Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Thank you. You know, I've heard, and I am sure there must be some other Members too that heard from their constituents saying that, you know, the older workers, they've said it many times that they train -- they don't mind training their own Indigenous but not others because then they take over the jobs, you know, like, and then our young people lose out. So that's why some of them had an issue with it. So that's why I am asking, like, if it's 100 percent northern residents that were employed. And I know a lot of them had issue with that and I thought I'd just -- I'd mention that in here.

Anoth...

(audio) I know there's a lot of transfer assignments, and especially with Tlicho, I think they have, like, over 10. I think because of that I strongly believe that many of these transfer assignments, I -- it's probably from Yellowknife positions, headquarter positions, and/or North Slave, the one that they -- now's the time to transfer some of these jobs to the small communities where -- it's not just -- because eventually those people that are in that job, they're going to get old. They're going to retire. And, you know, we need to -- we need to start focusing on the younger generations where...

Thank you. According to your business plan here on page 15 -- 14 and 15, you know, the mines are going to be closing. We know that, you know. And then there's three mines that's going to be closing. And I know it's going to have a major impact, especially on my region, because there's a lot of people employed in my -- a lot of people from my region are employed at the mine. So I just wanted to ask the Minister, it says here 100 percent of Diavik mine closure workers that want to stay in the NWT are employed. And on the next one it says NWT workforce is maintained. So I just wanted to ask the...

Yeah, they serve all of the Northwest Territories headquarters. I think we can be more efficient, more effective, if we saw some of these headquarters positions in other regions rather than just in the headquarters. Because right now, now is the time where we are advocating for more jobs to be transferred and/or created especially with the mine closure and, you know, with the minerals and petroleum resources, they are all in the regions outside of Yellowknife. So will the Minister commit to possibly transferring some of these headquarters positions to the region so that they are building, you...

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I asked for what steps.

Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to strengthen prevention supports for families so that fewer children need to be removed from their parents in the first place? Thank you.

Since you brought up the intern positions, you know, they are training positions. I know at one time, and I've said it a few times before, there was a lot of training position within the government, and I know some of those intern or trainee, they move up, they were promoted. I just want -- will they be bringing back some of these training positions so that we focus on our people in our regions? Is there any other plan in place to train more people from the regions? Thank you.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [Translation] Masi, Mr. Speaker.  I myself would like to say -- to show respect, I also would like -- also our Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty is here, the Tlicho grand chief, and also Doreen Lafferty Zoe, Charley Eyakfo, Doris Tom, Marvin Tom, Tavy Dechambault, Elsie Mantla, and Elisa Zoe, Daniel Zoe, and Bertha Drygeese, all the ones that I know that are here.  Maryanne Vital from Deline also -- is also -- is also here and also Tracy Smith.  Each and every one of you that are in the gallery, thank you for being here.  Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation Ends] Doreen...

Thank you. You know, there's -- I don't want to take from other regions, but there's a lot of jobs allocated or there's a lot of jobs in the headquarters and some in North Slave. Tlicho is not part of North Slave for -- and there's one job for economic development diversification, and there's about 53 jobs, you know -- and when -- from last fiscal to upcoming fiscal year, 53 jobs created. I mean, there's one job that's added, or two jobs, and nothing in all the other regions. So I just want to ask the Minister do they have a plan in place, or are there -- are they going to transfer or thought...

Okay, thank you. Thank you for the information. I live in Tlicho region. I haven't heard of any tourism happening in the region. Maybe the fishing lodge. But, anyways, I want to go on to the next item.

For future explorations, you know, there's an increase of NWT Indigenous, NWT residents employment in the natural resource sector. We know that, okay, the diamond mines are closing. We have no control over that because it's our market -- you know, it's a market that we have no control over. But we know that there's the -- the gold price is up. So I just wanted to ask the Minister -- because I do...

Okay. According to her knowledge, is there any license issued to Tlicho? I don't think there's any, but I am just asking. I just wanted to know if there she -- if there is, if they issue any license -- tourism license to Tlicho. Thank you.