northerners through Dechinta and College nordique? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and we are currently working on an overarching post-secondary legislation that would give the Dechinta and College nordique an opportunity to possibly seek those fundings, and we do provide letters of support as well when they are lobbying the federal government for their programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it is only fair to give the Minister the final word, so I will do that and yield the balance of my time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next we have Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to start with Aurora College here. When we look at Aurora College in the education program and social work program it provides immense value for the NWT residents, but it is also integral to NWT and Canada to the TRC recommendations and some of that. So I guess my first question coming to this is: were the cuts an evidence-based decision? So was there evidence of that besides the numbers? Did they look at it and look at all the valuations and all the recommendations and make an evidence-based decision? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and yes it was evidence based. We looked at the history of the enrolments in the two programs, as well as the graduation rates of the students who completed the program, and took into account the investment that we put into those two particular programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. So with this evidence-based decision making, what was the timeframe? Was it a year, two years, five years, or the length of this program that was from it starting to being where we are today?

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We looked at the history of the enrolment rates in the two programs, then we also looked at the graduation rates in the two programs as well. Over the last three years with the social work program we are graduating on average four graduates every year, and as I mentioned this year we are expecting to have three graduates come out of that program. With the Teacher Education Program, although the enrolment rates averaged decently, we were still only getting seven graduates out of the TEP program. We continue to support our students who want to go and seek education outside of territory, 33 in the education field who we are supporting right now outside of territory as well as 19 social work degree students. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So if I heard the Minister correctly, the last five years they have made this decision, so the tech program has been 47 years they have not looked at all these numbers and they have just focused on the last five. So again, did the college actually look at their promotion and their recruitment process out there to get students in this program? Was that part of the evidence-based decision making? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I am pretty sure the Aurora College does. I have seen them at career fairs. I have seen them promoting all their programs, not just the two that the Member is focusing on. We do have a lot of other programs within the Aurora College system, spread out among our three campuses, and I am pretty sure that Aurora College promotes them all equally. Thank you, Mr. Chair.