Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with the Minister of Human Resources on summer student hiring and I’d like to continue with that.
Members are very concerned about the hiring of northern students returning to work in the NWT for the summer. Based on the return of questions yesterday, the Minister responsible for Human Resources indicated that the GNWT was committed to hiring 263 students; yet, to date there appears to be only about 146 students hired.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Human Resources is the gatekeeper for facilitating the hiring of students -- the Minister, as well as the Progressive Experience Program -- and maintain the student employment database. My question for the Minister is: what is the department doing to encourage departments to access programs like the PEP and increase the number of students they hire? Mahsi cho.