Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the only thing that I find surprising is that money is allocated for one purpose and used for another. That doesn't seem to be sound business practice, even for an arm's-length organization. I am wondering why that is. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, we provide that money to Aurora College as a contribution and to use as they see fit. They have to provide us an annual report on what they have done with that, but to date, we have never been so prescriptive for the GNWT to say, "You will provide this program, that program, this program, that program." That has always been the autonomy of the post-secondary education.

I am open to feedback if committee thinks that I should be directing the college on what we are doing, but I do think that having that autonomy is the right way to move within our post-secondary education and all education systems. What is the use of decentralizing if we are going to prescribe, "This is you will do with every single cent?" The whole purpose is to actually have the people in the regions or in Aurora College to be able to define how they use their funding to meet their best needs as they deem fit. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I realize that the decision to cut the programs was not made by this Minister, but I find the conversation of autonomy somewhat galling. The college was directed to cut those programs, and they did that. While I appreciate the Minister championing the independence and integrity of Aurora College, the fact is that they have been taking orders from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for a long time, and we have several studies that show that that is the case. I guess I am still trying to reconcile, "They are a fully autonomous organization," with the evidence that we have that is to the contrary. I realize that there is a lot of this that needs to be worked out in governance, but let me just say that I am a big fan of budgeting where you call the rent "the rent," you call the utilities "the utilities." You don't call the Social Work Program "implementation of a polytechnic university"; you call it what it is. I leave those comments with the Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I am not a big fan of doing budgeting, either. That is not based on some kind of research, calling the utilities, checking what the enrolments were, checking what the needs are. I am going to make the assumption that Aurora College has done that all themselves. We give them the money as a contribution agreement. They provide their budget and then their annual reports as they deem fit. That has been a luxury. The government response says that we are only going to work with them for a couple of years, and the whole focus is to get them independent, because that is a big critique, that we are too entrenched in them. That is why I have committed to working with them and not doing the implementation plan before I hired the right person. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. We need to get a clock at that witness table there. Next, we have Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize to my colleagues here for being late. I think the understanding is well-received on the airplane electrical problems of yesterday. Anyways, I am here, and I am not sure if it fits this detail here, but if I can be allowed a little bit of flexibility here on my question about resource availability for funding programs or funding for the education system for the Sahtu region on review and efficiencies.

When I look at some of the concerning numbers of our youth's graduation rate, last year, in two of the five communities, there were zero graduates, and looking at the last five years, from kindergarten to 12, we are looking at about 50 percent, and the national average is about 70. The territorial average is around 55, 57. I think that this should issue a red flag and raise the question with the Sahtu Divisional Board of Education if there is funding available for this fiscal coming year on efficiency review on why our graduation rates aren't higher. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. This is not the correct section, but better late than never, Mr. McNeely. If the Minister is willing, I will allow the line of questioning. Minister.

Absolutely. I am allowing the MLA to ask me the question, and I will go to it remembering that he owes me. The graduation rates, yes, it is an issue. What are we doing about it? That is why we are bringing in the child and youth counsellors, to actually provide some mental health support. Mental health support isn't about just: are you okay? If you don't feel good about yourself, you're not going to stay in school, so that's part of the answer. We have the specialized teams that we're going to be sending out to work with people. The distance education in the smaller communities is working. We're expanding on that. Then, our new pathways, our career counsellors, are part of that as well, to try to actually get those students before they drop out.

However, I have to say that it takes a community to raise a child, and one of the biggest things that I'm also noticing is that students are not there. If they miss one day a week, by the end of the year, the amount of learning that they've missed is huge. We need to work with communities, as well. Education has to do our part, but we also need to work with communities, Aboriginal governments, municipal governments, parents, whatever community supports, and try to get kids to attend classes, and that should see some more positive results. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. McNeely.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for the reply here. I didn't hear an answer to my question of whether there are going to be resources available to do a review on why the declining numbers are for graduates. Are there resources available in this budget to do an operational review, and looking at the Education Act, as well? I'm under the impression that there's supposed to be an operational educational plan for each school, and I'm not too sure if that is done, so that could make up a part of the review to see if there's an operational plan. The question is: are there resources available to have a regional educational efficiency and review with the leadership of the Sahtu, say SSI, and the department getting together and review together the operation plans, the graduations rates, and why they're declining? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Every district or education body actually has to have an operational plan. It's not an operational plan that we do as Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Each educational body does their operational plan. We don't currently have money within our budget to actually do a regional review of the Sahtu. In fairness, if I did one, I'd have to do all of the regions because that's how I operate. I can speak to the education council, and if the council is willing, then I don't see any reason why they wouldn't meet with their leadership. If the council sees that as deemed necessary, then, by all means, I would support it, but we don't have extra funding within our budget to provide that to one region or all regions at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm glad to hear that the Minister is willing to look at it and work with the regional council. If the Minister could work with me as well, to include me as part of the deliberation toward the reviews? As I mentioned, I'm quite concerned about the graduation rates being zero in a couple of communities, and I'm not too sure this fiscal year, or this curricular year, what we're going to have. If we're trying to deliver a high rate of education, the numbers of zero should raise a red flag, and step back, and we should look at the review. I look forward to working with the Minister on a potential internal-resourced funded review. Thank you.

Thank you. Does the Minister care to comment?

Just a quick comment. Just to say that graduation rates, sometimes, it not just that the students don't graduate. In some of the smaller communities, there are actually no students in those higher grades for various reasons. We have a community with five students, period. Those are the realities of some of the schools that we're dealing with. It's not always because they just don't get through. Sometimes, the cohort of children aged is not at that time yet. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. McNeely.

Yes, Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think, in this case, we do have some children in there, looking back at some of the numbers here. Take Fort Good Hope, for example: there were zero graduates. The year before that, in 2017, there were four; in 2016, there were three; in 2015, there were two; and in 2014, there were six, so there are students out there. We just need to include that as part of the review and seeing why our students aren't graduating. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If the education authority council is willing to take part in that review, we will support him. Again, financially, we do not have the resources in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to do that in one region or all regions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.