Thank you, Madam
Chair. We know that in the past it has been difficult for officials, or Ministers for that matter, to go down and meet with students because there is no pre-consent from the students in their privacy. We can’t just come into a community, phone the students up and invite them to meet with us and so on.
We are actually working with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in predetermining from the students to indicate that they have no issue with officials or politicians like ourselves coming down and meeting with students, and that’s something we think is going to have some merit and will bear fruit.
When we attended NWT Days, three of us had an opportunity to meet with eight students down in Ottawa: five students from Yellowknife, one from Hay River, one from Fort Providence and one from Simpson. They were very excited. The students had an opportunity to speak to us. I think that each of those students had an opportunity to speak to Ministers Lafferty and Miltenberger, and I spoke to each of the students as well. They of course want to return, come to work for us during the summer and ultimately come to work in the Territories. Each of them have indicated to me what their field of studies has been and where they would like to work and I think they were very pleased that we had talked to them, took them out for breakfast and an opportunity to advise them that perhaps they could return to a full-time job and then for sure a summer job this coming summer.
I’m sorry about that. I would like to ask if the deputy minister could add something to my comments as well.