Thank you. Minister Ootes.
Debates of Nov. 9th, 2000
This is page numbers 815 - 849 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was power.
Topics
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Jake Ootes Yellowknife Centre
Mr. Chairman, perhaps I should bring my officials in if we are going to get into details on the particular document, if that is suitable for Members.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
The Minister would like to bring in witnesses. What is the wish of the Committee?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
The Sergeant-at-Arms may bring in the witnesses. Will the Minister please introduce his witnesses?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Jake Ootes Yellowknife Centre
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With me are Mark Cleveland, the deputy minister of the department, and Leslie Allen, the assistant deputy minister of advanced education and careers.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was wondering as well, if I can get another minute or two because I got stuck in the line change here with the department and I hate to lose valuable time.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
I will be fair with you, Mr. Miltenberger.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Nothing less from you. Thank you. The question was, Mr. Minister, item 4, on page 5 of 35. Could you just give some examples? Should we be so lucky as to get the money, what kind of training is envisioned under the longer term college programs at $500,000 per year? Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Ootes.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Jake Ootes Yellowknife Centre
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will ask Mr. Cleveland to answer that question.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Cleveland.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Cleveland
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This category, as the Member points out, is for longer-term training which is intended to be training that takes a number of months. We are expecting with this funding that we would offer two courses per year.
The type of programming that we would expect would be activities such as technologies associated with the oil and gas industry. We would expect to offer them at the college facilities in the North. They would be specific to the needs of industry in the particular timeframe that they are being offered in. They may well change based on exploration versus operation. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the broad concerns I have is, of course, that there is no money here. If we do not get the money, time is passing us by and the focus in this plan seems to be, for the most part, on short-term jobs as opposed to the longer-term jobs once the pipeline construction is done, exploration is finished. The work will be over.
The question is, what are the plans to look at the more professional, longer-term, ongoing operational jobs, once the short-term construction and exploration phase is done? While it is important, we really want the white collar, the professional, technical jobs. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Ootes.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Jake Ootes Yellowknife Centre
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is anticipated. Sometimes it is felt that when a pipeline is built, that is the end of exploration work and development work. That is not necessarily true, Mr. Chairman. Just so Members are familiar with that because when a pipeline is built, there is a need for feedstock on an ongoing basis and it is quite substantial.
The example of Alberta was very evident in that. However, at the moment, there are pipeline facilities. There is more exploration. I anticipate that the exploration activity will heat up even more once a pipeline is built.
Now, with regard to going beyond the basic training, our interest, of course, is to address all areas of employment and to ensure that people have the opportunity to advance from middle management to senior management. That is part of the area that the Member identified on longer-term college training programs.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the latitude. I will just ask one final question at this point. There is also a reference to just-in-time entry-level training. This presumes good planning and the ability to move very quickly, as a government, with programs and resources once a need is identified.
I have been in government a long time. I have been in this Assembly for five years. I am very concerned that this ability, especially if it requires more than one department to provide this kind of coordinated, quick, efficient, effective, response, is not there.
I would appreciate some explanation as to what planning and coordination processes are going to be in place to allow this to happen. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you, Mr. Ootes.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Jake Ootes Yellowknife Centre
There is no doubt that the activity is happening very quickly and it is coming on to us very rapidly and we are well aware of that. There definitely is a need to address issues on our part, on everybody's part, as soon as we can.
We are anxious, naturally, to do that. Mr. Cleveland is just going to make reference to one of the regions where there is a ton of activity that we are starting to get involved in and how we are starting to address some of the concerns with the short-term, quick activity that is happening.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Mr. Cleveland.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Cleveland
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just briefly, this has been a concern of ours as well. What we have done as a department is to organize the funding so that it is allocated at the regional level and the regional staff, working cooperatively with industry and aboriginal groups, can make decisions and fund programs directly at the regional level.
There is the authority to make decisions quickly and my sense, at least at this point, is that staff are very acutely aware of the need to be responsive on a timely basis. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. General comments, Mr. Roland.