Thank you to the Minister for her response. I appreciate that the Minister is feeling more positive about this and that we are beginning soon. I appreciate that. In news reports about the government's post-secondary strategic framework, the Minister referred to the idea of having a bricks-and-mortar campus as being, let's call it, old. Some people are concerned that that means she is backing away from the idea of a polytechnic institution. Can the Minister clarify or shed some light on what she intended?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement today I spoke about one of the most exciting things in the NWT's future. Of course, that is the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic university. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to ask the Minister: the post-secondary strategic framework refers to a strategic plan for Aurora College to be followed by an implementation plan for its transformation into a polytechnic university. Can the Minister tell us what the timeline is for these next important steps? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and welcome Rylund Johnson. Rylund is a Yellowknife North constituent and will be a fellow candidate in the upcoming election. Welcome. I also want to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, like you, to welcome friend and chief of Yellowknives Dene and re-elected, I believe, for a fourth term, Chief Ed Sangris. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the most exciting opportunities for the future in the NWT is the development of a polytechnic university. I am proud that we are taking steps towards making this a reality.

Earlier this week, the Minister released the Strategic Framework for Post-Secondary Education in the NWT. In that framework, I was happy to see the next steps include a strategic plan for Aurora College and an implementation plan for its transformation plan into a polytechnic university. It recognizes that an effective, sustainable institution will remain the central pillar of our post-secondary system.

Mr. Speaker, the world is changing in many ways, and a polytechnic institution is what we need to keep up. It will provide many opportunities for northerners in the growth of a knowledge economy and the development of a capable and versatile northern labour force.

It will support partnerships with other northern institutions, and create a hub for the creation and exchange of ideas among governments, industry, NGOs, and academia. It will reflect our traditional knowledge to create culturally relevant, academic, and applied learning. This will support our growth in culture and language, Indigenous governance, and land-based learning. It will help the NWT take its place at the forefront of academic, circumpolar research, and innovation. It will provide opportunities for our youth in a variety of streams geared to the needs of the growing northern economy. It will foster a culture of creativity, create new approaches to societal challenges, and create a vibrant conversation across the territory.

A polytechnic university will have many benefits for communities throughout the NWT. As a Yellowknife MLA, I believe that Yellowknife has many of the unique conditions that would allow it to support a polytechnic institution. Yellowknife can support the critical mass of a faculty, research, investment in students that will make a polytechnic institution thrive. It has human and civil infrastructure. It is the centre of all levels of government, and much of our business and industry.

Mr. Speaker, the attention of the world is increasingly on its circumpolar regions. A polytechnic university will help move the NWT into a leadership position, providing the tools we need to meet many of the demands facing us as we move into the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate everybody sharing their comments today. It just goes to show the importance of this bill. I want to not reiterate everybody's concerns, but I do want to say that, with well over 100 motions, I had the opportunity, as the chair, to observe the growth of this process and of this bill, from the time in which it was originally proposed, and I can tell you that, when we saw that originally, there was a lot of deep and dire concern from committee at that time.

There has been a willingness from the Minister and the department to come together with the committee on a few occasions to recognize that there was some serious and important work that needed to be done to get this bill to a place that it needed to be.

I also want to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to commend the many stakeholders that took part in getting this bill where it is today. Most important are our Indigenous governments and organizations and, of course, industry. I think their ability to be patient with us and to understand and have an understanding is very admirable and committee, I think, really, genuinely appreciates that.

I want to acknowledge my committee's frustration; they have shared that over the last number of days. As the chair, I have the opportunity to see the peaks and valleys of this bill as we have moved forward, but I want to also commend the committee for the tremendous effort that they have put into getting this bill to where it is and exposing those challenges that we've had, and digging down, and going into the depths of this, and never relenting, and continuing to pound forward. I mean, I think, clearly, at points in time we were ready to just throw our arms up in the air and kind of give up, but the proof is, when you sit here until 11:30 at night in a clause-by-clause, and again until after midnight the other day in Committee of the Whole, there is genuine effort that has been put into this bill.

I, Mr. Speaker, think that that's too much at risk to not support now. I think the work that we've done, that everybody has done, is to be commended, and it would be too risky to let all of that go to a future Assembly. So, Mr. Speaker, I will for sure be in support of the act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Lastly, I move that this committee recommends, to the extent it is possible before the dissolution of the 18^th Assembly and for the public record, that the government provide a response to these recommendations, even of a preliminary nature, that the committee may publicly disclose. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that for each legislative initiative, the Government of the Northwest Territories consider the need for the inclusion of preamble or purpose statement in the proposed bill and determine whether or not either is warranted, advising the standing committee of its decision and rationale at the legislative proposal stage. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories develop greater consistency in making information public, including looking at how to make the various public registries enacted by law consistent, coherent, and comprehensive. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. While we wouldn't necessarily recommend that committees in the future get a lot of legislation put toward them all at one time, what this particular experience did was allowed us the opportunity to make an observation that we maybe wouldn't have otherwise, as it relates to inconsistencies in some of the language, especially in some of these bills. Sometimes there was varying language, even from those departments that sponsored a number of the bills.

It's one thing to see inconsistency from one department to another, but sometimes, when we were on the road with three pieces of legislation from one department, even amongst those pieces you would see some inconsistencies. On occasion, what this would do is have some folks identify to us that what you're proposing, or what we see before us, is not consistent with other pieces of legislation that have already been passed and that are enacted.

Essentially what this is does, to make it short, is it allows us to ask the government on a go-forward basis to make sure that the terms and definitions are consistent. Thank you, Mr. Chair.