Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased that the Minister has made it clear that our government is driving the strategic plan for Aurora College. I do think that is problematic. I think that we need to decide if it is going to be a third-party organization that can decide its own priorities or if we are going to decide its priorities for them. So, I am going to ask the Minister, just clearly: is he willing to put a hold on cutting funding to Aurora College so they can preserve these two existing programs until such time as the strategic plan has been completed and has been considered by this House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Historically, we have had low graduation rates out of these two programs in particular. The social work program, for the investment that we do put in, we are getting about four graduates that do come out. Then, with the TEP program, for the amount of money that we are putting into that program, we are averaging about seven graduates a year who come out of that program. We feel that investments should be looked at for other programs that will meet other in-demand jobs, so we are going to continue with having these two programs in terms of reductions moving forward and working with Aurora College on that strategic plan that can redirect the work that they are doing so we do meet the in-demand jobs for northern employers and within the public service, as well.

Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the story of the out-migration of people from the small communities into large centres, it kind of reminded me of an old western movie that I used to watch, where there are abandoned buildings and there are tumbleweeds and there are dust bowls. My questions today is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. With that image in mind, what is the GNWT doing to help small communities survive as small towns and grow? Mahsi.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will take my colleague's comment and say there are no tumbleweeds in the territory. What is the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs doing to help small community governments? The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs really works with community governments to basically deal with their infrastructure. We provide funding so that they can have clean water, so that they can have waste facilities, so that they can have emergency planning, fire services. We also provide a component so that they can build capital planning and programs that actually support people to deal with sports, because we recognize that sports are key to keeping people engaged and to keeping children healthy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recently in the work of the Auditor General's report it highlighted this department does indeed work with small communities. My question is: how will MACA's response to the Auditor General's recent recommendations improve the outlook for small communities?

The Auditor General's report actually gave us 13 recommendation. A lot of them were talking about things like waste management, fire safety, and emergency planning. Some of it that pertains, maybe, to the honourable Members' question are around our accountability framework so that we can actually provide questions so that we make sure that community governments are providing the services they need within their communities, and we have some way of verifying them as well.

The other thing that might be applicable is for the designated authorities, of which there are nine within the territories. The recommendations were around working with the federal government, Indigenous and Northern Affairs I believe they are called, to actually work in partnership so we can better support the communities. We take their suggestions very seriously, and we actually have met with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada in December. We are looking at strengthening that partnership so that the provision of services to designated authorities will be stronger.

The Minister is in very good spirits today in terms of working together. We ask, on this side of the House, if the Minister could help us to work with the Department of ECE in terms of job creation. How is MACA working with other departments on initiatives to improve the opportunities for people living in our small communities such as education, job creation, and programs for youth? Would the Minister work with her colleague from ECE and ensure there is a clear focus in terms of a job creation initiative to save our small communities?

The Government of the Northwest Territories recognizes that we can't work in silos. We have two forms of committees. We have the deputy ministers who meet regularly for various committees, economic development, social causes, etc. We also have Ministers' committees, that we meet for the same economic development, social programs. I see jobs as economic development, but also taking care of people, which is a social program. We are trying to work really closely together across departments to provide the best services for people within the Northwest Territories. and specifically to help not only the bigger centres but the small communities.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I applaud the Minister for taking their leadership initiative and trying to engage other departments and trying to step away from working in silos. Has MACA considered ways it can help make life easier for people living in small communities so that they don't have to move away for jobs and also for educational reasons? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Municipal and Community Affairs does try to work with smaller communities as much as possible so that we can keep people in their communities. That is why we have a focus on sports and recreation. We also provide a lot of training so that people can operate their own, for example, water treatment centres. We offer training so that people can actually maintain them in their communities. We do a circuit rider program that will go into the communities and actually provide one-on-one support to those people as well. We are looking at our training mechanism so that we can provide, not only face-to-face, but online training so that people can access more support. We are always open to any suggestions from the Members on how we can better provide support services.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the Small Community Employment Fund. My questions are for the Minister of ECE. Mr. Speaker, while the program's budget has been increased, it sounds like we are spending money on developing a strategy on how to spend the money. Mr. Speaker, my first question to the Minister is: what specific portion of the program's new budget will be used to develop and implement the small community employment strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is planning to develop a small community employment strategy in 2017. As the Member noted, and as we have heard questions in the House, there have been concerns about how we roll out the program. It is a significant increase from the $1.25 million that we had in the two line items. Moving forward, obviously we are going to have to get feedback from small communities, work with the small communities to see what the challenges are, what barriers are in place, and how we can roll out some of this funding, as well as working with the committee to get their input and feedback. We heard a lot of that over the last couple of weeks. As you know, of that, $1.2 million that we currently had in the budget was never fully utilized, so we have to do a better job of letting community organizations, Aboriginal groups, employers out there in industry know that we want to use this program. We want our small communities to benefit from that. That is going to be all in the works with that strategy and how that fund is rolled out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My second question for the Minister is: what is the department's timeline for developing and implementing this strategy in order for it to be effective in 2017-18?

We have already started beginning that work on that Small Community and Employment Program. We have started a review of the guidelines itself. We want to have a goal, moving forward, of ensuring that the program is accessible, flexible, and is best positioned to support businesses and residents who live in small communities. We are hoping that funding will start flowing once this budget is passed, April 1, 2017. We do expect to have a strategy hopefully by the fall of 2017.

I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the new fiscal year is rapidly approaching. What specific actions will the department take under this program to ensure it is well promoted, fully subscribed, and creating jobs for our small communities for the duration of 2017-18?

Thank you, Mr. Chair -- Mr. Speaker. I am sorry. It was a long day yesterday in Committee of the Whole. We have already begun looking at and reviewing our guidelines. We are working with the departments on how community projects in other departments are implementing, how we can support that and also have some job creation moving forward. We are trying to find ways we can promote the program to our small communities, our Aboriginal government, industry, as well as our employers.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my final question for the Minister is: will this money be eligible to assist in specific projects related to each of the small communities across the NWT where it may involve more than one or two GNWT departments? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, as I mentioned, we are going to be working with the departments to identify community projects and initiatives as well as working with our Aboriginal governments, municipal governments, organizations in the small communities that might look at developing small project, so we can put this money to use, so we can get our residents the skills that they need to enter the workforce, the labour market, and help develop the skills and the training they need so that they can seek work throughout the Northwest Territories.