Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak on a topic which I know is on the minds of many Northerners. Aurora College.
When most of us were elected in 2015, we made post-secondary education and the future of the college a key campaign issue, so it was not a surprise that made its way into our mandate. Yet, after three years, we are no further ahead on post-secondary education and a renewed mandate for Aurora College than when we started. I, like many others, am concerned by the tone and shape this conversation has taken. We have seen a report published advising the GNWT of how best to move forward on this investment in the next generation of Northerners, and it seems to many that this investment has become a political football thrown back and forth for the benefit of politicians rather than for the benefit of students and residents of the Northwest Territories.
The decision-making process has been delayed again and again, and I assume that the Minister's much-anticipated response to this report will again hold off any decision by this legislative body until after the next election. This means that, with this existing process, the college and students cannot begin a plan for the prospect of expanding northern education until 2019 or 2020, at best, based on the rate the government has put into this project to date.
Mr. Speaker, let me be clear: the current focus of this government is not student-centred. Again, this has become a political hockey puck being passed around with seemingly no end. How can students and their parents in the NWT have confidence that this government has their best interests in mind?
At present, our talks seem to pit community against community, as opposed to trying to find a consensus of what is ultimately best for northern students. Students, regardless of the final location of the college, will need amenities, housing, social, educational; access to transport; technological solutions; and a well-rounded quality of campus life. These must be at the centre of our decision-making process, as opposed to what is most politically expedient for particular MLAs who put the interests of one community above others.
Young Northerners need to know that this government has their best interests in mind and that we are committed to putting their needs before the political calculations of individual Members. I hope we can, as a Legislative Assembly, find a meaningful consensus and allow shovels to get into the ground as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.