Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Northwest Territories we currently have -- so schools have access to arts and trades programming through career and technology study courses. As we transition to a BC curriculum, these will then be known as applied design and skilled technology courses. So just a name change there. And these, within the BC curriculum, are known as experiential hands-on programming, learning through design and creation, and really is able to pull on skills and concepts from traditional and Indigenous practices as well. But what it comes down to is the capacity of the schools and the interest of students as well to be able to offer this type of programming. But I want to say I'm very happy that we're having this conversation on the floor of the House today. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. Mr. Speaker, with the past success of these trade programs being in the school of the 1980s give the students the opportunity to get involved in a certain trade when they weren't academically ready to go to post-secondary institutions. So will the department commit to exploring these similar options to eliminate the social promoting of our students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary.

Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is related to a statement I gave a couple of weeks ago related to the importance of post-secondary education. Now that we've established our priority of having a strong economic foundation, I wanted to ask the Minister some questions about the college transition.

So first, can the Minister first describe to me the department's relationship with Aurora College now that the Aurora College board of governors has been reestablished? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, in the course of the last term we did a lot of work on legislation to do with Aurora College. So we had the Aurora College Act itself that was done. We did the Post-Secondary Education Act, and we also had the opportunity under the previous Ministers to reestablish the Aurora College board of governors. And in terms of my role within that, I provide as Minister responsible for post-secondary oversight of the NWT post-secondary system as a whole, and including holding post-secondary institutions accountable under the Aurora College Act itself and the Post-Secondary Education Act, and then there's also now, because Aurora College is arm's length and has its public board reinstituted, the board of governors is responsible for oversight of the operation matters to do with Aurora College and then Aurora College is responsible for the programming that occurs within its institution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I note that a new president has been appointed to the college, and I congratulate Ms. James on her appointment. Can the Minister tell me what role she or the department had in the recruitment process?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in short, none. And the slightly longer more informative answer in that is that under the Act, because Aurora College is arm's length, the board of governors oversees hiring of the president and the president reports directly to the board chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for the answer. The third question is how does the Minister provide direction to the college, and how is the college held accountable to the priorities set in the Legislative Assembly and the priorities of the funders of the college; how are they held accountable to the Minister and this Assembly? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not responsible for operations within the college itself, but I am responsible for the oversight and also the funding provided to the college. And I do have a few accountability tools that I can use in that role. So the first, of course, is regular discussions with the chairperson and regular check-ins, and I can state that we've already started those together. There's also the strategic mandate agreement, and the agreement sets out the operating parameters of the college itself and is developed by the college with input from ECE and with approval by myself. And then there's the accountability framework as well, which will be coming and implemented in the 2024-2025 school year. This framework is for all post-secondary education institutions, not just Aurora College. And the reporting required -- sorry, it will outline the reporting required by ECE every year and will help identify the financial stability of institutions and programs, whether or not they're operating effectively or not. So those are some of the tools, and some of those will be, of course, publicly reported to my colleagues in this House.

Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister agree to the board chair and president of Aurora College appearing in front of a standing committee should the committee make such a request? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. As the Aurora College is arm's length and it is its own institution, the chair would be able to be contacted by the committee and be invited to appear in front of committee. I think it would be a great idea for committee to form that relationship with the college and be able to understand the board of governors' vision and where they'd like to take the college. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier, who is also the Minister for Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Does the government keep any inventory of contracts for essential social services and housing that are delivered by non-profits in our communities?

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, there is no centralized collection of those. There is a number of departments and agencies with contracts and contributions with non-profits, but I can say that the -- as part of our homelessness strategy, A Way Home, the integrated services delivery team is tasked with compiling those into a central repository. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So that's great news. I'm also wondering does the government have a sense of how much turnover there is amongst the non-profits who are actually taking on these contracts for essential social services and housing? So another way (audio) same question might be are there lots of different NGOs available and willing to take on these contracts, or is it the same ones over and over again doing this year after year consistently? If that makes sense. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the government has relationships with the NGOs and so is aware of the turnover within NGOs and even just personally, you know, I'm aware of my constituency of the issues NGOs have in retaining staff. And so, yes, we are aware of those staffing turnovers.

To the Member's question about organizations and whether or not those same organizations are delivering services, I'm not sure what awareness the department has but I think they must -- they probably have a pretty good sense as well. They're the ones who are signing the contribution agreements. And I know from my own experience that there are only so many NGOs, especially outside of Yellowknife. There's actually very few NGOs. And so we do rely on those same NGOs year after year to continue to deliver services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, then, in dealing with these non-profits who have been providing the same basic social services in our communities year after year, often for decades, to what extent does the GNWT negotiate these contracts and the terms of reference for the funding contributions collaboratively with those non-profits? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many of those contracts are based on federal funding and so we have very limited abilities in those situations. When it's GNWT funding, there's a greater ability to collaborate. But I'll just take a guess that we could probably do more collaboration. I think we can always do more collaboration, and that's going to lead to more -- to better results and more satisfied organizations and people. So it is -- you know, I've been preaching about this for quite some time now, so I look forward to enhancing our collaboration with the NGOs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Yellowknife North.

So this is all great news. So my final question is, will the government commit to developing a policy on how such contracts will be developed collaboratively with stable multi-year funding attached for NGOs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.