Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his comments. The issue of managing within our resources, trying to meet the demands, the issues that the Member has talked about, as has some of his colleagues, nursing in the small communities is a challenge that, as the Member said, is still yet to be met.
I agree with him on the opportunity that decentralization and devolution are presenting us, that there are opportunities we have committed as a government to a decentralization plan. We’re moving into phase 3. There are going to be benefits in regional centres like Simpson, Smith, Inuvik, Hay River where the Lands department, for example, is going to be established, and we are looking across government to see what other discreet functions make sense to move outside of Yellowknife, so there is a strong commitment by the government to move forward with that phase 3.
We are committed to the Housing Initiative that’s in the budget, where we’re putting houses in small communities. As well, we’re going to be doing in the larger centres where there are jobs coming, to look to make sure office space issues are dealt with. There is some opportunity with devolution in terms of accessing one-time funding for that type of investment, so we’re looking very carefully at that.
Highway No. 7, the good news is today the federal budget, and we are expecting, I don’t have the number, but Minister Flaherty we are hoping will be speaking specifically with a number about what is going to be in Build Canada and how that would affect us in Corridors III. The other good news is with the steps we’re taking to manage our money, we will be in a position to make sure we can take advantage of every cost-shared dollar that there is.
As well, as the Member has pointed out, there is money on an ongoing basis for the next number of years for his beloved Highway No. 7. We are very sensitized to the Member’s concern whenever he stands up in this House, because we know somewhere in his statement he’s going to mention Highway No. 7. The good news is we think there’s going to be some opportunity there for that.
I appreciate his comments about the stable tax system, an issue which implies a support for growing our economic base as opposed to adding more taxes.
The 2,000 person increase, we’re going to have to look at every opportunity, but definitely it’s filling vacancies. Our first choice and our first port of call will be Northerners, resident Northerners, students that are now in school that will be graduating, doing a better job to encourage them to come home to work and live in the North and making sure that we make that opportunity as painless as possible. We agree with him there.
The issue of job requirements is an ongoing struggle. I agree with the Member that sometimes we suffer from what has been referred to as creeping credentialism, where we add more and more credentials to job requirements. At the same time, we sometimes minimize the value of equivalencies, local knowledge, being bilingual and on-the-job training skills. Those are all part and parcel of the work that HR is doing along with the affirmative action initiatives with regional hiring experts and the work we’re doing with students, SFA, hiring, all those types of things. We’re very set on maximizing northern employment. So, I appreciate the Member’s comments. Thank you.