Mahsi cho, Mr. Chairman. I was happy to hear the Minister say that children and students are the cornerstone of the education system. I think they’re the cornerstone of our society, actually. I find that putting effort into the early childhood development is a very positive move for the small communities, no question about that. I think that it’s important. Even today in my Member’s statement I spoke of the need to support daycares and the need to support preschool and all of those types of programs that support the development of the children in their early years. I’m very pleased with that and I’m hoping that the department puts even more emphasis into early childhood development and more money into the program in the future.
I also think it’s important working with the adult and post-secondary education, but I think it’s a step in the right direction to start putting positions like student wellness coordinators and so on, just putting money into the programs and having the students go in there and run through the program and everything is good, but sometimes people need the additional support in order to get through these programs, get through all of the programs. Many of the programs that are offered at the college -- adult education, health reps, community wellness, early childhood development, the natural resource program, the social worker program -- all of those programs are very good for the economy of the North, very good for the economy of the small communities and so on. I think the higher rate of success we have at the adult and post-secondary education, the better opportunities and the better off the smaller communities would be.
Of course, as I indicated many times, if we see successes in the small communities then the whole North will benefit, because when we have pockets of very low employment in the Northwest Territories, then even in the areas where we have good employment, places like Yellowknife and Norman Wells and so on where the employment rates are high, it’s still affected. Those communities are still affected.
Just an example: if we had 80 percent employment in communities like Fort Providence, Fort Resolution, Lutselk'e, all of the regional centres and the capital will all benefit from that. People would be able to travel into communities, spend money in communities and so on. Teaching and educating and making sure that people are successful in the adult programs and post-secondary programs are important. All of those things that are not apparent in the classroom but are support for the students is excellent. So that is something that I was very happy to see.
The Apprenticeship and Employment Program, NWT Labour Force Development Framework, I think is again another step in the right direction. I feel that in the small communities we should have tradesmen. Either tradesmen or apprentices, and if we have to bring tradesmen in so that we have apprentices in all the small communities, in all the disciplines, so that in the future years we don’t have to bring people into the small communities to get the work done, we are able to run programs, government programs like, one example, if we had a couple of apprentice carpenters, we could run housing programs all year using the employment program, hiring people and having some people go through an apprenticeship that could remain on with them and some that are just labour. I recognize that, but in a way to where we could end up creating our own tradespeople in the small communities and have all of the work that is necessary in the small communities done by small community people. I think that this area here, employment development and apprenticeship, speaks to that and, of course, the department investing the almost $1 million to support the employment in small communities again speaks to that issue. All of those combined with any other programs that -- any other work I should say -- needs to be done in the small communities could be all run through this area utilizing labour programs, employment programs, apprenticeships and so on. I think that is about the extent of my comments, Mr. Chairman.
I guess just in closing, something that is not mentioned here but is important to my communities is somehow if this department is the lead, then I guess it could be the right lead in that it is creating some employment in small communities, some permanency, whether it be seasonal or not, but some permanency that provides income into the small communities. I’ll pull a number out of the air, $100,000 worth of income into one community. That is $100,000 less support, less income support, that type of thing, which is also the responsibility of this program going into that community. It turns people that are on the system and are being paid by the taxpayer to essentially, because there is no employment, into people who are contributing to the economy of the Northwest Territories. If we can have small communities as contributors into the economy, then we have done a lot.
I think that is what this government has to do. Just imagine that the small communities didn’t have employment rates of 40 percent but had, rather, employment rates of 65 percent. That would be phenomenal. That would be absolutely amazing and that is something that we could dream of in this government, but it is something that we could actually do. That is the thing, those things are actually achievable.
There is enough work in various areas, whether it is my favourite topic of fixing up elders’ homes or getting out there and cleaning up the land that has been, some of the sites that have been contaminated, and resource development or resource exploration, so be it, but there is enough work out there for people. There is the money to do it and this developing of some sort of employment program that targets employment rates, the lowest of the employment rates in the small communities, I think, is very important. It is something that can be done, actually, with very little effort, I think. The impact is significant. Five positions in a community that has a population of 70 would increase the employment rates by 10 to 15 percent easily, so that becomes significant.
Also, the career technical services getting back to the schools, I think that is essential. That is an essential element of K to12. I know that in Fort Resolution, for the first time in 20 years that school is going to see career technical services functional. I went into the school with the principal, looked at all the brand new equipment that was brought in, thanks to the support from the department, and I think that with teachers’ support, in order to get that machinery up and running and the rooms ready for use, it is going to be a major, major improvement just to the morale of the students in the Deninu School. The same thing is going to happen in Lutselk’e. The money is there, all they need is a building, so it is my job to work with the government and the local district authority to get a building to put the career technical services equipment in play and the students in Lutselk’e will also benefit from that program. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.