Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, I spoke about diamond evaluating and sorting plant and the fact that we have all heard this government say they are going to be innovative and they are willing to spend money to create jobs. Mr. Speaker, today I am going to speak about the start-up of a mining institute in the North, which, of course, involves this government being innovative, creative and spending money. Mr. Speaker, every year the Northwest Territories loses at least 150 jobs in the mining industry to the south, simply because our people are untrained to take the jobs of people leaving, turnover. We also understand that there is going to be approximately 600 permanent jobs created at the BHP mine and I would like to know what good are those jobs to us, if we do not have trained people to step into them. What good are those jobs if they go to southerners or newcomers to the North. We need a commitment from this government to spend real money on training, real money, Mr. Speaker, not piece-meal. Recently the Royal Commission came here to town, they confirmed that Aboriginal people are the least educated and the least trained people in Canada. They confirmed that aboriginal people, because of this also have the worst employment record in Canada. The Royal Commission says we need to turn our liabilities into assets. This means training people on social assistance, putting them to work instead of draining our coffers. What this needs, the Royal Commission says is a massive infusion of money, federally, territorially and provincially to training. Of course, this does not only mean Aboriginal people, we have a lot of other people out there who need training. The Mining Institute, Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Mr. Erasmus on The Need To Establish An NWT Mining Institute
In the Legislative Assembly on October 4th, 1996. See this statement in context.
The Need To Establish An NWT Mining Institute
Item 3: Members' Statements
October 3rd, 1996
Page 885
Erasmus
See context to find out what was said next.