Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize the best court worker in the Northwest Territories, Daphne Lafferty from Fort Good Hope. I also would like to recognize some friends, Rose Lamouelle and Pat Waugh who are also court workers and Charlene Doolittle whose family is from the Sahtu. Also, the other court workers here. I also would like to recognize the students from Nahanni Butte. It is good to see you come down this way to see us in action, and the rest of the visitors I would like to welcome. Thank you.

Thanks you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the two Pages from Fort McPherson, Lloyd Prodromidis and Trent Villebrun, and also their chaperone, Ms. Andrea Tetlichi.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. I would also like to welcome Mr. Rick Groenewegen in the House today. It is so cute to have them sitting up there together. I would like to welcome our students here. It is always so good to have youth and students in the House to see today’s proceedings. Welcome to the House. I would like to welcome all visitors in the public gallery here today. Thank you for taking an interest in today’s proceedings.

Item 7, acknowledgements. Item 8, oral questions. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of ITI is responsible for the socio-economic agreements that are reached with the mining companies, but responsibility for training programs that the Member is speaking of are the responsibility of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. I work very closely with Minister Lafferty and also with Minister Beaulieu through the Department of Health and Social Services in working with industry to try to find a way to ensure that opportunities for jobs and training accrue to residents here in the Northwest Territories. We need to certainly do a better job at trying to find a way to get more people employed. It is only working with industry that we are going to be able to make some improvements on the numbers that are out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in the Sahtu, as I said, the mining companies don’t really hire people outside the Yellowknife area. The Sahtu is very little. We have to go to Deline, Norman Wells, Inuvik or Yellowknife to get on to the workforce. In front of me I have a list of graduates from the Sahtu. There’s 33 graduates, seven from post-secondary and 26 from the high school.

Can the Minister ask the mining industry if they could make up pick-up points in the Sahtu communities further than what they have right now

so that they can increase their mining workforce? We want to go to work. Let’s ask the mining companies to pull up their socks and get going.

Thank you. Those discussions have taken place with the mining companies and, certainly, just recently there’s been a real change to the landscape when it comes to the diamond mines here in the Northwest Territories and perhaps even more change there. I think there’s a real opportunity, given what’s happened here, to ensure that pick-up points and people that want to be employed, that want to work at the mines here in the Northwest Territories have that opportunity. It’s certainly advantageous for the mining companies themselves to have a workforce located here in the Northwest Territories and we’re committed to, again, work with industry to see that happen. Thank you.

Thank you. I’d like to know from the Minister, where are the teeth in our socio-economic agreements. The mining companies have agreed to sign on to a target or a number that they’re going to meet once they want to do business in the Northwest Territories. They’ll say yes, we’ll do this, and they sign on, and after three or four years they don’t meet their targets, they’re coming very close to it, but where are the teeth in the socio-economic agreements that would hold them accountable to say you violated your agreement.

Thank you. I think it really is a two-way street. Industry certainly signs those agreements in good faith with the Government of the Northwest Territories, but we have to ensure that we have the training and education opportunities for people to get the jobs. There’s also a personal responsibility factor that enters into this and people have to take responsibility for themselves, and I’m talking about the abuse of alcohol and drugs, and that is how we are going to see numbers improve when it comes to people being able to be employed here in the Northwest Territories by industry. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s where we fall short of supporting our people in the Northwest Territories. If they’re going to fall short and you know it, what programs and treatment opportunities do we have for our people so that we do not label them or blame them for the mining companies falling short?

We’re making excuses for the mining companies. What is this government doing to help our people to increase the number, not only in the Yellowknife area but also looking at the whole Northwest Territories? We should be hiring a lot of people right across the North.

Thank you. I’m not here to defend the industry, the mining companies. I think, again, they’ve signed these agreements in good faith. What I’m trying to say is it’s a two-way street. We need to ensure that we have the training, the programs that are available for people and I applaud the work that the Norman Wells Land Corp has taken on themselves in training a workforce there in the Sahtu. But as I mentioned earlier, I work closely with Minister Beaulieu and Minister Lafferty. We understand the challenge. We’re trying to meet that challenge. We meet with the mining presidents on a quarterly basis. These issues have been raised and I want to assure the Member and this House that we are going to continue to move forward to try to address the concerns that the Member has brought up today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’ve often spoken about schools in our small communities and I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, I had raised the issue about the school in Nahanni Butte, this being an older log structure. I’d like to ask the Minister, has he done any work in evaluating and seeing when they’d look at replacing that school in Nahanni Butte. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that we are closely monitoring, especially with the small community schools. I did instruct my department to seriously look at those communities, whether it be a log structure and the space capacity and having a one class setting with three or four different grades. So those are areas that we are looking into right now to see what can be done. If there’s going to be some changes, then it would be through the capital planning process the following year. So that’s the area that we continue to push. Every year we go through the capital planning process, so that’s an area that we will be looking at. Mahsi.

Thank you very much. I guess when we’re looking at replacing the school, there’s lots to be considered. One of the things that can and should work is attaching a new school to the new community gymnasium. I think that would go a long ways towards supporting our education system and our youth, if we attached a new school to the gymnasium. Will the Minister consider that or involve that in the planning that’s going to start this fall? Thank you.

Mahsi. That is the capital planning process that we need to discuss with the school board and also with the community and my department. Also, with Public Works and Services as we move forward. The capital planning process, there is a protocol that we have to follow and criteria that’s laid out before us, part of the legislation. So, definitely, those are discussions that we need to have, along with other capital projects. Mahsi.

Thank you very much. I know I’ve spoken on this issue a few times in this House. I’d just like to ask the Minister, once again, how much work has been done, or else do we have to start again and then start working with the community and the education authorities on the Nahanni Butte school. Thank you.

Mahsi. Since the flooding, there’s been some work in play and we understand that the school was used for the community as well. We have to utilize the school for the students. So we’ll do what we can to have the facility in the best shape we possibly can for the community. Those are the discussions that we need to have for the capital planning process. If we need to identify funding, then we’ll be putting that forward as part of the process of capital planning and then the decision will be made, pending that time. Mahsi.

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