Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker,

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed. The motion is carried. Bill 16 has had first reading. Item 17, first reading of bills. Item 18, second reading of bills. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried. Bill 17 has had second reading and accordingly the bill stands referred to a committee.

-- Applause

Item 18, second reading of bills. Item 19, consideration in committee of the whole of bills and other matters. Tabled Document 63-14(3), with Mr. Lafferty in the chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will proceed with the program as you have laid it out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to bringing in witnesses, Mr. Chair, I will ask to do so if we get into areas of technical questions that I may not be able to reply to. I will do my best to answer most questions. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we in the Northwest Territories are living in a time of unprecedented economic opportunity. Exploration and development in the non-renewable resource sector will move us toward economic self-reliance, while at the same time contributing to the economic wealth of Canada.

Thousands of jobs will potentially be created over the next few years. More than 1,000 jobs are expected to be created in connection with Mackenzie Delta oil and gas activity this year alone. Our studies indicate 3,000 Northerners are currently seeking employment. Our challenge, Mr. Chairman, is to ensure that these Northerners have the skills to fill the jobs.

This year the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is investing over $500,000 on community-based, entry-level training and human resource development, money that was approved by the Assembly in the budget last spring. Safety training, heavy equipment operators' courses and an innovative mobile welding program are among the initiatives that are taking place this winter. Over the next three years, we hope to fund longer term training programs. Enhanced skills will give Northerners greater opportunity to access the longer term, higher paying, skilled jobs available in the oil and gas and mining sectors.

This investment is part of the four-year training plan called a Human Resource Plan Related to Non-Renewable Resources in the Northwest Territories, which aims at preparing Northerners to take advantage of the thousands of development-related jobs that will be created in the next few years.

Our training plan is, in turn, a component of the NWT's Non-Renewable Resource Strategy. To take maximum advantage of the economic opportunities in this sector, the government has challenged the Government of Canada to invest $235 million.

I have personally presented the training component of this strategy to Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart. While her reception was enthusiastic, I have yet to receive a final response to my request. I hope to have further contact with the federal Minister responsible after the election.

Mr. Chairman, this Human Resource Development Plan will ensure NWT residents reap long-term benefits from non-renewable resource development benefits that will continue to pay dividends well into the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have had the opportunity to review the document. However, I want to note for the record that there was no actual formal briefing for any of the committees to look at. I made some notes from this document. From what I can gather, generally speaking, this plan provides a description for the potential effects of resource development on employment opportunities in the North. It also gives unemployment information on each of the regions.

It outlines, from what I can pick up here, that there are five different areas preparing Northerners for careers in non-renewable resource sectors; facilitating career development and human resource planning in the sector; number three would be increasing support training and development of opportunities of the sector; number four, encouraging youth to finish high school; number five, monitor and assessment. Those are the five different areas I have been able to pick out.

I have a number of questions. The central question is how effective will the plan be at achieving its objectives? Another question is where will the money come from? A lot of this plan is based on receiving dollars for the non-renewable strategy that we have yet to get an answer on. It does not state in here what the plans are for the Government of the Northwest Territories. What plan do they have if the federal government does not deliver additional funds...setting itself clear targets that could be clearly linked to the proposed programming? I did not see any clearly stated targets.

The plan talks about potentials, contributions and this will make an evaluation of a somewhat descriptive exercise with no clear benchmarks. How many long-term jobs does the department intend to create? How many temporary jobs during the construction phase does the department intend to create? This plan does not say that. It is not clear. The closest thing to targets I have seen is on pages 32 and 33 where the following figures were given. It states that there is a potential for up to 2,000 jobs for non-renewable resource development.

It says that developing a skilled workforce and promoting maximum employment will contribute to over 500 Northerners benefiting from training and employment programs annually. It also states that 600 individuals receive career development assistance and there is also a projected decrease in the unemployment rate of up to 50 percent in high activity areas.

On page 15 of the plan, it estimates that 837 ongoing jobs will be created by non-renewable resource development. It also estimates that an average of 2,500 individuals could be employed per year during construction phase with a peak employment involving as many as 4,000.

The plan also states on page 13, that there are 3,170 unemployed workforce persons in the Northwest Territories. If we took the total budget of this plan of $12.68 million and divided it by the number of unemployed, the total labour force of 3,170, we come out with a number of $4,000 per person. I do not imagine we will be planning to train everybody that is unemployed. This plan intends to spend $3.195 million annually on all aspects of its operations, including administration and planning. The $12.68 million is proposed as expenditures over four years. This plan indicates that $1.6 million will be spent annually on industry specific training. Again, where does this money come from? If we did some math and we took the $1.6 million, divided by the 500 Northerners benefiting from training and employment programs annually, that equals even less. It comes to $3,200 annually for training. Will this accomplish the objectives of the department?

Page 29 states that this funding would be used for a combination of apprenticeship and occupational trades program, as well as a combination of short-term training and on-the-job training subsidies. Is this plan adequately funded for the targets that have been set?

The success of this program will depend on the extent that it complements other initiatives. For example, the Aboriginal Training Fund, employers, industry, et cetera. Some of these are called "just-in-time training initiatives". I wonder how many things have been done just in time, by the government?

We have to see how this plan...it does not spell out how we are going to interact with other groups. We need to know that. A concern that comes as a result of this plan is when they talk about regional disparities. This is an important issue for the Deh Cho. I am concerned. What happens to the region when nothing is happening? Will there still be funds available? Will the same amount of funds be available to the Beaufort Delta where there is an estimated half billion dollars of work to be done over the next five years? As for the Deh Cho, there is very little happening. Will the department be concentrating on just giving information to the regions such as Deh Cho when there is really nothing going on at the time?

The report talks about worker mobility initiatives to address regional disparities. What does this mean in practice, to the communities of Hay River Reserve, Fort Providence, and Kakisa? I really question whether there is fairness across the board. Mr. Chairman, I have asked a number of questions here and I would like to give an opportunity for the Minister to respond.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There were a number of questions that were raised but generally I think the Member is concerned about number one, the funding requirements on an overall basis and where we will obtain funding from.

This particular plan that has been put forward, Mr. Chairman, was developed over a period of time. It was used to support the Non-Renewable Resource Strategy, and it is a component of that particular strategy. It identifies some areas that we feel need to be worked on for the federal government. It was never meant to be a complete package because the federal government needed generalities to look at funding areas.

As we are proceeding in this area, of course, we are looking at expanding and looking at flushing out the areas where there may be, as the Member has pointed out, questions arising. I should emphasize that we do have $500,000 that we have identified for use in this particular area to address training and employment issues related to resource development and that forms in the interim. We are proceeding with what we can.

The request was to the federal government for this funding. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, I have had an opportunity to present the paper to the Honourable Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada, who is one of the contacts. She is my contact in my particular area. She is very familiar with the request. We have not yet had a decision on that, but once the election is over, we may start readdressing it.

We may not stop at that, Mr. Chairman. Of course, we are interested in proceeding. This particular document starts to develop an approach to handling some of the activity that is going to take place in the oil and gas sector, as well as in the mining sector, or wherever in resource sector development. That is the purpose of having the document, so that it starts to identify the areas of interest.

The effect of the document is dependant upon more work to be done. When the Member speaks about what we hope to achieve out of this, well, we have set some general goals in this. We need to be more specific on an annual basis. This is a four-year plan. We need to be more specific with the dollars that we have and the future, for instance, the next half year, what can be accomplished.

That is what the Member spoke about in terms of targets. It is true that there are many individuals who are available for employment. As we know, they do need training. Some need basic training, some need perhaps more advanced training. Is it our intention that every individuals' needs will be addressed with this plan? We are trying to do our best with the amount of money identified to address the specific issues that may be out there. Will we be able to address employment for all 3,000 people? I certainly hope so, but we need to make an impact with all areas.

I have also been working with the oil companies, meeting with them to start identifying what their contribution area is, what can they do on their part. This is going to be a partnership situation. It will not be just our particular contribution here. What are the industries going to contribute here? How can the aboriginal groups contribute?

I think I have addressed the questions in generalities for the Member. As I say, if we need to get into specifics, I would be more than willing to call my officials in to address some of those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have a number of questions about the plan and the lack of clarity. I need clarity in some areas and I can maybe start out in a relatively general way.

On page 5 of 35 on your plan, which lays out the basic budget expenditures for the five years, can you tell me, since it is not clear, you are asking for a whole bunch of new money from the federal government. I am not clear what is being undertaken with existing funding, and which of these areas is dependant on new money.

If you took 2001-02 or even 2000-01, can you just walk down the list and tell us, which are currently underway, and which of these activities are dependant on new funding and are just there waiting for money? What are we doing right now, if you walk down 2000-01, for example?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The funding that we have available is where we are addressing our concerns, and this is additional funding, of course. We are addressing some areas, but not in a full-fledged fashion. This program is intended to be funded by the federal government if we can get the funding, and we do have, as I mentioned earlier, $500,000 that we have contributed towards the development that has taken place. We are doing that through investment in training in the communities.

We are funding some of the communities and in the college, we are doing some other heavy equipment training, welding, pre-trades, apprenticeship programs, all of that is part of our ongoing training.

We have signed an MOU with PITS, or Petroleum Industry Training System, out of Alberta. We are supporting community mobilization organization and we are contributing to such things as the oil and gas symposium. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just like the Minister to clarify. If we use 2000-01 as an example, there is a list of activities planned in major categories under planning, career development, industry-specific training, career-oriented training, evaluation and support. The big figure is $3,195,000 for this year. Are you telling me that this is just a strategy dependant on money? There is $500,000 separate from this, plus the college is doing their regular work, and their heavy equipment program is operating? Thus, in actual fact, there is not one dime in any of these columns at this point? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have to keep referring back to the fact that this was in support of the Non-Renewable Resource Strategy. It has not stopped us from proceeding with trying to address as many areas of concern as possible. This is a proposal that accompanies the Non-Renewable Resource Strategy, Mr. Chairman.

Could I just ask a question, since it is clear that there are figures requested. However, as one of my colleagues said, there is not one nickel in actual cash in this. Would the Minister elaborate?

I have a couple of questions on some of the areas. Could the Minister indicate, under item no. 4, where they talk about longer term college programs, in terms of career oriented training, it is $500,000 a year, totalling $2 million at the end of the program. What type of programs are envisioned in terms of longer-term college programs at $500,000 a year? Thank you.