Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to talk about the portion of the Premier's statement, where he talked about impact benefit agreements. I would like to commend the Cabinet on the hard position that they had taken with the BHP people. I firmly believe that without that hard stance we would have never had the progress that was established between the BHP people and the aboriginal groups. It has been said that this was because the federal government said that there was only the sixty days, and that there had to be substantial progress, but I firmly believe that without the Cabinet's firm stance, that it would have gone ahead anyway, because the federal government would have used anything, and said it was substantial progress. I commend Cabinet for taking that stance. I know it was not easy to do so. In light of the fact that many people were afraid that the mine was not going to go through.
On the community empowerment issue, I think that people should remember there that it is an opportunity to create jobs as well in the communities, where there is a very high level of unemployment. There has been a lot of talk about job creation. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment earlier indicated that there are 1,700 jobs now in the mining industry with a potential for another 1,100 jobs in the next 10 years. Also, there is a potential for 1,800 jobs in the construction area, another 800 in the mine support businesses, and another 100 jobs in small businesses. That is all great, but what good does it do to have all those jobs if the majority of the people do not have the training or the education to take advantage of those jobs?
The Premier also indicated that we should now focus on three core priorities for the future. Two of those priorities are to improve economic conditions and to address social conditions. You cannot do that without improving the education of the people. You can, I guess, but the success of your programs will be severely hampered if the thousands of people out there with grade 9 and less remain at the same level. They are too low to get training, they are too low to get apprenticeships and it is just despair. Many people have also talked about suicide, unemployment and the rest that is all related to education.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to read a portion of a letter I have sent out to everybody which indicates how education is related to everything.
"For a number of years, the Legislative Assembly has stressed the need for education for all northern residents. Education has received a high profile and legislators have made repeated efforts to improve our system, both for youths and adults. For example, we have adopted the small school secondary program, implemented a new education act and dramatically expanded the roles of Aurora and Nunavut Arctic College.
As we enter the second year of our deficit management plan, I am becoming concerned about what we are doing in terms of education funding. So much of what we want to do is dependent on improving the education levels of northerners, but are we being penny-wise and pound foolish? We have talked about the need to invest in people. Is it just a slogan or can we find a way to ensure this happens so that there are long-term gains for all territorial residents?
The priorities we set in our Agenda for Change also depend on improving the education levels of northerners. We talk about a healthier, better educated and more self-reliant citizenry who have more access to more of the jobs they want and need. We talk about improving social conditions by improving social programs so they are directed to the root causes of individual and group needs in areas like education. We talk about improving economic conditions by enhancing the creation of jobs and maximizing the number of residents that fill them. We talk about empowering communities to make their own decisions. We also talk about working towards healthy communities and community-based problem solving by supporting a community wellness initiative."
Mr. Chairman, all these priorities are based on people having the education to take advantage of new and existing opportunities.
We also stressed the need to improve the employment of northerners in the public service. We have all said education is important to making that a reality. How can we worry about creating a representative government staff while we cut away at the educational supports that are necessary to allow northerners to take these jobs. We do not have to look any further than the many reports produced by departments over the years to see the link between education levels and the ability of northerners to take care of themselves and their children financially and emotionally.
Education is directly related to income levels. Income levels are directly related to the level of social problems. Since we have a much lower education level than the provinces, it is no surprise that we also have a correspondingly much higher rate of social problems.
Very recently we received from Nunavut the Unified Human Resources Development Strategy. There, again, it indicated that less than one third of the people with grade 8 or less have jobs. It also indicated that the Inuit labour force had 61 percent with grade 9 or less. In 1989, the NWT Labour Force Survey indicated that 44 percent of people with grade 8 or less were employed while people with a university degree, 95 percent of them were employed. One hundred percent of the Aboriginal population with a degree were employed. That shows the distinct link between education and a person's ability to participate in the labour force.
In our own Department of Education's work as well, coming from Aurora College Corporate Plan 1995-2000, it shows a clear link between education/employment opportunities and pay levels. This came out in 1994. It shows that people with grade 8 or less have only a 33 percent chance of getting a job and that they only make $13,000 a year. It also shows that if you have grade 9 to 11, you have about a 50/50 chance of getting a job, and you will make around $21,00 or less. Since 95 percent of Aboriginal children drop out in the Northwest Territories, that means that 95 percent of all our people that have dropped out of school are making $21,000 or less. We have a very, very young population. If you look at Aurora College's report, people with a university degree have a 93 percent chance of getting a job and will make close to $50,000 a year. If we take a closer look in 1996, there was a snapshot of the western NWT labour market. This showed that 29 percent of those with less than grade 9 have a job. This was this year -- only 29 percent -- while 91 percent of those with university degrees have jobs.
Everything is all related. Education is related to poverty, suicide and everything else. From the Canadian Fact Book on Poverty in 1989, it showed that the high school drop-out rate for children from poor families was 2.2 times the rate of other children. So if you are poor, your chances of dropping out is 2 times as high as someone else. If you look at children in care, that same report says that up to 75 percent, depending what part of the country you are from, come from low income families. The child mortality rate was twice as high for low income people. Poor people, if they have kids, that child is twice as likely to die as coming from a high income family.
Another thing related to mortality is drowning. That same report indicates that drowning is 3.4 times more common for boys from low income families. Every year we hear about so many people that drown and most of them are boys up here. This same report says that if you come from a low income family, you are almost 2 times as likely to have a psychiatric disorder. You are almost 2 times likely to do poorly in school and you are more than 2 times likely to behave distractively than if you came from a family with a higher income.
Mr. Chairman, it seems that our answer is clear. If you want to improve the suicide rates, you want to improve the drop-out rates, you want to take people off social assistance, you want to take them out of foster homes, you have to educate the people. Yet, we are doing less in the area of education.
We have just heard that the last time we were here the Minister of Education indicated that with this recent round of cuts to the school boards that we are going to have the highest student-teacher ratio. Not all of our communities have adult educators. I do not know what good all this talk about job creation is, if the people who need those jobs the most, do not have the proper education to take advantage of those jobs. Thank you.
--Applause.
