Tom Beaulieu

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...

Mr. Speaker, the hiring practices of the GNWT are flawed and need to be reviewed so it can reduce the high turnover costs and, more importantly, allow equal opportunity for those who do not possess specific education requirements but do possess the related experience to do a good job. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Today I would like to talk about the GNWT’s hiring practices. As mentioned in this House before, the economies and employment opportunities in our smaller communities like Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e can only realize limited potential. Yet, in spite of this, many of the residents continue to live in these communities because it is home and has been their home for many generations. It is true that some migrate to larger centres, but for a good many, they remain committed to their community and will go out and get their education and...

Mr. Chairman, just switching gears for a second here and recognizing that library services in this area are really intended for community libraries, I am interested in if some sort of program could be put in place where this function, this task or activity I guess, could be expanded to support the library in a school. Right now, in Lutselk’e, there is no library and there is apparently a very good library in the Deninu Kue School in Fort Resolution. However, there is no library at all in Lutselk’e. I think it’s essential. Again, recognizing that this is a community library area and I’m not...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think those are all good initiatives. Is any of it going directly into supporting... The issue I have in one of the daycares is location, like to somehow bring the daycare into or close to the school. The other issue is staff complement. They are not able to support as many preschoolers as they would like to because they don’t have the money to hire the staff. So just a direct question if any of that funding is going directly into daycares.

Thank you, M. Chairman. Just a couple of questions I have here. I notice that the early childhood development budget has gone up quite a bit, quite substantially, actually. I am wondering if the Minister could advise me if there is any of the extra money going to support daycares in Tu Nedhe communities of Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. I talk about the students and even the absenteeism and then I get information from the schools and I am aware that kids going through a good daycare program have better success early when they start school, better success K to 12, especially better success in...