Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to talk today about summer student hiring. The last time we sat in this House in March, my colleagues and I urged the government to do something for the students who were returning home from university and would be looking for jobs.
We suggested that if they did not do something quickly, we might as well meet the students on the tarmac and turn them around and send them down south for jobs.
To his credit, Mr. Kakfwi responded by setting up a phone line and a dedicated person in the Department of the Executive who the students could contact for summer employment. Since that time, Mr. Speaker, students have been reporting back to me and letting me know exactly what they thought of the situation this summer. It appears it is not much different than it was when I was going to university.
Unfortunately, what they are saying is that we simply have a receptacle for resumes in the Department of the Executive, and if you actually wanted a job, you had to go out to the individual departments and meet with managers.
The kids are not naïve, Mr. Speaker, and they know that trying to go to the Department of the Executive for a job was not the answer. Unfortunately, internally, the Executive only needs to know about the student once he or she has been hired, so it is reporting back after the fact. I do not think this situation is acceptable.
When I went to school, it was about who you knew for getting summer student employment. I hope that is changing. I now understand that corporate human resources is setting up a review to look at summer student hiring. I hope that they will include students in this process and I hope it is successful.
I do want to commend the Premier for setting up this review, because obviously he sees the problems that we see with summer student hiring. I hope he will fix it quickly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause