Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we grind our way through the budget for 1997/98, I intend to become very focused on the material contained within that relating to the government. I want to just remind people of an issue, that we cannot ignore, that relates to the economy. The economy that we are all so worried about, not only in the west, but in the east.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is very important that as we look at the second year of the budget reduction plan, we have to continue to focus attention, as well, on another problem that we have to deal with. We are soon going to be the recipient of many more jobs than we have people for. I am talking about the jobs that are going to be coming to us in the resource sector, in the mining sector and, most recently I think with the upsurge of development, in the oil and gas sector up the valley.
The Minister's committee on mine training, I think, is a step in the right direction but there is a light there for us, a goal for us to strive for. That is to try and make sure that we get some training in place now, not just for the two mines of BHP and Kennecott who are now at the table and are to be commended for their commitment, but for all the other areas, like the east and like the petroleum industry, where the majority of the professional jobs will be brought in from the south.
I think it is a position that other jurisdictions would like to have and that is the fact that we are going to have more jobs than we have people to fill them. I think it is something that the Minister, this House and the Government Leader should be keeping in mind and pushing very hard with the industry, with education, in all the planning we do. It is a way to turn the focus away from the gloom and pessimism that now confronts us as we try to slog through this budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause