Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the public becomes increasingly aware, the ideas and concerns of Regular Members seem to matter little with this government. I ask anyone to show me one recommendation from Members and the committees in this budget.
However, the interested public here watching us do our work certainly get to realize that we learn things all the time, such as these job vacancy rates.
I have to give credit to MLA Blake and certainly MLA Groenewegen the other day, who certainly got it right. When it comes to those 800 vacancies, the public wants to know, where are they? This government seems to be tucking them away in hiding and saving them for what reason I have yet to know.
The public wants to know. They are asking questions. Where are these jobs? How long have they been empty? How much are they costing this government, and even more importantly, where is the money going?
The public deserves these types of answers. We didn’t get them the other day to either Mr. Blake’s or certainly Mrs. Groenewegen’s questions. We need these on the record.
The government says that they are actively recruiting these 571 jobs. I ask where. The public asks where. The public feels insulted by this particular problem.
Mr. Speaker, you yourself know, as a small community MLA, and all small community MLAs know, that the community employment rates are at dismal levels. If we had the ability to help these community rates with these types of jobs, these 571 jobs that mysteriously showed up that no one has ever seen before, they would help regional rates, and regional rates would help northern rates, and northern rates… Everybody working would help everybody. It would be good for the whole North. But where are they being tucked away? I personally don’t know where these hidden jobs are.
Recently, we heard about the job fair in Ottawa, and I’m certainly not against sending a job fair out, looking for special employment type of people that you just can’t get off the street. It makes sense sometimes, because those skills and qualifications may not be easily found. But I’ll tell you, the average Northerner is starting to wonder: does this government not care about them? Do they need to go to job fairs in Ottawa and shut them out of what should be northern opportunities? I know many families have passionately invested their lives into the North, and they’re feeling shut out by the circumstance.
Let me finish by this: Over the last 10 years, the unemployment rate has done nothing but increase in the Northwest Territories. I will tell you, by going to the NWT Bureau of Stats website it will show you that over the last two years of the McLeod government, it has sharply increased.
We need to get Northerners employed; we need to get Northerners working; and I’d say we need to do it now. Thank you.