Page 8-44, information item, work performed on behalf of others.

Page 8-45, information item, work performed on behalf of others, continued, $6.479 million. Mr. Braden.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. On page 8-45 is a little bit of detail on work performed on behalf of others, so these are contracts or services that we agree to deliver through our system, and one of them is on behalf of the Government of Canada. It's called the Millennium Scholarship Foundation Agreement, whereby the department administers awards made to post-secondary students through the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. We see $40,000 is budgeted to continue in the new year, Mr. Chairman, but I wanted to ask the Minister about the continuance of the Canada Millennium Scholarship. I understand it has been discontinued or cancelled by the new federal government, and I'm wondering how this is going to impact northern students through the delivery of this scholarship allowance, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to make it clear, this is the money we get to cover the administrative costs of delivering the scholarship on behalf of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation.

The issue of the foundation's funding coming to an end in the year 2008 has been something that has been up for discussion among Ministers of Education for some time now. At our meeting two weeks ago, Ministers agreed that we would send a joint letter, on behalf of all Ministers of Education from Canada, to the federal government encouraging them to recommit the funding for non-repayable scholarships to Canadian students. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Braden.

So all Education Ministers in Canada are appealing to the federal government to continue this program. It is expiring in April of 2008. How are we doing? What are the chances that, indeed, the federal government will continue to come around, Mr. Chairman, and if not, would this Department of Education look at filling in, or taking over, or helping out with the loss of this program if it's not restored, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Education Ministers are, at this point, confident that the federal government is sincere in the comments it's made, that it really strongly supports post-secondary and that it has a role to play in ensuring that Canadians have the opportunity to attend post-secondary studies. So from

that we're hoping that they will continue some kind of program.

There is not unanimous support among Education Ministers for this specific program. So the Ministers have agreed that the letter should say we would like to see Canada recommit to a program that ensures that Canadians have access to non-repayable funding, grants as issued by the foundation. But the mechanism by which they may be delivered, many provinces, such as Quebec and Alberta, the money flowed to them to be handed out through their system rather than going through a foundation. So there isn't a unanimous push for the foundation being there.

The position of the Northwest Territories is one that we want to see the money come to northern students, whether it's through a foundation or directly through a contribution that we get from Canada, that we provide their flag or recognition for them on the cheque when it goes, or on the statement that goes to the student. We're open to either approach. But we, like the rest of Canada, are at this point trusting that the federal government will follow through on its commitment, or its public statements to support post-secondary education.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm pleased to hear about the efforts to continue this. I know of a number of students in the NWT who have received and benefited from this. My own daughter was one of them, and it makes an enormous difference to a young person to be able to get some help this way. So I certainly endorse the efforts that the Minister has talked about and I look forward to seeing the federal government come back to the table on this one. That's all, Mr. Chairman.

We're on page 8-45, information item, work performed on behalf of others, continued, $6.479 million. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. Just briefly, Mr. Chairman, I want to raise an issue that I had talked to the Minister about but I would just like to put it on record here, and that has to do with the shortage of labour for employers in Yellowknife and I'm sure in other places in the Territories where there are a lot of activities happening. Especially the fast-food places, franchises that operate in Yellowknife. Not the highest paying job, but nevertheless I think the employers are making their best efforts to stay competitive and they are falling victims of a really heated market, and competing with places like Alberta where we often hear of employers giving incentives like buying I-pods or sending young people to programs after so many months of employment in order to attract young people to work in these places and to keep them there. There's a bit of that going on here in places like A&W, or Tim Horton's or Pizza Hut. I'm just saying all the names in general are really challenged to find people who could be fully employed to ensure that the operations can continue, especially during holiday times. I know that one of the businesses, the owners had to cancel pre-planned holidays because a lot of employees quit before holidays. They have a hard time finding people in the summertime, and a lot of them are resorting to using, I don't know, by word or mouth and informally, by previous visitors, they're using student visitors or university students from abroad who come to Canada on a yearly visa with a limited eligibility to work and make a little bit of money to help them with visiting and some of them make a stop in Yellowknife and work in these places.

I do appreciate, Mr. Chairman, that that is not exactly the jurisdiction of the NWT perhaps, but it's something the Minister is responsible for labour and I see here Labour Market Development Agreement. I realize it's to do with the Employment Insurance Act, but this is an issue that I would like the Minister to pay more attention to.

Another thing is, I was at a all-day meeting, I think Walk a Mile, Walk a Mile With Me or Walk a Mile in My Shoes. It was Walk a Mile. A conference where a lot of immigrants and the people who serve immigrants in our community were there. I know that ECE staff was there and there were lots and lots of questions and concerns being expressed there from people who are Canadian citizens but are new to Canada and none of them are really able to work in the fields that they're trained at. There was one lady who has, I think, a Masters degree in Engineering and the best job she could get in Yellowknife is working in an office. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that if you have skills and education that you can contribute, I think the government's...I think our government can do more to play our part in working with our federal counterparts to address that.

So, you know, the labour market as a whole, I'd like to ask the Minister what work he's doing to address the...I guess those are two separate questions, but maybe I could just give it to him to see if he could update the House as to what he's working on in those two files. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've asked the department to canvass employers in the Northwest Territories; not all employers, but to try to hit a cross-section to find out where there are labour shortages so we have a better idea of where those might be. I'm hoping that through conversations with some individual employers and with the chambers of commerce we'll get an indication of where there may be some need for us to look at more immigration.

We've also taken a look at what the Yukon does and they have a contract with the federal government to deliver more expanded immigration services than what we're doing right now. We're taking a look at their contract and exploring whether or not it may be wise for us to expand into that area. We're also working with the federal government to become more aware of some of the work that they're doing by having one of our people work with a committee in Alberta to gain an understanding of another area where we can expand into immigration.

I had hoped to meet with the federal Minister to talk about immigration. The meeting was scheduled for early January, but when the federal Cabinet shuffle took place and the Minister changed, that meeting got postponed and we have not yet been able to get it back on. So we are interested in following up on this. We think there may be some room for our government to expand in the area of immigration and I'm hoping to have some better answers within the next two months. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to be clear that I don't think...I'm not asking for our resources to be necessarily put toward attracting more immigrants. Although, being an immigrant myself, I think that they're Yellowknife and NWT's best kept secret and more in Canada should come here and find their opportunities. But I'm just talking about the ones that are here already. I knew of a case where a student who's here because her father works for one of the companies in the diamond industry, and in the southern jurisdictions immigration, well, student visa or temporary visa for people like her have been adapted for those students to work while they're studying here because they are foreign residents still and her dad is here to work for a temporary time. All she needed was a change in policy, I think, in Aurora College to make it possible for her to take one of their jobs on campus, because I think that's the limited opportunities that allow her to work.

Second thing is, there are a lot of people already here. We don't have to concentrate on attracting more people from other parts. That's the federal government's jurisdiction. But there are a lot of immigrants here in Yellowknife already who have education and who all qualify to do a lot of jobs that are available to us and they can't get their credentials. Just a lot of things that you need as a first-time immigrant to get into your society and become productive citizens and be able to offer everything that they have to offer. So I think this is more than just one labour situation issue. It involves students, professionals, there may be nurses and doctors and engineers who we desperately need in Yellowknife who could take on those jobs if they could only get through some of the red tape.

So I would like to encourage the Minister to look at the possibility of either taking on those services, also get involved with the federal government to push that agenda along, and I'd be happy to hear from him on any of the findings or results that he could report to us. I know our social programs agenda is really getting filled up with all the commitments he's made already, but I think I'll add that on the list of it. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd be happy to meet with the standing committee to talk about what we see as opportunities in the immigration field. Not that we're going to be recruiting; it is more to deal with employers who may need to, or there may be a niche in the market that needs to, be accommodated, or there may be people who want to join friends and family who have already moved to the Territories that we would like to be better accommodated than is happening right now.

The department was briefed last week on a process by which the federal government is hoping to improve the prior learning and recognition of credentials. That is an area that it would be very difficult for us to get into, because typically it's going to be one where, for instance, a doctor has to have passed the Canadian boards and that's a federal, or not a federal, but it's a Canadian standard, not one that we can sort of interfere in. But there may be some ways that the federal government can, through their process, help to ensure better access to foreign, paying professionals to get their credentials examined.

In terms of employment or in terms of employment for students, it's the similar process in the Northwest Territories. There is an issue, I understand, with the college's own rules only allowing Canadian citizens to be employed by the college. I believe they'll also take landed immigrants. It would be an issue where the college would have to take a look at their rules and make some changes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Next I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I want to ask the Minister on this page here about the reduction of the University and College Entrance Program for status Indians or for Inuit enrolment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

I was hoping nobody would notice that, Mr. Chairman. In fact, we have written to the federal government and advised them that we will not deliver that program. I guess the only reason that we can say that the figure is here is that we're hoping the federal government will come to its senses and agree that they should give us the money and allow us to administer it under our rules. But at this point, we are not prepared...If the rules don't change we're not prepared to deliver that program through our offices. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.