Alfred Moses

As you know, on April 1, 2017, there were significant enhancements to that program, with an influx of an extra $3 million. We made some changes to the program; part of that was actually looking at communities that weren't eligible before, and I'll say it again, these communities that were ineligible to apply for funding were Behchoko, Hay River, Inuvik, Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, and Norman Wells.

As Members of this House do know, we have seen a downturn in the economy, and I think this is an opportunity to work with other communities that weren't eligible for this fund previously to offer those...

Yes, I am well aware of that. We also have to understand that this program itself is applicationbased, so we work with our partners to ensure that they can put in an application and get that funding through the application process.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, one of the mandates of this government is to increase employment rates, close the skill gaps throughout the Northwest Territories, and obviously $3 million in employment in small communities would be significant. We would see a lot of businesses that would train locals, as well as a focus on skill development, and create employment. As you go back through the history, the Small Community Employment Program with the funding that we had in previous years was not fully utilized. With the increase influx that we have gotten, I think we will continue to...

Currently, our utilization rates are a little different from the ones the Member presented. We are still waiting for official enrolment rates at the schools, and we are still working with both district education bodies to try to address this space sharing, the space issues that are arising in Yellowknife schools, so we are continuing to work with them to find a solution.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we could have a good discussion about utilization rates here in Yellowknife, where the utilization rates vary from school to school across the community. When we look at our utilization rates, we do assess them by community, and unfortunately here in Yellowknife we do see some schools that have some high utilization rates.

I can let the Member know that there was a review conducted at the schools in May and June with the staff from my department as well as the respective education districts. They walked through the schools, looked at spaces and what the spaces...

Yes, I do. As I mentioned, the economy has taken a downturn; we do have more unemployed people in some of the communities, and I want to make sure that we focus on giving them every opportunity to get employment as well as develop their training and their skills.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That focus is to create employment in our small communities across the Northwest Territories, as well as work on developing training opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I am well aware of that. That is why we are making some of the initiatives, strategies, investments, to address those issues. The Small Community Employment Support Program is one way we are doing that. Our enhanced Student Financial Assistance so people can get the training that they need to so that they can enter the workforce, our labour market contracts that we have with the federal government to address some of those labour market needs, as well, there are many areas that we are doing to try to address these concerns. We are working as a government to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. Employment rates go up as the communities get smaller and, in some regions, we have seen where employment was thriving at one point and now it is, I will not say diminished, but slowed down by a lot. We want to make sure that we allow our residents, our Northerners, the opportunity to get the training, get employment, as well as increase skill development.

As I've stated earlier, we continue to support the students in the TEP program as well as the social work program. We will continue to commit to making sure that they have every opportunity to succeed here in the Northwest Territories at Aurora College, but also students who are getting an education down south. That we're going to commit to making sure that our students have every opportunity to succeed in whatever programs they're registered in, Mr. Speaker.

I can't speculate at this time what the review is going to say and what those recommendations are going to be, but when we do get those...