Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I am just following up on our road trip last weekend. My back is still sore. However, I’m going to stand here and I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, with all the activity and training going on, if he would review and evaluate the training plans for the Sahtu so that the people in the Sahtu can meet at least once a month to start preparing a strategy to get people on the job, get them trained and get them moving.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree that there should be formal meetings, potentially monthly or quarterly. There are all these different activities happening in the Sahtu region. More specifically, through training, we do have a steering committee of the regional representatives involving different parties as part of their discussion and planning stages. What are the communities’ needs? By all means my department will be sharing that with the Sahtu regional representatives, and they should be having more council meetings preparing for the huge activity that will be happening in the region.
I look forward to working with the Minister in the Sahtu. The winter road is going to close down within, what, 25 days or so? Equipment is going to be sitting idle. However, we in the Sahtu want to start to look at next month.
Can we start assessing, start getting different types of training for the various different programs in the region? I want to ask the Minister if we could speed up the process, inform his department, the oil companies, and the communities and everybody. Let’s sit down in April, May and June and let’s put together a training plan that we can look at starting in July, and so forth, until the opening of the winter roads. That’s what we’re looking for. Would the Minister put the fire under the training committee to get them going?
I do believe there is a plan to have a meeting soon. I will be getting back to the Member on the dates of the meetings, if it’s going to be quarterly or monthly. Activities are happening as we speak. Preparation for the various training initiatives will be taking place. Those are areas that I will be instructing my department to work very closely with the Sahtu region; more specifically, the regional representatives that are on the steering committee to establish those meetings. I will be sharing that with the Member.
If anybody wanted the job, there’s a job to be had in the Sahtu. It’s busy. It’s crazy. People are working. Even down in Nahendeh. Even in Wrigley, as the Minister and I heard. There are jobs up there. However, I want to ask the Minister if he could somehow be directive and forceful and say to the Sahtu, let’s get the training jobs going. We could make a huge contribution. Let’s not give out any more social assistance. Let’s get our people working. That’s what we want. That’s the kind of leadership I’m looking for from the Minister here. Can he do that?
Yes, we can. This is an area that we’re very closely monitoring and there is a huge potential opportunity here. We have to find out the needs of the community. How much manpower is there in the Sahtu region? Who is trainable, employable? What are the training needs in the community? Industries have to be involved as well. We have to get the industries at the table and start discussing this immediately. I agree with the Member, we’re going to fast-track this and have a meeting within hopefully the next couple of weeks.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister, in regard to preparing a training plan, I believe we have the assessment. Would his department start going into the Sahtu while the winter roads are open in Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Deline, and Tulita and Norman Wells, and bring them together? Cut down the cost, be efficient, be effective. Can the Minister do that within 25 days to get things moving?
Yes, this is an area that, again, we’re very interested. Along with the Deh Cho riding, there is a lot of activity happening. We want to expedite the process. The Member is alluding to within 25 days. I think that’s doable. Having our parties involved to get to the Sahtu region, the Deh Cho region, and start talking about the training plan. What is needed in the community? What kind of training is required from the industry’s perspective? Because industry have their own certain criteria of positions. They need to be involved. By all means those are areas that we want tackled from my department’s perspective. We need that data. Definitely, we’ll follow through with that expeditiously.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
