Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the mandate commitments is this government will take steps to close the skills gaps using the Skills 4 Success strategic framework, by working with Aurora College, a renewed strategic plan refocusing support for post-secondary institutions in the NWT, improving outcomes from our community learning centres, strengthening the apprenticeship program, and improving our career development services. I want to take a look at this specific mandate commitment, Mr. Speaker, and ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment how the government is strengthening the apprenticeship program. This is a big concern for my constituents in my riding. They want more apprenticeship opportunities. I would like to ask the Minister, what are we doing to strengthen the apprenticeship program? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, we are working on developing a strategic plan that we have worked with many industry partners, businesses, to get the input. We do know there are challenges out there in terms of practices. We have also heard this when we were at the mineral roundup working with certain industry. We worked with Aboriginal groups as well. The Aboriginal governments that came down to mineral roundup also brought this up. We are working on a strategy right now that we are hoping to have brought before the House sometime this year. Thank you.

Certainly, the Minister is correct that this is an area that needs a lot of work. I spoke to a business owner in my riding of Kam Lake who said he is ready to hire if only there are people for the jobs. I think it is imperative we get Northerners going. Can the Minister provide some more specifics on where this plan is? Have we started it? Are we going to see it early this year? Late this year? It doesn't sound like we have a very firm timeline for the development of this. I would like to get a little bit more detail if he could.

The Member wants a firm date. We should have it released by April.

As this strategic plan is going to be coming into effect with the coming budget as well, is there money in the budget to help implement the strategy and support the apprenticeship program?

We currently have a lot of partnerships moving forward where we continue to fund. We have labour market agreements where we work with municipal communities. We also work with businesses. We have a small communities employment program that works with communities to help address some of these needs that are needed. For apprentices and the program to move forward, right now we can't put any dollar figures to it when we don't have a strategy, and that strategy is going to come out in April.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there are some dollars that are required by the strategy, is the Minister able to indicate whether the government will have fiscal flexibility to invest in apprenticeships in the Northwest Territories as per our mandate commitment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. As I mentioned, we do have a lot of partnerships. The strategy is going to reflect what we are hearing from the businesses, industry, and the dollars that we have already allocated to the labour market areas is going to be same thing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation some questions that kind of came to mind when Mr. Blake was asking questions about the survey. I would like to ask the Minister if they had considered going door-to-door if the survey online is not proving to bring some results. I was wondering if the Minister would consider doing a survey, maybe not to every household in the NWT but to maybe small communities and so on? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated before, the results coming in for the survey are actually pretty positive. We're at over a thousand already, which is significant considering we have about 2,400 public housing units and about 400 market housing units, so a thousand out of 2,800 homes is pretty high, recognizing some of that is government.

As stated previously, I will not hire someone specifically to go door-to-door. I think there are better usages of the funds. We are doing a very comprehensive, strategic radio campaign, and, at the smaller communities, where they have very low results, we will be putting pressure on our local housing organizations and really trying to get the government service officers out and trying to reach as many people as possible. I will emphasize to them to try to reach the seniors in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A thousand surveys out of 2,800 is pretty good, but a thousand surveys out of 14,000 may not be as good. So, we're talking about, we're surveying, individuals that live in private homes, as well, and people that rent off other companies, and I wasn't -- I didn't know that this survey was restricted to public housing and market housing people only.

At any event, my question stands. I'd like to know if the Minister would consider local hires for doing surveys in the smaller communities, going door-to-door and trying to -- if the survey is the survey that we're going to go, then I think they're going to need help. My understanding is that GSOs are in a position to help. However, in three of my four communities I have no GSO, so, with that, I'm wondering if the Minister would reconsider, for the idea of getting probably the quality results from the survey, if she would reconsider hiring individuals in the small communities?

The MLA is correct that the survey is actually open to whoever wishes to fill in the survey. The majority of results are coming from people that are accessing housing programs. Again, that is compiled through Survey Monkey. I have stated that I will not hire someone for every community -- it would be a huge amount of money -- but I can look at any community that does not have either a local housing organization or a government service officer in that community, if there are any communities, then I will consider hiring someone for that community, but, any communities that have either a local housing organization or a government service officer, we will be asking those people to provide, to do, an intensive work for us.

I guess the idea of the survey, to review the policy, to improve policy, do some program planning, there must be some policies now that the Minister has really seen as outdated policies or this whole review and surveys wouldn't be occurring, so are there any policies which we would consider to be low-hanging-fruit policies that the Minister can look at immediately and make changes to show this House that she's serious about making changes to the policies?

Actually, at this point, now, we're just getting things in place. We had expected that the survey would be finished on January 27th. I was approached by an MLA in asking if I would consider extending it, like I had said. Again, this is the first time this is public knowledge or being put out there, that we have agreed to extend it for one month because it is important to get the results.

So, we're in the process of restructuring our whole office to make sure that we have enough people within the policy department to provide the analysis that we need, so we're doing that right now. We also are already starting to take off the information from the surveys that we've gotten. We will be producing at the -- we were hoping by the end of this session, but, since we're extending it for a month, we will hopefully in April have a document called, "What We Heard," and then, at the next session, we will be actually tabling it in the House so that it is public information.

Low-hanging fruit, like I said, there are three ways to do that. We have simple things, things that don't impact other departments or don't impact legally or previous tenants. Those things we will be looking at quite quickly, but, out of respect for the process, out of respect for when I became a Minister and promised to consult with people, to promise to use accreditation standards, we are in the process of getting things ready. We will not make major changes until the month is finished, in order to respect the input that will come from the people of the Northwest Territories.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at one point the NWT Housing Corporation did a comprehensive survey across the Northwest Territories in 1992, where they surveyed every household in the Northwest Territories. We're not asking for that. The Housing Corporation has been doing surveys for a long time, using statistical analysis on doing several households, but they do actually go to the households.

So, I would like to ask the Minister -- she had mentioned a few times that the cost was huge -- if the Minister could provide that cost of doing, not a complete comprehensive survey, but something that's been pretty standard in the past. What would that cost so that we could have an opportunity to analyze that cost compared to what we think the results that will bring? Thank you.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I spoke about the infrastructure deficit when it comes to commercial fisheries in Hay River, so I have some questions for the Minister of ITI.

As far as I understand, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation is responsible for maintaining their commercial fishing infrastructure in the territory. Somehow, we let them shirk their responsibilities, and the fishermen are the ones who ultimately suffered. Now we're left with a packing plant that needs about $2 million in upgrades to bring it up to code. I'd like an update on the status of the negotiations with freshwater and when we can expect work to begin on our processing plant in Hay River? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.