Tom Beaulieu

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I talked about poverty. I'd like to ask the Minister responsible for Poverty a couple of questions on that.

The federal Minister of Family, Children and Social Development has said that provinces and territories have provided ideas on how to engage the federal government differently. How will the Minister, our Minister, ensure the needs of the Northwest Territories are represented in the new Poverty Reduction Strategy under development at the federal level? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just a few items that I also want to speak about in my opening remarks on this department. First, the one that's having the greatest impact upon the communities I represent is junior kindergarten. The Minister has indicated that it is fully funded, but the amount doesn't fully fund junior kindergarten. At the outset, there was $2 million taken out of the school boards' funding to address junior kindergarten the first year of rollout.

That $2 million doesn't seem to be in the framework anywhere anymore, and I believe that these decisions were made by the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not necessarily talking about filling positions. What I am referring to is, during the amalgamation, sometimes when you amalgamate you get two positions at the same level. When those positions move forward and there are two positions of the same level moving forward, does this government apply the Affirmative Action Policy when they figure out which one of the two candidates is going to be receiving that position? Thank you.

Is there work being done on ensuring that the affirmative action is being followed?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, can the Minister tell me how many positions existed in mineral petroleum resources, active positions, in 2015-16, so that I get a better picture of what the director is referring to?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 26118(2), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 20172018, with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Summer Student program is an excellent program run by GNWT. The one bit of issue with it is the competitiveness of the private small businesses around the NWT when it comes to trying to hire summer students. I would like to know if the Minister has considered a way, in addition to trying to increase the number of hires by GNWT, of trying to support the students who are going to be going to the small businesses in a way of a subsidy or something like that for small businesses or for the students directly who wish to work for small businesses?

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Human Resources on summer students. Mr. Speaker, on April 30th this year, about two and a half months from now, the students will be coming back to the NWT or finishing off their post-secondary schooling here in the NWT. I would like to know if all of the departments are starting to advertise and take applications for summer students at this time? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This has got me confused. Did the Minister say there were 14 positions in -- okay. According to this there was a huge increase in the amount of positions. I wonder if the Minister would like to clarify what he means by 14 positions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.