Charles Dent

Mr. Chairman, I would have to ask the college board to give us a breakdown if they could. We don’t fund them by regions. We don’t track it that way. We fund the college and the board, and the board, like a school board in Yellowknife, for instance, spends their money as they see fit. They don’t tell us how much they are going spend to at each campus they have.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will follow up on the Member’s advice.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In our recent discussion at the end of February with the board Chairs, the issue of trades and the demand for trades training in the North was certainly a big topic of discussion. So I think that we are already taking that opportunity. There has been a real change in emphasis in the past six or seven years in education in the Northwest Territories in what sort of emphasis we put on trades training. There are so many future jobs in the Territories that are going to require trades training, that it really is an area that has a tremendous amount of opportunity. It's...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, this isn’t a number that the boards have ever reported to us. Like I say, most boards did not charge any extra fees, so it’s not something that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment was ever involved in. We could write a letter requesting the amounts that they were getting, if the Member would like, and we can pass that on to her. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I understand it, when the program was started three years ago, the intention that was always stated was to review it at the end of the program. So the review process wasn't started until fairly recently. So it hasn't been an ongoing review; it is something that has been recently undertaken.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is no money going to administration. It’s all program. No additional staff at all.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If memory serves me right, in this current year there is $200,000 in minor capital going to repairs in that area.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Subsequent to the Member’s question in the House and my response to him that he has referred to, I heard from the Federation of Labour and they offered to meet with me to discuss this issue. I have accepted that offer and indicated to them that I am prepared to meet to carry on these discussions. I am purely confident that unions will understand that northerners expect to see significant northern involvement in employment in the construction of pipelines in the North, and I think it is incumbent on us, through the Minister of RWED, to negotiate a good agreement that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am sure the Minister of Finance was listening to the Member’s earlier comments and will be prepared to respond to the Member at an appropriate time on those comments.

On her second point when it comes to the apprenticeship issue and the human resource support that we provide, I have indeed heard the concern expressed by Members here, and I have asked the department to take a look at that. There is a review underway right now. We currently have six staff supported by career development, or career centre staff across the Territories, but we are examining the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there have been no formal requests for the department to reimburse boards for those monies so far. I think it’s important to remember that there are only a few boards that actually charged fees. Most boards in the Northwest Territories did not charge any extra fees. We would be hard pressed to justify giving extra money to some and not to all.