Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the honourable Minister of DPW with respect to the apprenticeship programs within the government department, particularly Public Works and Services. We do have tradespeople and journeymen people there. At one time, we did have an Apprenticeship Program where all our staff members would have apprentices. Is that program still in existence for our government, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just with ways of reducing heat and power rates in the communities, again I'm not too sure if I'm asking the right Minister here, but converting the heat from power plants is a possibility but they're saying the cost is borne on the communities. So is there assistance that our government can help the communities convert the energy that's lost in the power plants? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I spoke about a new North, a prosperous North, a united North; a North that would be leading not only Canada, but also the world in many areas. Well, Mr. Speaker, this cannot be accomplished if we do not have the adequate skilled workforce and journeyman tradespeople.

In my recent tour of the constituency I was made aware that we do not have an adequate succession plan to replace our skilled workforce and tradespeople. Once our government was a model of training by providing each journeyman tradesman with an apprentice. For the last 12 years, Mr. Speaker, some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recently I received a call from Nahanni Butte and the topic, of course, is power and continues to be a concern over there, the power rates. Absolutely, the single biggest impact for granny from Nahanni is the high cost of power. I'm not too sure who to ask this to there, Mr. Speaker. I know that we have a territorial power support. Is there anything in the plan, are we going to augment it, add to it to help our people in our communities, especially another way of helping out the elders in there? With that, Mr. Speaker, I'll pass it over to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to know further from the Minister, I think the Department of Public Works is taking on more and more of a workload because it’s getting very expensive out in the marketplace and their workers are being pressed to be out in the communities more and more servicing equipment. So will the Minister look at extending this program to his department and look at extending it throughout the government to train our northern workers in this gap, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, there is a gap there when we want to address our front-line workers. We spent many months talking on the management side of things, the succession planning for our managers, the MAP program, et cetera. We have spent very little or no time at all how we are going to replace the front-line workers and that’s one of them. There is no one to replace the front-line workers. So if the Minister could tell me again if that policy is gone, is that what he’s talking about when he says it’s a new initiative, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just with ways of reducing heat and power rates in the communities, again I'm not too sure if I'm asking the right Minister here, but converting the heat from power plants is a possibility but they're saying the cost is borne on the communities. So is there assistance that our government can help the communities convert the energy that's lost in the power plants? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize a new constituent, a new regional director, Mr. Andrew Johnston, as well as former constituents Jim and Terry Villeneuve. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recently I received a call from Nahanni Butte and the topic, of course, is power and continues to be a concern over there, the power rates. Absolutely, the single biggest impact for granny from Nahanni is the high cost of power. I'm not too sure who to ask this to there, Mr. Speaker. I know that we have a territorial power support. Is there anything in the plan, are we going to augment it, add to it to help our people in our communities, especially another way of helping out the elders in there? With that, Mr. Speaker, I'll pass it over to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to know further from the Minister, I think the Department of Public Works is taking on more and more of a workload because it’s getting very expensive out in the marketplace and their workers are being pressed to be out in the communities more and more servicing equipment. So will the Minister look at extending this program to his department and look at extending it throughout the government to train our northern workers in this gap, Mr. Speaker?