Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to continue consideration of Tabled Document 143-18(2), Capital Estimates 2017-2018. We would like to consider the Departments of Justice, Education, Culture and Employment, and Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, many of the job and employment opportunities I speak of would be projects at the community level, various projects that the community could carry out as part of employment. I'd like to ask the Minister if it would be possible for the Minister to work with his department to direct the client service officers to work with the communities to look at all possibilities of employment in small communities.

Marci Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Education questions on my Member’s statement. I would like to ask the Minister if he is willing to review the Income Support Program in small communities, Employment Support Program, to look at the feasibility of transferring budgets to make the Small Communities Employment Support Program more substantial. Thank you.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about employment in small communities. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment has two programs that I will speak of. Firstly, Mr. Speaker, is the Income Support Program. This program is designed to provide income to families mostly in areas where there are very few jobs. This program is needed but should not be a way of life.

The second program I wish to speak of is a Small Community Employment Support Program. The budget for this program is limited but should be...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister could commit to having that discussion with the federal government. On the community learning centres, as we know, and in the small communities, the community learning centre, it's an active place, many people benefit from that. There is, as I've always indicated, low employment in the communities and it would be nice to be able to support adult students that are trying to upgrade their skills to make themselves more employable. I would ask the Minister if he could commit to having that discussion with the federal government to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Along the same lines, in the 20-year assessment there is a capital item, the community learning centre. There's a 2018-2019 in the 20-year assessment within the next five-year capital plan time. In Ndilo there is a community learning centre scheduled in the 20-year assessment for 2018-2019. I was wondering if the Minister could give me a schedule update on the community learning centre for Ndilo.

I have nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm going to talk about what's not here today on the Capital Plan listed on page 11, and that is the Capital Plan to construct a gymnasium and a couple of classes for the K’alemi Dene School in Ndilo. Mr. Chairman, my understanding is that the numbers at which the school becomes eligible for its own gymnasium is 125 students. I see that there's been some departure from that in the past, but I didn't know what the full capacity of some of these schools were at the time the gymnasiums were built.

The bottom line is that K’alemi Dene there is currently 117...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister work with other Ministers in Cabinet to utilize other government programs. I spoke of other government programs that can, I guess, create employment in the small communities. So can the Minister commit to the House to working with other Ministers in order to look at all the employment possibilities at the small communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is more a human capital, but I only wanted to get the floor to welcome Mr. Hagen to the House. I believe this is his first time in the House as a deputy.