Alfred Moses

My apologies, Mr. Speaker, and my apologies to the Minister there. Like I said, I just want to follow up to questions about these reports that I’ve been trying to catch up on and getting reports on.

Under these last stakeholder meetings, there were nine sessions held throughout the Northwest Territories between 2009-2010. There were 36 organizations that participated and in collaboration with about 21 different strategies and initiatives. So a lot of information out there. Also in the report are 30 recommendations that were given to the department.

Is there an update on these 30 recommendations...

We’ve got some really good strategies out there such as the Economic Opportunities Strategy, which was mentioned earlier, the Oil and Gas Strategy being developed, Mineral Strategy. We have strategies in place. These reports give us information on what has been happening. Now we have to put it into action.

All the recommendations are in there, I’ve read it. Why don’t we put those into action rather than continuing to talk about it? We know these statistics are low. We know the economy is slow.

Will the Minister take this report and give this Assembly and residents of the Northwest Territories...

I know he’s going to all the regional centres. What is he doing for all the small communities where you’ve heard, more and more in this House, that’s where we’re having the highest unemployment rates? They are in the small communities.

How is he getting input or engaging people in the small communities to get them on board for this program but also get them trained and educated so they can get the employment they need, support their families and also the economy? What is he doing to engage the small communities outside of these regional centres that he mentioned earlier? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a couple people up in the gallery today: Ms. Julie Green, who is a very strong community advocate and one for the Anti-Poverty Strategy. I really appreciate what she does for the small communities and speaking up for the small communities. I’d like to recognize Mr. Grant Gowans who’s been a childhood friend of mine. He grew up in Inuvik and now resides in Yellowknife. But he’s taken on a new portfolio and I wish him luck in that portfolio.

I’d also like to recognize Mr. Andre Corriveau. He’s been a very strong mentor of mine but also a very strong...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree. The more information we get from our people speaking up, the better we can go ahead and make the decisions that we need to do. But there are 21 strategies and initiatives that I mentioned, not to mention the ones that have been developed since this consultation in 2009 and 2010.

I want to get back into the small communities. Because we’re going to be doing a symposium and I’m assuming that we’re going to invite the same people that we’re going to hear from at the regional sessions, I want to ask the Minister whether or not he can speak with his stakeholders to...

I appreciate the work that the department is doing in this area, but like I said, we’ve got a lot of recommendations, a lot of strategies out there. We’ve got to start putting money and our resources into creating action, creating jobs, creating the training that’s needed. Actually, in one of the reports one of the consultants identifies what is happening in each of the regions. Deh Cho has zinc; Sahtu has the oil and gas; Inuvik we have the Inuvik-Tuk highway, Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link; South Slave has Avalon Metals resource development all over these regions. Why aren’t our people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up with more questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, but it seems like he’s stepped out for a second. So please put me back on the list, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the effort. The Minister is showing the need to engage the residents of the Northwest Territories. I went on the Department of Education, Culture and Employment website and I was looking at what we currently do for the labour market and got some information. What I did pull up was an NWT Labour Force Development Framework from 2009-2010 that is supposed to guide us until 2020 that has specific recommendations, statistics from all the communities and from the Bureau of Statistics Canada, some really good reports.

I didn’t get a chance to look at all the reports, but why is the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. This week I believe the Minister and his department will be going out and doing some regional engagements throughout the Northwest Territories starting, I believe, today in Hay River, regarding a program called Skills for Success Initiative.

I want to ask the Minister in terms of this Skills for Success Initiative, what does he plan to get out of these regional engagements? I believe there’s a symposium that’s happening next month here in Yellowknife. What’s the Minister’s goal and objective...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I stood up in the House and I congratulated our young boys who were at the basketball championship. I’m happy and proud to say that our 19-and-under boys won the championship again this weekend. It’s the first time in about 30 years that Inuvik has won that championship.

They had a real great game. They won 61 to 56 over a very hard, very sportsmanlike St. Pat’s team, and I want to thank the coach and the St. Pat’s boys for making the game very exciting for everybody who was in attendance.

I would say there are a few boys on that team that are going to be...