I do not have the specific detailed information I can provide to Members, but if I recall, there’s well over 400

registered apprentices in the Northwest Territories, and journeymen ticket holders as well. But I can provide the detailed information with accurate documentation.

With the devolution and decentralization into the regions, that’s a discussion we’ve been having, even since visiting Ottawa for NWT Days, having those positions transferred into the regions and into the communities. I believe that that’s the wish of this government, so we’ll continue to strive towards that.

With the decentralization, there will definitely be training. That’s where we come in as Education, Culture and Employment to deliver community-based training at that level. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to say that I look forward to getting information on this labour market symposium and some of the outcomes that came from that.

I’d just like to specifically ask the Minister, has he been coordinating and working with the leaders in my region and my communities in planning for some of the big projects that we’ve got on the timeline here, the Inuvik-Tuk highway, fibre optic link. Is he having those conversations with our leaders so that we can start the training sooner than later, so that when these jobs open up, our local people have jobs ready and are trained to take those jobs on. Is he having those discussions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The quickest answer would be yes, we are, as my department, along with other departments, even with the Premier. It has been addressed with the Gwich’in, the IRC, the Beaufort-Delta leadership. We’ve met with them. We’ve addressed their concerns, their issues, their ideas. They are preparing for the exploration activity that will be happening in their region. We are continuing to work with them. We want to be prepared to deliver those highly skilled individuals at the community level with the kind of training programs that are required.

I must say and commend the Inuvik area and the Beaufort-Delta. Trades on Wheels was a good asset benefitting the communities. That’s one of the economic arms that we’ve initiated through partnerships, and we may be looking at a similar type of model as we move forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about tourism and international exposure, and the opportunity of having Mr. Martin Strel, known as the Big River Man, swim down the Mackenzie River probably from Hay River or Fort Providence all the way to Tuktoyaktuk. I think it’s a huge opportunity and I had written to the Minister last year.

I’d like to ask the Minister, what would be the steps that we should take to continue this initiative.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, last year the Member wrote to myself and the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources in regard to the Big River Man and the swim down the Mackenzie. Although at first glance of the proposal it would appear that his idea wouldn’t match up with any funding program that the government currently has, our officials were going to contact Martin Strel himself and propose to help out in other ways, and that was to talk to communities along the proposed route and drum up support for such an event to happen. I’d have to go back to the department and see if they’ve actually had those discussions with Mr. Strel and see where this is all at. But, certainly, it has great promise to be a big event. Thank you.

The idea came from Mr. Sean Whelly, the mayor of Fort Simpson, and I’ve been pursuing it since last year and I have raised it with NWT Tourism. It’s a huge opportunity, I think, for international exposure, so if we could get the department onside and look for some resources. What kind of resources would the department have to fund such an international event?

Mr. Speaker, we’ve got a great team down in the Deh Cho in the Nahendeh riding, as the Member is aware, in Fort Simpson and other communities in the riding. We’d certainly be able to coordinate efforts with communities, with tourism operators in the area to make them aware of opportunities and drum up any potential sponsorships. I think that’s one area where, hopefully, the department would be able to help out in such an endeavour. Thank you.

I guess where the Minister can play a bigger role, too, and not only with his support, is such an event would cross many jurisdictions, so getting assistance from all the different ITI departments involved as he avoids the treacherous Jackfish all the way to Tuktoyaktuk, we’ll gladly need his assistance in coordinating that on an NWT-wide scale, if the Minister can commit to looking at something like that. Thank you.

Luckily enough, there’s no piranha in the Mackenzie River, so the worse he’ll have to fear is the Jackfish in the Mackenzie.

Certainly, we need to coordinate efforts. The swim would take place down the entire length of the Mackenzie, so it would include our ITI staff in the Sahtu and in the Mackenzie as well. So it would have to be a coordinated effort, if we are going to look at doing this. I’m going to go back to the department and see where discussions are at with Mr. Strel and his team on trying to pull this off.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think timing is of the essence. I think in order to make preparations, we have to begin those discussions now. If the Minister, with his continued support, we can begin these discussions with his department, with Mr. Mayor and the NWT Tourism could come up with a good plan that perhaps this event can happen this summer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. That’s a comment. Would you like to reply, Mr. Ramsay?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll go back to the department and get a response for the Member as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Some days I talk about what the Northwest Territories would look like without drugs and alcohol. That’s an exercise that I’d like to use as a bit of a visioning exercise.

We have many, many healthy people in the Northwest Territories and that’s something to celebrate and something I’m very happy about. But you know that political statement that’s always said no one left behind? There’s a lot of people who are living in bondage today to drugs and alcohol, who are being left and who are not realizing their potential in life. We cannot forget about them. This group that sits around in this room, as Mr. Miltenberger refers to as this august group, let’s face it, this is kind of the cream of the crop here and people may not be struggling with those kinds of things. But we cannot forget about those people who are out in our communities who struggle every day. We have to talk about it. We have to keep it in our consciousness.

To that end, our Minister of Health and Social Services struck a committee, an addictions forum, the Ministerial Forum on Addictions. These very good candidates who have gone out to the communities and have tried to engage people in the topic of addictions. But when they came to Hay River, they met with all the front-line workers, all the people who work in those. There was not a single person that I could see in that room that actually had a problem with addictions.

What is the Minister going to do with his forum on addictions to talk to the people in the homeless shelters, the people who are incarcerated, the kids in the school to get the discussion? Let’s talk with them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Members’ statements.

---Laughter

The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would have no problem directing the forum to visit with the shelters or any facilities where there was an attraction of people that had addiction issues, recognize now that their plan was to have public meetings, and advertise and try to draw people to the meetings, recognizing that they could only draw the people that were interested in the topic. Sometimes they don’t have that interest in some communities, but we are finding that in the smaller communities they are getting a lot of interest. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in a committee meeting when we were receiving a briefing from ECE the other day, and I’m not going to give away anything super confidential here, but we were talking to children about their education, and there was hardly any of them that did not talk about their ability to get an education in the absence of talking about the addiction to alcohol in their family, in their parents or in their community of one of those things. These were kids that we are talking about education, and they were talking about how many people in the community were drinking. That is an interesting correlation. As I said, the Minister has great people on the forum. Will the Minister commit to… You don’t need to send the whole panel, the whole group. Take someone like Paul Andrew, for example, who is chairing this.

Will the Minister commit to sending either one or two delegates from the commission into the places where we know there are people who could talk about their issues and shed some light on where we need to go and spend our dollars as a government? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I will commit to that. Thank you.

I think there are stories to be told. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, I think that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission went a long ways towards the healing that comes from people being able to talk about their issues. So while I applaud the Minister for forming this group and sending them out, I think we need to talk to the people who can share the most with us, and I think that is the people affected every day by the addictions in the Northwest Territories.

When does the Minister expect to have results from the work of this commission? Is there still time to integrate this kind of very focused discussion that I’m talking about? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the plan is the fieldwork for the forum would be done by March 31

st . Soon after that we are going to select a group

of them and maybe even have other people involved to write the report. Yes, there would still be time for them to expand some of their fieldwork if necessary. Thank you.