Tom Beaulieu

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

Mr. Speaker, time and time again I have asked about the issue of very low employment rates in Tu Nedhe. In other words, Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about people in Tu Nedhe that do not have work. Mr. Speaker, I have drawn comparisons to the larger communities in the NWT which have employment rates twice that of the small communities.

Mr. Speaker, if this government does not develop an employment strategy for smaller communities, things will not change. Employment development in the smaller communities will not impact the larger...

That’s it for questioning on this page.

I’m wondering if the department has done any work with other departments in the sense that... Let’s use the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Maybe a more common one could be the Housing Corporation or possibly Public Works and Services or any of those works departments. I’m wondering if the Department of Education, Culture and Employment works with any of those departments in the creation, using, like, I guess I use the term sort of like a critical mass I suppose, to use the various things that have to happen in the small communities and around the small communities. An example...

I’m very pleased to hear that. I have a question for the Minister on the same area, employment development. I’m wondering if the Minister or the department has an employment development strategy for each of the small communities like… That’s good for now. I’ll ask that question now.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This may not be something that’s directly the responsibility of the department, but maybe the Minister could deal with the college on this. One of the things that we’re finding just in general in the workforce is that a lot of the students that are completing the courses, they’re going into all kinds of different work environments and I’m wondering if there could be some sort of course that is preparing these students for work environments that they will encounter as they graduate from these programs. Thank you.

I was asking if the department has declined any other department or private company from a request to take on an apprentice. Like I said, I used an example of an LHO. Right now we have a dire need for tradespeople in the small communities and we have tradespeople that are getting to the age where they could potentially be retiring within a four-year period. We need to bring apprentices on in order to accommodate the future needs of tradespeople in the small communities. My request is if the housing associations and authorities were to request tradesmen right across the board, I believe there’s...

I guess I’m going to ask the department a question as to how many clients were being served for public housing only, I guess. I’m trying to figure this out because my understanding and I haven’t been able to actually talk to the income support officer because he’s not comfortable working for the government and dealing with this through the MLA, so I’ve been talking to other people. I’m trying to find out if the caseload actually did change. I’m wondering how many people were actually dropped from the caseload when the public housing was transferred back to the Fort Resolution Housing Authority...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to ask the Minister if there was a greater demand for apprenticeship and occupations. I notice that there’s a slight increase in the budget from 2010-2011 to 2011-2012. I’m wondering if the demand would have required a greater increase had the department met the demand of all of the other departments and agencies where an apprenticeship, even private business, I guess, everywhere where apprentice could be placed.

The regional positions, were they necessarily in the regional centres of Smith, Hay River, Simpson, Inuvik, Norman Wells? Were they in those communities specifically?

Can the Minister commit to giving direction to the staff to work with the local district education authority to come up with the costs to operate the old community learning centre as a shop for the career and technology services?