Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [Translation] I would like to talk today about the children that are -- about the people that are giving them employment. [Translation ends] I'd like to talk about summer students. Mr. Speaker, this government and this Cabinet must step up to the plate to give our post-secondary students every opportunity for success. This means giving these students a good summer job and there are none better than a job at the GNWT. Our government must set aside money that usually goes to salaries to proactively seek our students to work for us. It will take some effort and that seems to be the main obstacle. The Minister of Human Resources has advised this House that hiring decisions for summer students, like all staffing, is the responsibility of the department and agency managers. There is nobody leading the process and there appears to be no political will to put effort forward.

Mr. Speaker, in 2015 the GNWT hired 341 summer students out of 612 who applied. For the summer of 2017 I recommend the Department of Human Resources roll out a plan to support the GNWT to hire a minimum of 400 summer students. Every Minister in the House should be held accountable for student hiring in their departments and for meeting set targets. In addition to this, I recommend that the Department of Education create a subsidy for small businesses to enable them to be competitive in hiring students; the same pool of money can be used. Mr. Speaker, I don't wish to go into the details now but a simple $4 or $5 subsidy for small businesses or one that is designated to be paid directly to the student by ECE will also work.

Our government has a public service of approximately 5,100 employees and carries a workforce vacancy of nine to 11 per cent. This means at any given time we have 500 vacant jobs. It would only take about 100 to 120 of these vacancies to complete this very important task of showing our post-secondary students that we stand behind them as a government and that we want to help them develop skills they need to succeed and work in the NWT. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement

---Unanimous consent granted

Marci cho. Mr. Speaker, I do not want to hear all the excuses why we can't do this. The Ministers of Human Resources and ECE must do something different; something that will make a difference. Let's tell our students all the reasons why we can and will do this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.