Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, education has been a large focus of our work in the House over the past two weeks, and we've also talked a fair bit about the importance of choice for parents and for students. I'll be continuing on this theme today.

Mr. Speaker, a number of my constituents in my riding have come to me with concerns about policies affecting their children, their children's ability to learn and to choose the course of their own education. The Beaufort Delta Divisional Education Council's policy says that, when a child enrols in a language class, for example, to learn Gwich'in or Inuvialuktun, that the child is required to register in one or the other, based on whether they are registered as Gwich'in or Inuvialuit.

In my riding, residents have varied backgrounds. In Aklavik, for example, the community is roughly half Gwich'in and half Inuvialuit. Parents in the community feel that the choice to register their children in one language class or another should be their decision, not decided based on council policy. In southern communities, language instruction often responds to parent and student choice. Students can choose to enrol in French, Spanish, or in another language class, where that's available. Mr. Speaker, let's not forget that parents, grandparents, and family are a child's first teachers. Their wisdom and guidance can't be counted out. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I hope that we can work together to find a solution that pleases all parties and extends more than one option to parents and students in the Beaufort Delta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In March of this year, the federal government announced an increase to Canada's immigration targets, up to 300,000 people, with an emphasis on family reunification and refugee and humanitarian cases but also with a new and express going of boosting entries in the "economic class." That means that Canada will welcome 12,000 or more skilled workers, business people, or caregivers in the coming year. Mr. Speaker, we need to make sure that this influx benefits our territory.

The GNWT has set its own immigration target: an increase of 25 per cent in the number of applications to the NWT Nominee Program each year for the next five years. If you ask anyone who runs a business, they'll tell you there is a shortage of skilled labour in the NWT, and the statistics back it up. The long-term forecast isn't favourable, either. With the skills gap and many workers approaching retirement, the most recent labour market information suggests that 33 per cent of territorial job openings over the next 15 years will require a skill certification or college diploma, not to mention the projected need for university and management-level expertise. The new federal immigration economic class presents an opportunity for the NWT to address this labour shortage.

While there are more than enough jobs for everyone, our population doesn't have the skills to fill many of those jobs. Those who do, often work in the mines or for government. This means that small businesses, which simply can't afford to match the salaries of either, are the ones who bear the brunt of the labour shortage. If we want to diversify our local economies, we need to ensure that small businesses have access to the skilled labour they need to grow. Mr. Speaker, we have to remember that small businesses in the Territory have the capacity to become international corporations: Igloo Building Supplies and Northern Arc cranes both started just down the street from where I live in Hay River.

Entrepreneurs are doing their part to try and grow our economy and we need to do a better job supporting their efforts. To achieve real outcomes, the departments of ECE and ITI must coordinate their efforts and take decisive action to improve our immigration outcomes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, of all the horrific acts humans commit, there is none more grievous then war, though of all the acts of valor people commit, there is none greater than serving in a time of a war. It is with this contradiction in mind that I speak before this House on the subject of Remembrance Day.

Throughout our history, men and women of all races, creeds and ages have served in some form or another with great distinction in countless military engagements. Some storming the fields of Passchendaele, Juno and Zabul, while others tended to the home front assuring those who fought would come back to conditions where they could live in peace. No words can do justice to the sacrifices committed by so few, but owed by so many, though what we do on November 11th is a recommitment to the continued acknowledgement of those hallowed sacrifices. That we state as one people that we will never forget what was given in order to assure that all of us here have the opportunity of existing in a free society.

Mr. Speaker, my own father, George Stanley Cochrane, as well as other members of my lineage, served throughout the Second World War, and most fortunately, all returned alive. That is not to say though that they came back unscathed. When thinking of my father’s service, silence is the word that comes to mind, for he would never voluntarily broach the subject for reasons I can only assume originate from a sense of great pain and even greater loss.

The term, Post Traumatic Stress, had not yet entered our vocabulary and he and his generation found other ways to cope with the horrors of the battlefields. My father was a warrior all his life, he fought on the battlefield, he fought his demons off the battlefield, and he fought to make the Canada we know today. I loved my father, and admired his strength. A strength shared by all those who willingly put their lives on the line for duty and honour. On November 11th, I will honour all soldiers, medics and civilians who now only live on in memory, those today who are trying to return to normalcy, and those who are still fighting to return home. Mr. Speaker, Lest we forget.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize my brother, Stan Cochrane, and his wife, Karen Cochrane, who have joined me today to honour my father and the veterans of wars. There are also constituents of the Range Lake riding and local businesses involved in the mineral exploration field. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize Stan and Karen Cochrane for different reasons. My constituency assistant, Mr. Garett Cochrane, is Stan and Karen's son. I couldn't do my job without him. So thank you very much for providing me with a great deal of resources. Thanks for being here today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize my constituency assistant Ora Mercredi, and also Mr. Stan Cochrane, who we worked together on the Darnley Bay project which I just mentioned earlier. So welcome to Stan. It is good to see you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend best wishes to Xavier Bonnetrouge and Marie Bonnetrouge who celebrated their 60th anniversary this year. They were married in Fort Providence, August 27, 1956. Louie Bonnetrouge and Rosa Bonnetrouge were witnesses at their wedding. Xavier and Marie have 11 children, 33 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke about the importance of building a knowledge economy in the North and the idea of transforming Aurora College into a polytechnic. I know that the Minister is engaged in a strategic review process working with the Aurora College leadership. I am interested to know when honourable Members, here in this House, will be able to see that strategic plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; we were just awarded the contract for the work to be done. We are going to be engaging a lot of our stakeholders. It is a key priority of our department to make sure that we are working very well with Aurora College to develop the strategic plan. We are going to reach out to community governments, Aboriginal governments, GNWT departments, staff, students, as well as Members. As this has just started up, once we get a timeline and schedule, we will share that with the Members and get their feedback and input into this action plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister just indicated a list of stakeholders and those sound like a good start. There are a number of examples of community colleges or smaller colleges that have evolved into polytechnics or university colleges. We are seeing that process happening in our neighbouring territory, the Yukon. Will the stakeholder consultation also involve speaking to those experts and seeing how they were able to transform their post-secondary vocational institutes into formal polytechnics and university colleges?

We always look to see what are the best practices throughout other jurisdictions; however, we just released a labour market information report and the Skills 4 Success Strategic Framework and Action Plan which is going to help guide this strategic plan moving forward with the Aurora College in developing their programs. We should have something in place after all the consultations and engagements are done. We also want to utilize more of our learning centres. We have 23 learning centres in the community that we want to utilize a lot better to get the training, the skill developments and help some of our employers with the in-demand jobs and the needs that they need.

So we're going to look at what's being done, but we really want to have it guided by the Skills 4 Success Action Plan as well as the labour market in-demand jobs and needs assessment that were released earlier this year to help our communities and our business get Northern employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the Minister's answer, and that's exactly why we need to do more with Aurora College. We have a real labour market shortage and a shortage in education; however, I think Aurora College now is focused on a wide variety of issues. Recently, the government moved it from education to labour market development, and we've seen in the recent capital budget a new heavy operator training facility. So we are making some decisions about the future of Aurora College.

I guess my question then, Mr. Speaker, is: are we going to continue to make these decisions as they meet our needs and as opportunities are available or are we going to wait until that strategic plan is completed before proceeding any further with redeveloping Aurora College?

That's exactly why we're going out doing the consulting and engaging with all our stakeholders. We do have three campuses throughout the NWT that meets specific needs for different communities, different groups. We want to make evidence-based decisions and we're going to wait until that report is done, it should be ready, as I said, June of 2017, and be ready for implementation in the 2017-2018 academic year.