Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also want to add some of my comments to Mr. Menicoche and Mr. Bromley’s comments to the Minister. As I have noted, the community of Colville Lake is looking at expanding, developing their young students, young kids, and looking at a proper
education facility. I also noted those comments in this House that Colville Lake was going to be in the books for planning studies for a new school.
I have been talking to the leadership in Colville Lake, the chief and council. They are asking that for any type of planning studies, that the chief and council be 100 percent involved with the planning studies. They also want to help out with the construction of any type of school that they will receive. They want to be reassured from this department and government that the Colville Lake chief and council will be part of the planning study so they can feel part of the ownership. No different than the people in Colville Lake to build the $14 million dollar runway, done by the people in their own way.
They are looking at this project and looking at the planning study, that the department gives the commitment in writing and verbal tonight in this House that the planning study will involve them 100 percent in this process. After that, there will be another step to look at securing the funds to build. Even in saying that, they have talked to me and they say they could be a contributor to this process also. They are that confident that they would like to move this project for their community.
The issue of developing the Sahtu has been a long-standing issue of mine, and the Sahtu leadership over the years has known that we need several regional institutions in our region to properly develop our young people. We do have a high population of young people. As a matter of fact, in one of the GNWT’s stats and profile for the Sahtu people, in there I found it interesting that there are about 218 young people ready to work, who potentially have that ability right now. With the high interest and the oil companies coming in and working on our lands, it definitely shows that we need to get our people ready for these long-time careers, jobs, either in decentralization, oil and gas, possibly mining, or even self-government initiatives that the community want to take over. So the communities of the Sahtu region have been asking the government for a regional institute, because that is where the activity is going to be concentrated for the next five to 30 years if we get the green light to go ahead with the hydraulic fracturing operations. That is a long-time industry that will be in the Northwest Territories and we need to have our people be prepared for the trades, the academics, to help in the community. Any type of development in oil and gas is going to require some type of certification. Even with the development of the oilfields in the Sahtu region, they possibly will bring in some union organizations. The union is going to have to certify them. If development takes off, oil companies are going to contract the unions to handle their product. That makes for good business sense. The unions are going to hire people who are
certified and trained and they are going to want you there.
In a good business case it makes sense to invest into a regional training institute in the Sahtu. That’s where it’s going to be needed and required. We should start planning for that, start building for that.
Right now our students go to Yellowknife, Inuvik and Fort Smith. If you want to learn trades, you have to go to Fort Smith. That’s where the institution is. That’s where the equipment is and it has been there for a while. At the same time, we want to have a training institute in the Sahtu. It makes it easier for families, especially the young families, and it makes good business sense to have it in our region. Partnering with the oil companies makes good sense. I believe they want that too. So I will be speaking on that.
The last point I want to make with our Minister here – I hope we can have some discussion between now and the next election – is looking at beginning a discussion on a regional high school. We have seen the numbers of graduates; we have seen the reports of the quality of education in our communities. Each community is fighting for something that they can have to improve their students’ education. We are spending a lot of money building trade centres, additional schools. I think it’s time now to have some discussion on the benefits of a regional high school, where the schools could possibly have their grades go up to Grade 9 and have a regional infrastructure building in the Sahtu that can go from grades 10, 11 and 12. Think about this again. It makes a lot of sense. Every school is always fighting for the dollars. Some schools are different from others. Colville Lake is certainly different from Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells, Deline and Tulita. All our schools are different. Even outside the Sahtu we have different schools, larger centres, regional centres and small schools. We’re not all the same. We are treated differently and we know that in the Sahtu, in the small communities, we know that we are treated differently. So when I go back, people say, why can’t we have a biology class or a chemistry class. It always comes down to dollars and cents.
We don’t have the dollars, and it doesn’t make sense to have biology in all of the schools. Only certain schools you could, so then we are cheating our children out of good education. In order for them to go into a university program, even one or two students, we have to send them to a larger centre so they can take the required courses, the really true required courses to enter into a profession of a doctor or a nurse. I want to leave it at that, Mr. Chair.