Charles Dent

Thank you, Madam Chair. The reductions and elimination of wage subsidies to diamond manufacturing employees of $84,000 is included in there, and there’s a reallocation of salary funding. It’s an internal reallocation of $94,000 being transferred from apprenticeship to fund an existing career development officer position, because we have been able to fund one of the apprenticeship positions under the Labour Market Development Agreement. So there’s no change in the numbers of people doing the jobs, we’ve just been able to move some of our funding into a different area.

Mr. Chairman, if the Member is asking about the regional distribution of the numbers, we don’t allocate the numbers by region. It’s a total allocation across the Northwest Territories and money changes. If the North Slave region doesn’t need to have as much because the economy is good, then that money doesn’t get used there, but it may get used in another region. What we have found is that different regions have different demands every year because of the economy’s fluctuations.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe that, in terms of literacy funding, the only difference is the $300,000 that I mentioned earlier that has been cut from literacy funding. That funding was in a program called Workplace Literacy. It was a program that was application-based for employers to make application to provide literacy training in the workplace. It was not being accessed, so we have cut the program by the amount of funds that were being lapsed.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is an issue, I know, in some regions. For instance in the Sahtu, the caseload there only requires having one worker in the whole region. So that means that they have to go the communities. They're based in Norman Wells, and they have to get to Tulita, Deline and Colville. But given the numbers who are collecting income support in that region, that's all we can justify, because there isn't enough to keep more than that person busy. That's the situation we find in the Tlicho region, as well. If there are people who aren't being served, maybe we need to work...

Yes, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So far, we haven’t added any staff. I think we need to give the new management a chance to take a look at the situation and we will work with the current staff to assess the level of difficulty, if you will, and if there is a problem, we will have to deal with it. At this point, there has been no change.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The training that’s offered in Inuvik is pre-apprenticeship training. It’s not the apprenticeship training. That’s to help people get ready to pass the trades entrance exams. The college can certainly take a look at offering that in different places, so I would encourage the Member to continue discussing with the college the use of the facilities in Tuktoyaktuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can have a look at it. Recently there has been a consultation process that we've undergone with people across the North on our strategic plan. I would be interested in seeing, as we go through the data, whether or not any comments came out about that.

I suspect that the theory behind the six-month stipulation is that people come into the program, they have the clothing that they're wearing when they come into the program, and the reason for it happening every six months is that there's an understanding that kids grow out of clothing and people wear clothing out....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are planning to solicit specific comment in certain areas where we have had recommendations for change, particularly from the rentals officer. We are also going to open the door on comments on any area that landlords and tenants care to comment on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know I have attended a lot of standing committee meetings in that building and held public hearings in that building. It is a great old building, but we are not sure whether a change in ownership would change the fire marshal’s position. So we’ll have to take a look at it. It could certainly be a part of the process we embark on, on Monday, to take a look at that issue.