Thank you, Member from the Dehcho. Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this morning I had the opportunity to meet with three individuals from the Canadian Cancer Society, and I'd like to recognize Andrea Sealy, the CEO, Angeline Webb and Fernanda Martens. Welcome.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize my page who is here today from the district of Great Slave. That would be Oscar Mifflin. He is a student at Allain St-Cyr. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Member from Dehcho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize three pages I have from Kakisa School, Peyton Simba, Presley Simba, and Leah Simba; all from the Kakisa School. Welcome. Thank you.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery.

For those other special guests that are up in the audience there, welcome. Thank you very much for coming here. Welcome to your House, and we appreciate having visitors here. Thank you.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Returns to the Budget Address, Day 2 of 7. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that. And, as I said, I'd be nice, getting the chance for unanimous consent, so I'll be nice to this Cabinet.

Mr. Speaker, I want to know what this government's doing about funding the transition of the college to a polytech university, and that specifically goes to the Minister of education. Where is the money and how much is the money? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So in the life of transformation, Education, Culture and Employment has funded an Aurora College transformation team of eight public servants who helped do a lot of the work in conjunction with Aurora College getting ready for this transformation of which has three phases, and there are roughly 80 milestones in that project and 66 of those were completed by the transformation team. The federal government kicked in $8 million for transformation, and, in addition to that, this government also put in $1 million a year for approximately the last five years, specifically for transformation. And I know as well that Aurora College has been able to use their dollars for the Bachelor of Education program as well as the Bachelor of Social Work program towards transformation as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, where's the money to Aurora College specifically? They were before committee just over a week ago, and it sounds like they're self-funding the transition plan, and it would be nice to know that they were getting that money to do the work themselves, or is this strictly a paper exercise by the department of education, and they're going it alone? Please clarify. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, in addition to the dollars I've just said, the million dollars a year are what Aurora College is currently getting. And then in addition to that, they do have their operational funding dollars that they're able to redirect towards that as well, which is the dollars that they would normally use for the Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Social Work program that are currently not running. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister's talking about all of these, this and that, but the reality is the college itself says it's not being funded specifically for the transition. We can talk about the programming all we want but, that said, the transition policy going from the college to the polytech. Mr. Speaker, they're funding this out of their surplus. They have the staff doing this project and initiative, and the board is completely going ahead without the support of the department. So what is the department not understanding versus what the college is doing to make it into a polytech? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's other programs within the government that I think would really welcome a million dollars a year in order to run a transformation and to run a program. So currently, the Government of the Northwest Territories is giving $1.04 million to Aurora College. At this point, I have not had communication from the board of governors as to a requirement for additional dollars, but if they do provide me with that request, I would definitely sit down and talk to them about it.

The other piece of this is when you are at arm's length and you are working your way into a polytechnic, one of the exciting things is it really opens your doors as to where you can get some of that funding. And a lot of institutions across Canada source third party funding in order to bring in extra dollars to be able to do more and bring in extra students to be able to do more. So I think it's a really exciting time for the polytechnic and for Aurora College and through this transformation and that there's a lot of opportunity that sits before them. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the Minister to actually pick up the phone or send an e-mail to the college because they have a completely different view of how the transition is being supported.

Mr. Speaker, I guess maybe the only question, really, left of the day is will the Minister make that commitment to follow through so we can actually get a formalized commitment from this government in conjunction with the college that this is actually happening rather than these grandiose statements that aren't producing anything. So ultimately, will the Minister do that? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to say I have a very good working relationship with the board of governors' chair. I speak with him approximately twice a week. I spoke with him as well -- or I received an e-mail from him last night. I spoke with him last night again, carrying on with that twice a week timeline as well and following the meeting with SCEDE, or with the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, actually reached out and said this. And if there's something that you are looking for, I encourage you to put it in a letter from the board of governors and to send it over to me because I really want to maintain that positive working relationship, and I want to see this project through. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you. Members, I will allow the question but, folks, you got to remember that anticipating a matter that's on the orders today of consideration of this sitting. So budget is in the committee. So if you can maybe reword the question so that it's not about a budget, we're not negotiating on the floor, that would be greatly appreciated. Member from Great Slave.

So I guess my question is the proposed budget is saying that positions will be cut, and I'm wondering why that might be.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to clarify. The expansion of the midwifery service into Yellowknife has been proposed. Existing midwifery service in Fort Smith and Hay River are not affected. The health and social services system proposed this into Yellowknife but there has been years of recruitment and retention challenges in the Yellowknife midwifery area. Despite years of dedicated efforts, you know, advocacy, that we just -- there's just been a continuation of this. But I just want to make sure that, you know, the Members know, and the public know, in addition to this it's important to remember that the expansion of the midwifery service into Yellowknife is an enhancement to the existing birthing options that already exist. And, you know, I -- I'm here, I've travelled, you know, to Fort Resolution on the weekend and, you know, and I hear from the community members in the small community that they don't even have basic services. You know, so when we're talking about doing the work that we are doing in this House, we're trying to make sure that we're not duplicating service. And I understand, and I fully am behind Indigenous -- you know, the work with Indigenous midwifery, but what's going on right now, this is a decision that's, you know, put before us, and I'm continuing to put the efforts in to making sure that the midwifery program in Fort Smith and in Hay River is supported and we can get those programs so they're not shutting down. We just announced that Fort Smith being just opened again after being shut down. So this is very important that we can get these two communities functioning properly before we can even consider expanding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services.

Colleagues, the main estimates are on the order paper for later today in Committee of the Whole. As per the guidelines for oral questions in Rules 1.7 -- is that 1 or d -- d.7(6), the question must not anticipate a matter visited on order paper consideration at sitting. You will have the opportunity to ask those type of questions during budget -- during Committee of the Whole. I apologize to the Minister and to the Member. So Member from Great Slave.