Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The private sector, by and large, are tremendous supporters of this program per force. They need to see the workers and this is one very good way to get the workers into the various fields like plumbing and carpentry and so on. One challenge is that in the smaller communities there doesn't tend to be a lot of employers who can take on apprentices. They may not have enough work for another full-time employee. That's one of the reasons that we think that there should be more interest in the Schools North Apprenticeship Program which gets somebody into the workforce on a half-time basis while they're still in high school. We also believe that for the GNWT to expand back into supporting apprentices is going to be important, because we have positions in some of those smaller communities that would allow us to train apprentices, as well, to expand the program out beyond the larger centres. The program is working very well in the larger centres; our challenge has been to expand it into the smaller communities so we're looking at ways in which we can do that. We think that through this review, by putting some money in for government to take on employees, or apprentices, we think that we are on track.
Charles Dent on Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 20th, 2007. See this statement in context.
Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 16: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 20th, 2007
Page 1050
See context to find out what was said next.