Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the conversations I had early on about a polytechnic was that in Yellowknife, it doesn't necessarily need to be Aurora College. I think if you took Dechinta, the Mine Training Society, College Nordique, the Centre for Circumpolar Health, and the millions of dollars that Laurier and other universities spend here, and you put them all together, you would have a university without doing anything essentially, just, you know, co-locating groups who are already doing extensive research. So I just wonder if the Minister could update any conversations he's had with those other kind of partners about bringing them into the fold. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Premier.

ECE.

Minister Simpson.

Thank you. And I think the Member is greatly oversimplifying what a university is. It's more than just a collection of different research groups and educational facilities. There are quality standards that need to be met, minimums of research, and all of these different types of things. But I get what the Member is saying. There is a -- you know, we are seeing a robust post-secondary environment develop in the Northwest Territories, and the GNWT is supporting that not only through the transformation of the college but with the Post-secondary Education Act. And there is strong communication, especially between College Nordique, Aurora College, and Dechinta. They have an MOU. They work together. They have good relationships. And it hasn't always been that way. It took some effort. But I can say that there are solid relationships between those organizations. The GNWT also, you know, conducts research. It requires research to be done and not always through the college. So there's discussions about how we can strengthen that relationship as well. So, yes, all of that work is happening. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Johnson.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm glad to hear that, and I think, you know, perhaps sometimes, you know, some of these southern universities they come up and they do a bunch of work on the tundra or the ice caps, and we never see them. So I think that both through the university and perhaps the oversimplifying of putting them together, we can capture some of the economic benefits.

My other question, though, I wanted to ask about is programming. I know that the department has released essentially these -- the higher level areas of which the polytechnic will focus on. But I'm wondering when we will kind of get some specifics about new programs and what they're going to look like. And I guess I'll note if you ask the lawyers, they want a law school. If you ask the journalists, they want a journalism program. And if you ask the, you know, mining companies, they want a geologist or a geology program. So everyone out there has an opinion on what the university should be. But I think some hard decisions have to be made. And so I'm just wondering on what we expect and decisions on new programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister Simpson.

Thank you. And that is going to be an ongoing discussion. So the Member's right. People want the college to be everything to everyone. You know, I go around the territory and I talk to people, and they say we need more locally trained teachers. We need more locally trained RCMP officers. We need more locally trained pick your profession. Everything from furniture movers to doctors to anything you can think of people want those people trained in the Northwest Territories. And the fact is that at some point we have to rely on schools outside of the territory to do some of that training because we can't do everything for everyone.

There is of course the review of the social work and education programs that are, you know, essentially pretty close to being something that can be discussed publicly and it can be responded to by the college and the department. And so the work to -- you know, if those come back and in different forums where to implement things like that has to happen, the work to ensure that we have -- we're offering all of the trades that the college has traditionally offered and can continue to offer, the work to ensure that the programming we're offering now is robust. So there's a lot of work to be done with, you know, what we're doing and what has been done in the past. And when we talk about, you know, new innovative programs, we're still looking some years off in the future. We want to start developing our own degree programming. But that is a lot of work. I mean, the amount of work it really is I think a lot more than people anticipate. And so we need to focus on doing what we can and not stretching ourselves too thin. And that goes for everything in government. And the longer I'm here, the more I realize that. We really need to pare down what we're doing and focus, and the same is true for the college. So I'm sorry, it's a longwinded answer. And I don't know if I answered anything. So thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see here that we kind of changed the capital plan to be an overall facilities plan which, you know, is going to be very large looking over multiple years, and then I think the goal is to be able to take that and bring it to the federal government and hopefully they are going to give us just a whole lot of infrastructure money and we can build new campuses and new buildings across the territory.

My question is can the Minister speak to the -- in this planning that's being done, whether we are considering the need for more housing, both for student and faculty. I believe, you know, the Fort Smith is campus is long overdue for new housing. But, you know, the university of -- Yukon university as an example is about 6,000 students. You know, even if we get half as successful of what they're doing, you know, that would double the population of Fort Smith but we wouldn't be able to house the students. So I was just hoping the Minister could speak to, you know, whether we are prioritizing the need to essentially build more housing if we want to make this successful. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so what the facilities plan is -- you know, it's essentially a capital plan but it's where -- it's long-term. You need to look at all of the campuses as well as the community learning centres, and we want to make sure that we're starting from a place -- we want to make sure we have a plan from the get-go and that ensures -- we want to ensure everything is integrated, everything works together. And I actually just had my first meeting with the contractors who are -- have been going out and speaking with the communities and Indigenous governments and the college to do this work, and it was pretty exciting what they're coming back with. And, you know, much like the comments the Member had, I went -- I spoke at length about the need for housing. I know that we can -- sometimes we can't fill one position in a community because there's nowhere for someone to stay, and we don't want to set ourselves up for failure. We don't want to say in ten years, well we should have, you know, had more room on this campus for housing. So I've been driving that point home to the point where they're probably -- I'm sure they were tired of hearing it. But I take the Member's point because I've been, you know, in my portfolios, that issue is a live issue and it's holding up the growth of the territory. So yes, I'm well aware of that, and I'm pushing that. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Johnson.

Thank you. Minister Simpson.

Thank you. The question of how we're going to afford all this - it's a big one. And right now there -- from what I can tell, many aspects of the college are funded arbitrarily by the GNWT. There hasn't been a -- there's no formula by which we fund the college. And so one of the key steps that we are taking is developing a formula so we actually know how much things cost and we know how much we should be funding for programs, and we know how much we should be charging students for programs.

Another key aspect is increasing the student body, whether that is students from the territories, students from outside of the territory, or international students which are key to successful universities around Canada.

So those are the steps that we're going to have to take. And the government at some point will also have to ask itself how much do we want to spend. Is our labour shortage at the point where it's worth investing in -- in these programs and to what extent? And so that type of work has to be done. But, you know, if the Member wants to know exactly where I'm going to get this money or, you know, how we're going to pay for this, you know, that's all yet to be determined. But it's -- it is a commitment in the mandate to make sure that we advance this work. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Martselos.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was quiet for so long, I promised you I wasn't going to say anything. But, you know, it's -- I'm happy that my colleague here thinks that everything is going to be coming to Yellowknife again, but I'm sorry. The headquarters is going to be in Fort Smith. And the president will be located there. And, you know, we've already started the transition -- we have a lot of incredible staff at the college already in all three campuses. And building on all three campuses with the headquarters in Fort Smith is -- the one thing I want to mention is about the college facilities, of course Fort Smith has the old residential school complex that is a major problem, and I think you saw that when you came to Fort Smith, and it's -- you know, the -- there's a lot of people that would like to have that upgraded as one of the first steps in the capitol plan because you got to get rid of that old residential school.

I've been involved with the Aurora College for many years, from 1970 I think it was until -- it was about 40 years. And I remember when the students were -- like, there was lineups for 375 students at -- at all three meals every day, 365 days of the year, at the beginning what happened here is that there was -- you know, for the amount of population we have, we've got to decide where the main courses are going to be and all these things, because if you think you're going -- you have to look at the dollars, and you can't divide three courses into three different campuses because that doesn't work either. And that's what happened with that -- with the way the college went.

But you know, I'm very pleased to say that the people at the college are -- all the staff working there, including the administration -- I just want you to commit, Mr. Chair, for the Minister to commit that he would come to Fort Smith and meet with the mayor and council and meet with the staff at the college with the -- with the preliminary plans so that they all know where everything stands because I think -- I read everything but a lot of stuff I can't share because I'm limited, right. So it will be just nice to reenforce those. And you can do at this college here, and you could do it in Inuvik. But we have to have some discussion also with the communities that the main campuses are in. And with that, that's all I have to say. I'm just very happy that the headquarters is going to be in Fort Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chair

Thank you. Minister Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I've said that many times that we're not going to build a new headquarters, we have one, so why bother. However, I will say that we obviously need infrastructure in all the communities. In Yellowknife, you wouldn't know there was a university -- there was a college here. You know, it's -- you kind of have to know where it is to know that it even exists. And we have a real housing -- there's a real housing shortage here as well, and so we need to ensure that there's adequate facilities here. Of course, as the Member points out, Breynat Hall is one of our priorities for replacing and it's one of the -- you know, the big infrastructure projects that we have identified as being at the top of the list.

You know, in terms of the courses for the different campuses, you know, I hear many times that we need every program in every community and to some extent we do need to make education more accessible. We need it at people's doorsteps. But the Member's correct, we can't split every program between every campus and every campus is going to have to have its specialties. And we have to ensure that they are -- they are robust in their own rights.

And yeah, I will also commend the staff of the college. You know, early on, a lot of the planning was done by the GNWT for the transformation but the bulk of the work has now been taken over by the college, and college staff are driving the transformation and they are responsible now for the transformation. And you know, I know there's some really passionate committed people who are doing that work on top of the other work that they would normally be doing at the college. So this is above and beyond what they're doing. So I did make a trip to Fort Smith and unfortunately it was -- no one was working, it was the break. But I will be back at some point to speak to staff there. And I know that the president, even he conveyed that message to them as well, about their importance and the priorities we have. So thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Martselos. Ms. Cleveland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions in regards to housing and funding were asked and answered by my colleague so I won't ask them again. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any further questions?

Seeing no further questions, Committee, do you agree that you have concluded consideration of Minister's Statement 202-19(2) and Tabled Document 567-19(2), Annual Status Report - 2019-2023 Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories?