I’m wondering if the department has done any work with other departments in the sense that... Let’s use the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Maybe a more common one could be the Housing Corporation or possibly Public Works and Services or any of those works departments. I’m wondering if the Department of Education, Culture and Employment works with any of those departments in the creation, using, like, I guess I use the term sort of like a critical mass I suppose, to use the various things that have to happen in the small communities and around the small communities. An example, if the Housing Corporation is trying to fix 10 homeownership units and is attempting to put $50,000 or $60,000 into these units, then would this department work with them to ensure that they could develop an employment program out of something like that that could be not just one summer job but rather a long-term job? Because there’s lots of work in all the areas if you’re going to clean up all the waste sites around Tu Nedhe. Environment, as an example, there would be lots of work for operators and whatnot. I’m wondering if the department discussed these employment items with other departments.

Again the framework that we are working on would consist of industries, Aboriginal governments, and it could also include the departments as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is sufficient in this area for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have similar questions to Mr. Beaulieu. We seem to have the same challenges in our ridings, especially where we are seeing high pockets of unemployment in excess of 45 percent. Yet

investment in regards to training and apprenticeship positions and allocations of those programs and where they seem to be expending a lot of those dollars are at the large regional centres where you look at where the people are being certified and whatnot. In most cases the larger centres, where you basically have people that are getting into the trades, people that work with different employers and whatnot and also large projects by way of capital infrastructure are in the larger centres, but yet, Mr. Chairman, I think that we also have to re-profile the dollar expenditures on where there is highest need, such as the high needs by way of unemployment statistics.

I think that something that sort of shocked me is that government employees, regardless if they are P1, P2 or P3, are paid less than the different levels from, say, $60,000 for a P1 to basically $85,000 for a P2. A $20,000 difference simply because the class that you have been hired under and the reason for that is probably because of the education levels are different from a P1 individual that is, say, somebody that is basically P2 or P3.

Again, I think it is important that we have to ensure that we invest these advanced education dollars to ensure that we have capacity in our communities. I think, also, that you have to reflect on the employment, full-time job opportunities and the in-migration and out-migration, and in-migration by way of this different staffing you are talking teachers, you are talking settlement administrative officer are basically trained professions where we still have a high dependence of importing a lot of that workforce.

Again, we have to invest in the communities to ensure that we have the capacity to take on those positions. More importantly, offer the residents in our communities those opportunities and take advantage of those opportunities by ensuring that we are investing in career and employment development and investing those dollars correctly in regards to the $45 million.

I would just like to ask the Minister exactly what are we doing to basically re-profile these dollars on where we see high unemployment levels and where we basically can invest those dollars to ensure people are getting the adequate training and support they need to take advantage of the northern economy and job opportunities in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. This particular area has been brought to our attention and it is part of the reason why we have initiated the framework to identify where it is highly needed, apprenticeship training and employment in small communities, and it consists of industries, Aboriginal governments and

corporations, bands and also the departments. We need to identify those needs in collaboration amongst the groups and identify the highest needs in certain areas. We have heard that so we are developing the framework to respond to what the Members are saying. Mahsi.

In regards to the area of adult post-secondary education, we have adult education teachers in our communities, but in Fort McPherson we also have a program called Success in which what they do is they take students that have dropped out of the school system, are unemployed or on income support or whatnot, and reroute them through another program where it is being federally funded through the band in Fort McPherson. We are seeing some major success by way of that program, which is duplicating or doing the same as what adult education should be doing in our communities, but yet they don’t have students in adult education but the Success program is booked with students that have fallen through the cracks and dropped out of school at some point in their lives but now they are reintegrating themselves back into the education model and working themselves back into the workforce.

I would just like to know, how often do we re-evaluate these programs in our communities and the possibility of re-profiling those programs and restructuring them to meet the needs of the communities and programs that do work and are showing success, that we are able to either duplicate or in some cases re-profile some of these adult education dollars so that we can try to hit the majority of people that are going to require those additional resources, especially in the area of upgrading, and are basically people that have dropped out of the education system and are not trying, as young adults, to get themselves back into the system. I would just like to know if that is something that the department is doing and looking at re-evaluating that program in regards to adult and post-secondary education.

Yes, we are doing an overall review of the ALBE Program right now and we want to have some final word on what the linkage could be. We are also working closely with Aurora College. I have met with the board, I have met with the president and identified the concerns that the Member has raised and also other Members, that we need to do more than just ALBE Program in a community and to strengthen the ALBE Program that we have. I have seen some changes just since last year. I have been through small communities, community learning centres, every time I have opportunity to visit a community. I like to visit the schools and also the community learning centres as much as I can. My recent visit to one of the communities, they were doing an ALBE basic education programming, but at the same time there was language being taught in the

classroom as well, aside from the ALBE Program, so reintegrating those programs as well. I think we are going to see some more changes, more program delivered at the community learning centres. Mahsi.

Again, I think that we have to get better use of our facilities in communities such as adult learning centres and schools wherever possible, if that means sharing space or sharing a service centre such as a computer centre, and I think that we have to be able to get as much usage out of these facilities, especially in most cases, you know, the schools are shut down in the summer, pretty well locked down in most cases, and the same thing with the adult education centres. I think that is a perfect opportunity, especially for children that are struggling and if we can find a way to get them into summer programs and assist them so that when they go back to school in the fall time, hopefully they can catch up and give them those skills that they are going to need to realize that they are successful at whatever you want to do. Just put your mind to it and put a little more effort into it.

I think that we have to get more mileage out of our infrastructure in our communities and, wherever possible, joint share resources regardless of what federal dollars we get either through band funding or dollars we are able to acquire through federal funds through the unemployment insurance funding or even looking at funds that come by way of federal infrastructure funding.

I think we are realizing the importance of having a qualified workforce when it comes to these large projects, regardless of whether we are talking pipelines or even if we are challenged with filling just the positions in the area of the mining industry. I think, if anything, because we do have a young population, that we are going to have to find a way of getting as many people into the system but taking advantage of the infrastructure that we do have, because we cannot continue to build infrastructure. If anything, we have to get better use of that infrastructure.

So I think it is something that we have to be aware of going forward, but also make as much use of those facilities as we can while they’re in our communities and not have them locked up for any long periods of time simply because it’s the end of the school year or whatever. We have to use those facilities whenever possible. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I totally agree with the Member. This is an area that we have explored and we are currently working the college as well. Community learning centres fall under the college, but there have been talks about the schools -- the schools are open during the school year but closed during the summer -- how we can take advantage of that during the summer months. There have been talks about different

programming over the summer months so there can be continuity.

One obstacle that’s also in the way is the union issue where teachers, once they finish school they’re off over the summer, but there’s talk about maybe possibly hiring individuals that can teach just over the summer months. Those are some of the areas that we are exploring, Mr. Chair. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Next I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had many of the same concerns that were raised by Mr. Beaulieu and Mr. Krutko. I think we have the opportunity to really support those apprentices in our small communities, in particular, that can help us to address many of our goals. I think it would be good when developing this policy for apprentices or reviewing it or supporting it further to consider, and possibly best presented by way of example, the oil burner mechanics are rare and yet there’s a huge opportunity for fuel savings that can be a huge impact in small communities where employment is low and incomes are low. That sort of thing. The sorts of things that we’re having decreasing demand for as, for example, biomass systems enter communities more and more. Those sorts of skills that go with that. I’m not the best qualified to say that, but I think looking in that direction can make this a more effective policy. That’s just by way of a comment.

I wanted to ask briefly about the Student Financial Assistance program review. Have the terms of reference been developed for that and will we have an opportunity for some input to that? Maybe I’ll start with that. Thank you.

Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The review will be undertaken once we go through this budget, once it’s approved, and the terms of reference will be drafted up. Certainly, the Members should have some input into the system as with the students. I’ve stated in the House that we will be reaching out to the general public and the students, because we need to hear specifically from the students as well. By all means, if Members can contribute, that will be great. Mahsi.

I appreciate that correction too. Will the planning for the review take place in 2011-12? Is that when the terms of reference, for example, would be developed and so on, or is that anticipated to start in the current fiscal year? Thank you

Mr. Chair, the SFA review and also the terms of reference, the terms of reference will be drafted up. We are looking at ‘11 and ‘12. Mahsi.

I want to touch base with an ongoing perennial topic of interest the Minister has heard me and the Standing Committee on Social Program bring to his attention on several occasions and that’s the development of these programs for renewable energy technicians and sustainable community administrators. At one point I was interviewed by a contractor doing a study on that and that was probably six months or more ago, but I’m wondering where things are at, if there’s some action being taken to develop those programs. I think the Minister’s aware that we have $60 million slotted for energy concerns that would fall in line with this and, obviously, the City of Yellowknife is spending tens of millions of dollars in this area. You talk to the Association of Communities, they’re marching along in these sorts of areas. If I can get an update on that from the Minister. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, yes, we did follow through when the Member raised that issue in the House and also through the committee. We shared that with the college, Aurora College, and they are exploring and reviewing the different programming pertaining to sustainable energy. The Member also touched on other areas as well, biomass and oil burner mechanic and renewable resource energy tech. Those are areas that have been highlighted by the Member and the college is currently exploring that. We’re also exploring through the University of the Arctic as well. We just had a recent trip over there with the college and they have some information that they’ve received from them. Definitely, they are looking into that, Mr. Chair, through the University of Alaska. That’s an area that we will continue to push. Mahsi.

I’m tempted to ask when we’re going to actually see something on the ground, but I’ll protect our budget discussions here and maybe bring that up at another time.

Just with Aurora College, I believe the Yellowknife Campus, we must be just about into our last year of a lease. I’m wondering when that lease runs out. The Minister has probably told us, but maybe he could remind me when that lease runs out. Let’s just start with that. Thank you.

The lease is due to expire around the end of August 2012. That’s an area that we are working with and we need to have a plan in place early this fall. Mahsi.

Obviously this is very imminent and we’re into that fiscal year with this planning here. Has the department confirmed that it’s possible to extend that lease at least for the window of time we think we need to decide what we’re going to do on the infrastructure side? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we will need to extend the lease because it will take some time to plan towards the infrastructure, the capital planning process. Those are the discussions we

are currently having and we’ll be talking more on the lease extension. Mahsi.

I assume the lease will probably be at a higher rate than currently. Without being specific about amounts, I’m just asking if the department has planned for that greater expense in this budget. Thank you.