Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, October 27th, our colleague from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh spoke about the importance of summer student employment. This past spring, I spoke about summer employment for our returning post-secondary students and the students that are graduating from our high school. Mr. Speaker, as a person that was born and raised in the NWT, I understand the importance of summer employment for the students. I'm not going to talk about the dates that I was employed as a summer student because it kind of ages me, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, when I was in university, I had the opportunity and pleasure to work for the Government of the Northwest Territories. The summer employment was very beneficial for me to allow to focus on studies while I was in school and not where I was going to get my next meal. Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I didn't speak about the summer as an employee of the GNWT. I had the opportunity to hire several summer students to help with multisport camps throughout the McKenzie region a few years into my employment. As we were meeting with the Mackenzie Rec. Association in early June that year, I received a phone call from my immediate supervisor and was asked if we could hire some more summer students because the Premier wanted this done.
Mr. Speaker, I was very fortunate to have the demand and need to be able to hire two additional summer students to help offer multisport camps to the residents of the Mackenzie region. Not only did this help the youth of the region, but most importantly it helped two additional post-secondary students for their studies the next year.
Mr. Speaker, I realize we are only in October and the summer is a long way away, however we have students returning home from post-secondary next April or May who are worried if they will get summer employment to finish their education. Mr. Speaker, these are the same students that we are supporting them with our very own Student Financial Assistance Program. Students are either priority one, priority two or priority three and have gone on to northern or southern institutions to work on their education. We are helping them with their education and investing in them while they're in school. However, when they try to come back home to get a summer position with the GNWT they are not as successful.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister for Human Resources, informed this House and the public that his department received 628 summer student applications for the summer of 2016. Mr. Speaker. I'd like to seek unanimous consent to finish my statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Unanimous consent granted