Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and you can't blame the Member. I talked about new jobs that are being created in Inuvik and the great things that will be happening there as part of the transformation. Transforming into a polytechnic university means making research a bigger part of the institution. As part of the transformation planning, part of the work is under way, including building research capacity. Increased research capacity will come with increasing staff and expanding facilities. The college is already hiring three chairs; I mentioned one of them yesterday, the Climate Change Adaptation Research Chair located in Inuvik, as well as a chair located in Fort Smith and one located in Yellowknife.

The institution will really evolve under the governance of the board, but we are already planning for Inuvik to be, really, the research centre of the post-secondary. It will be where the most research capacity is, given what's already there. The Western Arctic Research Centre out of Aurora Campus is a remarkable facility, and I am confident that it will continue to be expanded in terms of staff and facilities going forward. There are already plans in place to replace the warehouse facility at the Western Arctic Research Centre with something bigger that is going to attract more research partners.

We've already gained partial federal funding for this, and we are looking for the rest so that we can get this work under way. In addition, the college is also working on implementing a research services team that will be tasked with building research capacity, both inside the college and among other potential partners throughout the territory, such as Indigenous governments, communities, industry, and non-governmental organizations. That's going to be a way to bring research dollars into the territory, not just for the college, but for everyone. The research team is expected to bring several more positions in addition to the ones I've talked about to Inuvik, as well as Yellowknife and Fort Smith.