Thank you, Mr. Minister. That question has been taken as notice. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question this afternoon is for the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. It is about the issue of apprenticeships and especially, Mr. Speaker, women in apprenticeship roles. I discovered, prompted by a question at a constituency meeting, that there are 302 registered apprentices in the NWT apprenticeship program. I understand that this is a dramatic increase and one that puts us among the top in Canada on a per capita basis.

However, Mr. Speaker, of these 302 apprentices only ten are women. Women are an untapped and I believe a valuable part of our workforce in the North. What is the government doing to encourage and support women entering trades and apprenticeships? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Handley.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, the department is very much aware of the imbalance in the apprenticeship programs between men and women. We have undertaken a number of initiatives to try to correct that. The main thing is to ensure that apprenticeships are advertised in the schools as being an alternative worth looking at. We are working, for example, with the Yellowknife Catholic schools in setting up a pre-trades facility. We have been working with the other high schools on the SNAP program, the Schools North Apprenticeship Program, the Training for Occupational Certification Program, the Ready to Work Program and another one called Bridges.

There are a number of initiatives we are undertaking to make students more aware of apprenticeships and of course, Mr. Speaker, the decision in the final analysis is up to the student as to which they choose. We have done a lot of work in the last couple of years to make sure that students in high school are familiar with the apprenticeships. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, the need to advertise and promote is valuable and it is a good one, but advocacy groups consistently point out that within our society and within our system there are barriers to women entering this kind of thing. Some of the most critical ones, for instance, are lack of day care and child care facilities on some work sites and the lack of washrooms or change rooms for female workers. What is the government doing, Mr. Speaker, to address the specific barriers that prevent women from participating in training and employment opportunities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, over the last two years I think we have had some good success, particularly with the bigger employers such as BHP, Diavik and some of the oil and gas firms in attracting more women into the apprenticeships and into the workforce on those sites. The workplace has changed considerably over the last few years where there are certainly facilities like change areas, washrooms and so on that are there for the convenience of all the workers. There has been a lot done with the employers, but we continue to advertise to attract women, we continue to work with the employers, and I have to say that many of them are very much on side in getting more women into the trades with us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned the private sector and I would like to ask if there are any protocols, agreements or understandings that we have as a government that would attract and include the private sector in building a place for more women in our apprenticeship program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, to my knowledge we do not have any targets or anything like that that we have set for women in trades. We do have agreements with larger employers on socio-economic agreements that require them to establish the trades. Beyond that, no, we have not set targets. I think we have a general understanding that we encourage all young people, all women, to go into trades and work well with the industry, but no we do not have targets. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Handley, and it has to do with a stretch of territorial highway that I have brought up in this House on a number of occasions over the last couple of years. It has to do with the stretch of highway from the bridge in Hay River to the West Channel.

At the time that I brought this up well over a year ago, probably two years ago now, that stretch of highway I had indicated was the second highest travelled piece of highway in the Northwest Territories. At the time the Minister committed to doing an engineering study on this road to see what we could do. I would like to ask the Minister where are we with that study? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, that engineering review is going on, I am told, and I will commit to having it completed this fall. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this particular stretch of highway that I talk about is travelled considerably by the public, not only by vehicles but constituents of mine and others that ride their bicycles and walk that stretch of highway. It is very narrow and there is a considerable safety factor with people walking and riding bicycles on this stretch of road. I was wondering, is the Minister aware of anything that we could do to improve the safety on this stretch of road, beyond a full rebuilding of this stretch of highway? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the engineering study will be done this fall. The Member did give me a ride up that road and we had a look at it this spring. I realize the condition it is in. I will certainly ask the department to have a look at what we may do in the short term for this summer, but there are major problems with that road and its tendency to settle. In terms of any major expenditures on it right now, I would prefer to wait until we have the engineering study to make that commitment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware that there are some stretches of highway or access roads that have been addressed in the House later than when I brought this stretch of highway up to see what we could do that have now shown up in capital projects and funding has already been identified to do something with, but this particular stretch of highway has had nothing. When can I expect to see some kind of cost figure or dollars addressed to do something with this stretch of highway? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I will speak with the Department of Transportation about this one right away, but I think that we will want to wait until we have the results of the engineering study before we pin any dollar amount to repair work on that road. Thank you.