Thank you. Talking about money, I indicated in my Member’s statement that we have built a major highway and we’ve put money into it. We know that’s a federal responsibility, but we know that in order to get some of this stuff going we need to have the leverage.

So, has the Minister talked about us looking at putting some money in to leverage the federal government to get this dredging done?

Can the Minister elaborate on these meetings and how many meetings have happened and when do we expect results to say that this is what we expect to happen over the next little while, over the next two years, 10 years, whatever the expectations are? We’d like to know at least an action plan going forward about the Hay River dredging.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions, again, will be to the Minister of Transportation on the dredging issue. Can the Minister indicate to me what communications have been done with the federal government to get dredging done in the Northwest Territories and the Hay River area?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two constituents: Ted and James Cayenne from West Point, as well as Grand Chief Norwegian. Obviously, good to see him. We’ll probably see him this summer at some auctions, and some others. Lloyd Chicot, a good friend. Good to see them, and all the leaders from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise again to speak about dredging in the Hay River area. I think this is, at a minimum, the tenth statement I’ve made on dredging and the requirements of dredging to be done in the Northwest Territories. I’ve made this statement to two different Ministers and to several different departments.

There is no progress in this activity, and it’s frustrating for me and for my colleagues in the area that know that there’s an interest that dredging be done in the Northwest Territories.

This government has indicated that there’s lots of infrastructure money going towards all kinds of roads but very little, if any, going to marine and especially going to dredging.

I’ve had numerous excuses given to me that it’s a federal responsibility, but it’s our government that needs to step up and put a plan together to get dredging done. We have committed and taken our task of building roads. That used to be a federal responsibility alone; now we’re doing two-thirds/one-third. Where is the government’s one-third on dredging to get the federal government to do dredging?

I will have questions for the Minister of Transportation again. Where is the dredging for the Hay River area? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just wondering what it would take for the Department of HR to – and again I see HR as the lynchpin for all the departments – to implement this and say this is the type of mentoring program that we want all the departments to look at when they are hiring positions. If you have a large vacancy to use, even engineers in transportation, for example, there are all kinds of different examples and we hear them all the time, we talk about it to students wherever we go, they are talking about deciding whether they are going to go back north or taking a job in the South. If that person already has a job in their third year before they are done their schooling and they already know they are committed to come to the North and they are from the North, they understand the realm and the considerations that are involved, but they already know they are coming back, so they are not job searching in the South. They already have a commitment. They are comfortable. If we can give them some sort of assistance from their job position, it is something that we need to implement, I think. To use that to leverage students to come back, it is going to basically give them the comfort, give us the comfort

that we have Northerners, that we have people from the North.

When they come back here, they tend to stay here. We are not hiring somebody from the South that has to learn what the Northwest Territories is about, be concerned about the weather, or be concerned about the communities they are coming into. Most of these Northerners will know that. They will understand where they are going to if they are going to one of the smaller communities or if they are coming into Yellowknife or Hay River. They know exactly where they are going. They understand the whole thing, so this mentor program is something I strongly feel is a good avenue for us to make our students come back to the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My next question, I guess, is more specific to that linking in that I would like to see us implementing a mentoring program. I know from my personal experience when I was doing a post-secondary degree I had an opportunity to get on a mentorship program, a training program where in my third year, once I was done my third year I got a position with the GNWT, so in my fourth year, when I was down in Lethbridge, I didn’t even bother looking for a job anywhere else. I knew I was committed to the Northwest Territories, coming back.

Are we working on programs, I see HR is the link for this for all of the departments, is there a way to mentor or offer these students positions before they are done their degree, before they have been in their last year of university and before they are being recruited by the big shell companies before all these other companies in the South that are

looking for employees, skilled educated employees? We should be doing the same thing.

Obviously, all that communication we have just been talking about I think would be very important for us to link that and try to get them in before, get them into our government realm before they start looking for a job. It gives them the confidence, gives them the direction that they know they are going to come back. I think it goes hand in hand with our goal of bringing 2,000 people to the Northwest Territories. If you already have those people committed to a job, and we have a large vacancy so I can’t see why we are not doing more of this to mentor, to train, to training positions. Some of these people are very, very highly skilled, so I wouldn’t see them just coming in as juniors. Some of them could be coming in to middle management, depending on their degrees, or skilled labour, a skilled workforce. Is there anything that the GNWT is working on in that direction?

Thank you, Madam

Chair. I guess most of my colleagues have covered a lot of the issues we’re talking about, so I’m going to focus in on one issue. I think Mr. Dolynny skated around the issue I have. I want to talk about students and the vacancies that we have, and I’m talking about students that are getting a post-secondary education, whether it’s in the Northwest Territories, whether it’s in southern Canada.

Have we worked out the ability to contact students and tell them about job postings that are in the Northwest Territories for them to take advantage of? Have we straightened out that issue with student financial assistance and be able to contact students directly on how we can give them the information; these are job postings, these are potential jobs that we have in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about getting the fish into different agencies and I’m wondering if the Minister could talk to the Minister of Justice and get it into our correctional facilities. Is that a possibility?