Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few general comments. I'd like to applaud the Department of ECE, I guess, for finally going above what Health and Social Services had before us. So I think education is very important amongst all our people in the Northwest Territories. I'd like to comment that it's good to see that under the Early Childhood Development Program that there's more money available coming out. I think it's a very important program, it's working very well. I know back in Tuktoyaktuk and also Ulukhaktok, I know that there are a lot of really good programs going there and I think we should continue to do that.
Mr. Chairman, I'd just like to make a quick comment in regard to the school programs in the communities. I think that we all know that in the smaller communities outside the big communities here that a lot of the communities lack trades, pre-employment trade programs because it's one thing that Yellowknife is very lucky to have the kimberlite program there in place and all these other places, Inuvik in the high school they have the welding shop and everything, but again, I think I've stressed it before that the small communities just lack these type of opportunities. It's good to know that the department has a mobile unit that goes to the communities, but that only happens in the wintertime when the ice road is open and you'd be lucky if you could stay in Tuktoyaktuk for a week or so just to offer some kind of a program. So I think it's really important that the smaller communities have the same opportunities as the larger centres because they're the ones that will be somewhere down the road trying to fill these jobs if the pipeline goes through or this other kind of stuff. So I think it's important that the department look into that to make sure that if they can offer a welding program in Tuk, fine. Let them have that opportunity.
I think I'd like to spend a bit of time here with regard to the Income Security Program. We all know it's a program that's required in most small communities because of the lack of employment availability, but I think that the department should really look into, you know, they call it productive choices as a program if people can have access to this, but again, there's just so many things that a small community just can't do in terms of productive choices. The Minister at one time said watching your young kids at home is a part of the program, but again, in the end I don't think when you talk about productive choices you're talking about choices where the people that are on income support can actually go out physically and be able to be independent somewhere down the road and if you lack any courses in the small communities, you're really limited. So I, for one, would like to see people somewhere down the road get out of income support, but like I say the small communities really don't have the necessary workforces in place because you're lacking so many jobs in the small communities. So we have to find other ways that we can assist these people because, you know, I respect the department for making this available to people that require the assistance, but again, at the same time, Mr. Chair, I think it's important that we branch out and get some of these younger people to find employment and then rely on income support as required, that's fine.
There's one other thing I'd like to touch on, Mr. Chair, just briefly and as we go through the main estimates, I'll probably have questions later but there's one other final thing I'd like to comment on, Mr. Chair. Even though we have Aurora College, Arctic College, these facilities down in Fort Smith, Inuvik, Yellowknife, I have spoken on this a number of times to the Members here. Why can't ECE consider that we have two big camps in Tuktoyaktuk that are really able to go...If we could use one of these camps, they can accommodate up to 200 people easily. They have classrooms in there. They have everything in there. If the department could consider using one of those camps as a training base for the Beaufort-Delta region, I think it will expand people having the opportunity for the trades that they need.
As I travelled to Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok, although they don't mind going to Inuvik, they would rather go to a smaller community the size of Tuktoyaktuk for further training. That will take their minds off other things and they can concentrate on their schooling. The people in these small communities are looking for alternatives other than Inuvik. That's one consideration I think the department should consider. It's big enough to house our heavy equipment operators. At one time...(inaudible)....They offered a power engineering program. That was done in one year. We were able to get a power engineering ticket in one year, which was amazing in terms of the training involved.
You could offer welding. There is no shortage of alternatives that the department can look at. I think it's important, Mr. Chairman, that the smaller communities have to have this opportunity to be able to tie into training programs that the department should at least expand into.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, I think it's important that consideration should be given to the small communities. It's good to see that the department will rely heavily on education. I think it's important, Mr. Chair.