Tom Beaulieu

Mr. Speaker, many applicants do not possess a bachelors or a masters degree but do possess diplomas or certificates and certainly possess the experience, and they live in the smaller communities where they plan to live for years to come. Can the Minister commit to placing a greater emphasis on equivalencies and experience, even some emphasis on the ability to communicate effectively with aboriginal communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a friend of mine, Trevor Teed.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the Minister. As opposed to at this point I actually thought about what the strategy is for the government. This breakdown, my feeling is that in the area of career and employment development that the government, I think, has an obligation to maybe look at the areas of the greatest amount of unemployment and not using unemployment statistics, of course, because those are only if you ever get to the position where you can draw employment insurance. I am wondering if the government would look at employment rates in the small communities. I know that the employment rates are...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 10-23, apprenticeship and occupations, I just want to ask the Minister if there’s an expansion in the program. There is a couple hundred thousand dollars added to from the revised amount. There’s a real need in the small communities for apprenticeships. My feeling is that all tradesmen in small communities should be given an apprentice to create all kinds of economic possibilities in small communities, whether it be Public Works, NWT Housing Corporation through the housing authorities and whatnot. I know in my communities we have tradesmen that don’t have...

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit to looking at options for increasing GNWT positions in smaller communities, whether it be by creating, replacing or reallocating positions so that these jobs can be filled by aboriginal people and increase aboriginal content in the GNWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I talked about the hiring practices of the GNWT and how it places a higher emphasis on education and less on equivalencies and experience. I have a question for the Minister of Human Resources.

Mr. Speaker, almost all of the GNWT job ads have the “equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.” If you ask an aboriginal applicant who does not have a degree or a masters but has years of related experience, they would say that equivalencies are not taken into account. I’d like to ask the Minister: how does the department assess the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am okay to wait until we get to detail and get to the item on the right page.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was on the literacy tour in the South Slave with the Minister. I think that all indications are that if the students were attending school better than 90 percent of the time, we would probably be higher than functional grade level, actually. Would the Minister look at re-profiling some money to address the absenteeism issue with the district education authorities, from the department to the district education authorities? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, from the information that the Minister does have in the department, does the Minister agree that the more education a person has, the greater the potential a person has for employment and higher income?