Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are related to the oil and gas needs assessment training. I wanted to ask Minister Ramsay – I know that he was working closely with the Department of Education and Culture and the Sahtu was going to complete a needs assessment on the Sahtu oil and gas training needs – has that needs assessment been completed?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d have to check with officials at the department and at ECE to find out the status of that work. Thank you.
I hope to hear something quickly from the Minister so that I can pursue this needs assessment in the Sahtu. Like I said, I’ve been on the Sahtu winter roads over the last couple of days, and I went to Conoco and Husky, and I went into the Wells and Tulita, and certainly there is a huge cry for training for the young people.
I want to ask the Minister, once he receives the report, could we look at the Sahtu needs assessment report and bring it to a Sahtu exploration readiness forum, conference, so we could start matching up training dollars with oil companies and the needs in the Sahtu?
Again, I fully support the Member’s push to have more training in the Sahtu. Currently, we are working with industry, we are working with ECE, and I will get that information to the Member.
Given the high interest in the oil and gas industry with all these contractors in communities, there are a lot of other programs going on, but right now the oil and gas industry is hiring a lot of people. Specialists are coming into the Sahtu to do a couple weeks of work then fly out. I’m looking at a training component base that’s strong in the Sahtu with the interests of the oil and gas being the main economic drivers this winter. We’re looking at this training program to the Sahtu needs assessment to be ready so that we can jump on the activity that’s happening now.
I want to ask the Minister, is there something that we can plan once the needs assessments have been reported, that we’d like to look at a second readiness exploration forum in the Sahtu region?
The success of the first readiness session we had in Norman Wells and the community meetings that we’ve had this past year were very successful in letting folks know what was happening in the coming year. I’ve had discussions with the Member and with the department and we certainly will try to move forward with a readiness session sometime this year, and we will also get that information on the training initiative, as well, and continue to work with folks in the Sahtu to ensure that there’s adequate training for people that want to take that training.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The oil and gas exploration is going to slow down sometime at the end of this month, so we need to jump on this opportunity as quickly as possible. When the Minister says sometime in the future, I’m hoping that between the end of March and sometime in September that we will have a training program offered to the people in the Sahtu based on the needs assessment and what’s needed now to help our people get jobs, get the training and build capacity. Can the Minister commit to having this forum prior to September?
I can’t speak to the training side because ITI is not responsible for the training initiative. Again, I will work with ECE and the department to find the information the Member is looking for. I do believe it is very important that that information comes out before ITI, with the communities in the Sahtu, puts on another readiness session there. That readiness session should happen before September, and I agree with the Member.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
