Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The whole area of human resources development is one that is coming to the forefront very rapidly because of various factors.
The mineral industry provided opportunities several years ago, and we started to capitalize on that. We were able to position people into that particular industry. We have the oil and gas activity increasing in the Mackenzie Valley. It is becoming very evident that there is potential in that area. We have just completed an Oil and Gas Human Resources Development Plan. We are working with Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development as part of that particular program.
There is no doubt we have a resource of people here in the Northwest Territories. If we can educate them and bring them to a level, there are opportunities for our people. Up and down the valley, there are some 2,000 individuals that have indicated they would like to work and have no work. Many of those have a grade 9 or less education.
The challenge here is to see that we get literacy programs, education programs, work with industry, which is a very important element in this whole thing, to ensure people receive training to potentially fill many of these up-and-coming jobs.
We do track where the jobs are in the territory. As I say, we have done a human resources development plan for the oil and gas industry, but in other areas as well, when there are jobs, we track them and make people aware they are available. We make people in the high schools and colleges and the public aware of those particular programs.
We are working on a draft of a career development directive here in the Northwest Territories. We hope to have that completed. Some of the areas, we do provide work in is the labour force development. We have our post-secondary programs at Aurora College, which provides nursing and teacher education programs, pre-employment training in the mining. We have the labour market development agreement and we provide our student financial assistance and income support for people, but they have to make a productive choice which allows them to go into a study area. Thank you.