Thank you. With that, Members, we will have a short break. Thank you.
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Okay, Members, we're continuing with labour development and standards. And next I have the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, earlier I was unavailable; my computer died, so. I did want to -- I appreciate the opportunity to return to this.
I did want to follow up on what has been done or said about the nominee program with respect to the numbers. Maybe the Minister can enlight on that or the department as to what action they've actually specifically taken to demonstrate they need the current numbers. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister from Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this is not a conversation between myself and the federal government that -- or the federal minister that just started in January. We have, over the course of my time in this role, had the opportunity to be forming that relationship with the federal minister, have had the opportunity to have conversations with the federal minister around the importance of this program and the importance of building -- continuing to build a workforce in the Northwest Territories. And as we continue to make improvements to our own workforce development here in the territory, we still have needs beyond that, as I know the Member knows as well. And so certainly, when it came down to our program being cut, making phone calls to the federal government both from a political level and then also advocating as well from an official's level. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So is the Minister saying she made a phone call is the result? Or can she explain what whole response has been provided. I've asked for actions so -- I heard phone call. So what else has been done? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, as in regards to the federal government specifically, my advocacy and actions have been through letters and through phone calls. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Can the Minister provide those to committee members. Thank you.
I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'd be happy to provide both the letter that I received from the federal government and the ones that went back. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Just to be clear, she said she would provide the letter she sent and the letter she received back, I assume? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, as long as there's no issue with confidentiality in regards to the federal letter, then I'm certainly happy to provide it but I would certainly need to respect the federal government as well. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
So just to be clear, again, is the Minister's letter confidential, and was she suggesting she'll provide that to Members? Maybe we'll deal with these one at a time. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am more than happy to send the letters that I have sent to the federal government and share those with committee.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
What partners specifically -- and I'm referring to business partners, that is, in the city of Yellowknife or the territory at large, that she met with to discuss this particular challenge as well as to appreciate the impacts of these changes in plan? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Certainly, Madam Chair, I hear a lot about this program from my own constituents who I represent, and then in regards to advocacy with stakeholders that we had the opportunity to hear from and the opportunity to work with at the department in relation to this program here, there was the chamber of Yellowknife and the chamber of the Northwest Territories, our Chamber of Commerce Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce, and also CDETNO, and then in addition to that individual business owners as well.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. What actions or commitments has the Minister provided these organizations with respect to the responses to these changes? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, any outreach that I have received, I have responded to. And then the overall response would be meeting with stakeholders to determine their feedback through consultation, and then the results of that is the program that we announced on February -- last Friday, 21st, February 21st, and that's the program that relaunches this week here. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As to what actions or commitments has the Minister made to these organizations? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much. Our commitment was to relaunch the program after hearing from them. So we listened to them. We took into account their perspectives and relaunched the program. Madam Chair, there was no commitments made at the meeting because, of course, needed to ensure that we were weighing all of the facts and balancing everything out and putting together a program at the end of the day that we felt was fair. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Was the program relaunching itself, or did it take some intervention by the department and the Minister? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Sorry, was the question did the program relaunch itself?
Yes. Can I ask him to -- okay, I'll go back to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
In essence, was the program going to relaunch itself, or did it take some intervention from the Minister to relaunch it?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Well, certainly, no program from the GNWT launches itself. There's always a concerted effort behind it, Madam Chair. It was end of day back in January when we learned of a drastic cut to our allocation numbers of the nominee program from the federal government. Unfortunately for the deputy minister, he's been very gracious in giving me his contact numbers, so I was immediately on the phone with him. I asked for the program to be immediately paused. That was a political decision. I did not feel that we could in good faith launch a program within 12 hours that it's so drastically changed. Following that, I asked for officials to meet with CDETNO and the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce as well as the NWT Chamber of Commerce. Given the feedback and perspectives received there, we were then able to redesign the program, keeping in mind our new allocation of nominee program candidates or allotments. And then from there, we made a -- I made a commitment on the floor of the House to Members here and to residents that they would have time with the new parameters of the program before we relaunched it. So that is what we have given to people as of Friday, and the program will relaunch this week. It will be open for one week in order to give people an opportunity to get their applications in. I did feel that it was important that we give people that time because as we know, technology sometimes doesn't always work the way we want it to. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Was the lottery concept part of the redesign by the department? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Yes, that was part of the redesign.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
So how did they -- how did it come up with that the lottery is the best or most efficient way of doing this? Noting that it was given a week's notice that they would open it up for applications, 60 were already allocated, in other words unavailable, and the remainder would be open for anybody who were able to put a package together. Was there no consideration to evaluation of impacts of these particular jobs or on positions not being filled? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, as I've said multiple times in the House -- and I think it's really important to say again -- that there is absolutely no way for us to design a program that would have satisfied everybody in the territory who wanted to be a part of it. I am very sensitive to that. I am very empathetic to that. There's no way for us, with 150 allocations, to meet a demand that is far greater than that. And so there's no way for -- I knew there was going to be no way for us to launch a program that was going to be perfect in everyone's eyes.
I take full responsibility for the request of the lottery approach. It was something that we went back, under my direction, to the federal government and asked for. My concern was fairness in this process, and I didn't feel that launching a program on first come/first serve, where we could end up with technical issues, where we could end up with people in a panic the night before and the day of and the morning of trying to be the first one out of the gates. I thought it would be unfair because you end up with situations where people have themselves and their ten best friends waiting to put their application in, you end up with situations where the person with more data and the fastest internet being able to become part of that first come/first serve situation. And so having a more randomized approach meant that if somebody made the criteria and they met the deadline, that it did not hinge on them having the fastest internet or the most friends that could submit applications at the end of the day. Thank you.
Thank you. Next, I have Member for the Sahtu.
