Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you heard in the budget address that our Minister of Finance had mentioned, we are also reaching out to students who are graduating with the $2,000 forgivable loan if they come up and do some work in the Northwest Territories. That is one area that we are working in.

We are also developing an action plan based on the labour market report. We are going to be working with Aboriginal governments, industry, business, and our education and training partners. As much as we want to attract residents to the Northwest Territories to fill in some of these positions, we also got to make it a priority to educate, train, develop skills within our own northern labour workforce as well. So we do have some programs, through our student financial assistance incentive programs, as well as working with some of our partners to ensure that we can get some of the skilled labour workforce from the south into the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. The labour market forecast says that from 2015 to 2030 the NWT will need to recruit 777 elementary and kindergarten school teachers, as well as 577 secondary school teachers, 448 early childhood educators and assistants, and 382 college and vocational instructors. It is just staggering numbers. How is that going to happen?

This is the first time that the government has done a comprehensive review of the labour market needs, the demands of our jobs, in the Northwest Territories. It is something that we are building on. We have our post-secondary education partners that we are working with to try to develop some of these programs. Aurora College is going to be embarking on a strategic plan this summer and the program will be better aligned with the labour demands that we are seeing through the Labour Market Needs Assessment. All this stuff is brand new.

Like I said, this is the first time the Northwest Territories has done a comprehensive report like this. It is setting the stage for the decisions that we have to make as a government moving forward in the areas that are shown and identified in that needs assessment. As we have just seen the needs assessment now, we are going to be developing an action plan that will be hopefully tabled in the House in October that is going to identify how we move forward and address these needs in the years to come.

Thank you to the Minister for that answer. One of the things that seems to be a gap in this labour market forecast is that it looks primarily at the non-renewable resource sector jobs rather than some of those which might be part of diversification. I am wondering why the report did not look at diversification, for example filmmaking, traditional economies, agriculture, manufacturing, and so on, rather than concentrating on the declining sector of our economy.

When the work went out in terms of developing this comprehensive agreement, we got input from all the stakeholders across the Northwest Territories, a lot of it did come from the business side sector. But we also got other programs in place such as the culture and heritage framework and action plan. We also continue to provide funding for arts and culture initiatives.

When it was done, we had municipal governments, Aboriginal governments, business, industry, community members, all providing input into this Labour Market Forecast Needs Assessment. I think maybe some areas were just discussed more than others. But we did get a wide range of input from all sectors of the Northwest Territories.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for his answer. The fact remains that this forecast has gaps when it comes to renewable industry research or employment opportunities. I am wondering if there is a plan to do the same kind of research on them as has been done with the non-renewable resource sector. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As mentioned, we are going to be developing an action plan that hopefully will be tabled in the House in October, and we will be making sure that those areas are discussed as well. We will see what the action plan comes out of. We will be, once again, discussing that with our industry, business, our education, training partners, and Aboriginal and municipal governments.

Masi. Oral questions, Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have questions for the Minister of Finance. First off, I would like to learn more, and the public deserves to know, how the government has studied and analyzed the impacts of the 58 GNWT job cuts in the budget, including the impacts on the territorial economy as a whole. In planning these cuts, did the government analyze how these job losses would take money out of the economy and our tax and transfer revenues and pursue cuts that were proven to have the least negative impact in these areas? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I made the commitment while we were meeting with committee in Committee Room A that we would do the work in analyzing the effects that it would have. Historically, we have always been able to accommodate a lot of those folks that have been affected in moving them to other departments, and we are continuing to do that work. We will continue to keep committee apprised. In the briefing that I had with committee the other day, I did make a commitment that we would come before committee every Monday and give them an update on the work that we are doing to accommodate all those that are affected. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for that response. We all know that loss of jobs in the public service ultimately results in loss of jobs in the private sector as customers move away or they stop spending. I have heard that for every ten government jobs cut in our economy, five jobs will be lost in the service sectors. What multiplier did the government use to evaluate the impact of government job losses into the private sector in the wider NWT economy?

We are doing what we can to mitigate the impact of the reduction exercise that we are going through. I think we have been fortunate so far. We have been able to accommodate a lot of those folks that have been affected. I think the number is quite low right now. I did share that number with committee the other day. As I said, we will continue to update them on the work that we are doing to accommodate those few government employees that are left.

I don't think I actually got an answer on the question about multipliers. But I also want to ask the Minister what this government has predicted from the job cuts in terms of losses to personal income tax, payroll, and other taxes and then the territorial transfer payments.

Mr. Speaker, I did make a commitment in the past that we do our work in trying to analyze the effects that it has on the NWT. We will continue to do that work. We share that with committee. For the particular detail on that, I don't have that detail right now as to what do I think we are going to lose if ten people leave the Northwest Territories. But we are doing what we can to mitigate the effect on the NWT as a whole.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for his response. It is helpful to tell committee but I would prefer that he actually table that information in the House. Lastly, I want to ask about the job losses and if the Minister would be willing to table in this House a list of the communities where the cuts will be made and how many jobs will actually be lost in each community. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I would be willing to share that information. I think I have shared it in the past. As we go through the budget, the committee of the whole process, I think there is an opportunity there too where a lot of the positions would be identified. I will commit to gathering the information and sharing it with the Member. It will be out there in the public as well.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement, I talked about the Cancer Strategy for Department of Health and Social Services. I have questions for the Minister. I would like to ask firstly, Minister, were there action plans put in the Cancer Strategy, action items that will be done this fiscal year? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Cancer Strategy actually does come with a number of items that are falling from the strategy itself. The strategy includes specific supports to help communities, help individuals, make healthy choices by focusing on healthy eating through gardening and education, continuing to hold sharing circles, which we have seen has been quite effective in helping people deal with the issues. We do have funding that we have provided to different communities to support tobacco prevention for youth. The strategy commits us to find ways to increase education awareness so people can take advantage of cancer screening at the end of the day. Mr. Speaker, it is going to be incredibly important for people to attend the Well Man and Well Woman clinics to get early diagnosis. Early diagnosis is going to give us better results. There are a number of things that are direct actions that are available to communities and regions to help us fight and prevent cancer as much as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, within those action plans, I would like to ask the Minister which particular preventive measures does the department see as a priority within the Cancer Strategy?