Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is certainly a great pleasure to have the opportunity to follow up on my Member’s statement. I want to find out, first and foremost, what is the government doing to promote these 800 vacancies, as highlighted by the government, and certainly reaffirmed by the Minister of Finance that 571 jobs are being actively recruited by this government.
I will ask the Minister of Human Resources, what is he doing to ensure that Northerners have an opportunity at these jobs first and foremost, because when you look on the website it only shows about 100, 120 jobs. Where are we hiding them?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is our mode of communicating with individuals. A careers website is what we’re using to advertise for the people that are looking for jobs in the NWT. The departments, various departments are constantly trying to advertise the jobs on the career website. If there are 100-and-something jobs on there, I can check with the department to just determine why there are not more jobs on the career website at this time.
I’ve been contacted by public members who have gone to the job website and are not seeing them there. Of course, it’s a huge concern of theirs that they feel that the government is slapping them in the face when the first whistle stop is Ottawa. What’s next? Vancouver, maybe Edmonton, before Inuvik or Hay River or even Yellowknife?
My question now to the Minister of Human Resources is: What is he going to do to demonstrate that he’s in charge of this file and showing that he’s actively looking for people in the Northwest Territories for these jobs? Because right now, as everybody knows, these small communities have an over 30 percent unemployment rate, and right now they see no hope, and demonstrations like this prove that the government has abandoned them.
The Department of Human Resources does work with all departments in trying to fill the vacant positions in the small communities. We are well aware of the employment rate in the small communities, that they are very low.
If we could fill all the jobs in the small communities, we would do that, and we constantly work with the departments to determine which jobs can be filled, which jobs we’re having difficulty filling and so on. In the small communities, I recognize, as a Member from a small community, we need to have jobs in the small communities, and we are doing everything possible to fill those jobs.
Mr. Speaker, the Bureau of Stats website is an amazing source of information. It says there are about 2,000 people unemployed who are looking for work in the Northwest Territories. That 800 set of jobs would do significant damage to that 2,000 level of unemployed, Mr. Speaker.
The last point I will make, in the Handley government it was 5.65 percent unemployment; in the Roland government it was 6.625 percent unemployment; and now in the McLeod government we are now into 8.15 percent unemployment in the Northwest Territories.
What is this Minister going to do to put a dent into this huge level of unemployment? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I know that we need some infrastructure in the communities where the employment rates are low. Some of those positions can’t be filled unless individuals are brought into the community to fill those jobs, because some of those positions need some qualifications that are not easily attained in some of the smaller communities. The jobs that can be filled in the smaller communities with individuals that have the qualifications in those communities will be filled, but when we have to bring people in…
As I indicated in my response earlier, of the 570 active positions that we are trying to actively recruit across the government, I believe that the number, I don’t have it right here in front of me, but I believe the number was that 325, or something like that, required a university degree. In order to get somebody to fill those positions that has a university degree, we have to have individuals within the Northwest Territories with university degrees looking for work – we have a very small percentage of those people – or we have to go south to try to get those individuals to fill the positions. At this time, unless we are changing the job completely, then that is a completely different discussion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, I am well aware of the government doing placement opportunities, giving Northerners a chance. I hear from the public and they are concerned that these job opportunities are being held away from them. In other words, that they’re not seeing these opportunities and benefits. Of course, at the same time as the last point is, they start to ask themselves, why bother to live and invest here with their families in the future if this government shows little interest in them.
I want to know what this Minister is going to do to show that these jobs matter, and that Northerners matter, and we are going to try to hire for some of these 800 jobs that are open. I actually think it is more than 800, but we will get that cleared up here in the next day or two.
What is this Minister going to do to demonstrate that Northerners matter and we care about their families and we care about their investment in the Northwest Territories? Whether they are in a big community or a small community, it matters. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it does matter; I agree. This is a reason why we are trying to put infrastructure into the small communities.
In some of the larger centres, we do have very good employment rates. An example is the employment rate in the city of Yellowknife is over 80 percent; across the country it is 69 percent. The issue is not really because we don’t have infrastructure here, we don’t have infrastructure in the small communities. The low employment numbers in the small communities are due to education and housing and other office space and other infrastructure that’s needed to attract people into these small communities.
We are trying to put those things in place so that it could become a place where individuals could work. Without those things it is very difficult to recruit positions. We are trying to recruit what we can with the people in the communities, but if we have to bring someone in, we have to be able to provide them housing and a place to work. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Hawkins.
