The Thebacha Leadership Council—which includes Fort Smith Mayor Dana Fergusson, Fort Smith Métis Council President Allan Heron, Salt River First Nation Chief Tony Heron, and Tthebatthi Denesuline Nation Chief Lorraine Macdonald—have issued a letter calling on Aurora College to stop centralizing its operations in Yellowknife. In the letter, the council accused the Government of the Northwest Territories and Aurora’s Board of Governors of taking steps that would weaken its campuses in Fort Smith and inuvik before the institution transitions into a polytechnic university. “If we want Aurora College to grow into a polytechnic university that reflects the North’s diversity
and spirit, it must remain anchored in the communities that built it,” writes the council. Aurora Board of Governors Chair Kenny Ruptash responded that the board’s “top priority is the success and well-being of our students and staff and all our decisions are grounded in that principle.”
