Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of Government of Northwest Territories 2016-2019. I would like to report progress with eight motions adopted. I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I conclude the debate.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The manufacturing sector in the NWT has been showing strong growth, averaging 26 per cent a year. If this government is serious about diversifying our economy, this is the sector we should be focusing on. It generates jobs, creates opportunities for apprenticeships and builds capacity. If manufactured products can be purchased locally that means money stays in the territory instead of flowing south. Right now, we have the NWT Manufactured Products Policy which is well-meaning, but inadequate. I've had discussions with manufacturers in Hay River and Yellowknife and they've identified persistent issues with the policy that runs across departments and hinders growth and employment. There is a need for a focused government-wide approach to this growing sector and for that reason I move this motion.

Mr. Chair, I move that Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of Government of Northwest Territories 2016-2019, be amended on page 12 by deleting the words “We will help to promote products manufactured in the NWT” and inserting the words “We will develop a northern manufacturing strategy in collaboration with industry and the NWT's Manufacturer's Association to expand the manufacturing sector, identify potential areas of growth, promote, and market products manufactured in the NWT and aid in the professional and technological advancement of the industry.”

We will take a short recess and resume with the first item.

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Just a comment: I look forward to working with the Minister on solving some of these issues, and I will be following up on the progress they are making on the floor of this House in the future.

Given the frustrations that have been expressed by entrepreneurs and journeymen and the Chamber of Commerce, will the government commit to meaningfully consulting small- and medium-sized businesses in the regional centres as they improve existing programs and develop new programs?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During my Member’s statement, I highlighted some of the problems we face in regards to apprenticeships in the regional centres, and I imagine they are much worse in the smaller communities. I have had business owners and journeymen comment to me that the system is better putting up roadblocks than helping Northerners achieve success. I ask the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment what his department is doing to specifically address the issues we face in regional centres and small communities, given that the current system is inadequate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government has tasked itself with fortifying our resource sector and diversifying our economy. These two goals require different approaches. However, to be successful at either it is essential that we have a well-trained workforce. The same way this Assembly is committed to supporting the physical infrastructure needed to grow the economy, we need to equally support the workforce development. If we spend hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure to attract new mining operations and don't have the skilled workforce to staff them, hundreds of millions more in wages will flow out of the territory, as has been the case for the past 20 years. In my experience working in industry and as an MLA, I've encountered many issues that hinder our ability to train, certify, and retain Northern residents. A major roadblock to apprenticing in Hay River, and I'm sure every other small community, is the lack of journeymen. I recently dealt with a constituent who wanted to begin offering apprenticeships to his employees. The problem was that in that particular trade there are only four journeymen in the entire territory, and none were available. This is a problem with more common trades as well. I've worked with people who have seven years of carpentry experience, but have never had the opportunity to be apprenticed. We have a small population spread out over a huge area, so these are the kind of problems that we run into. Because of this reality, we need to innovate made-in-the-north solutions to these problems.

A creative suggestion that I've received from some small- and medium-sized employers is to create a program where journeymen apprentice employees at different locations, different companies. Some businesses don't need or can't afford a fulltime carpenter, but they do enough carpentry work that their employees gain significant experience. A journeyman could spend time at different locations verifying the amount and quality of work and signing off on hours. If it was a government-run program, they could utilize current employees, making it very cost effective. I understand there also used to be a program where the government would take on an apprentice with the sole purpose of giving that person the opportunity to become a journeyman. Once he or she received their ticket their tenure ended. The value added to the economy by having a skilled worker who is more employable, higher paid and who can apprentice future workers far outweighs the minimal costs of this program. These are just a couple examples of the kind of programs we need to be looking into to build a workforce for the future. I've worked with Minister Moses on apprenticeship issues and I know he sees the importance of them, so I'm optimistic that this Assembly will see some much-needed and impactful changes to our apprenticeship programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.