Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the Small Communities Employment Strategy. I have questions for the Minister of ECE on that topic. Will the Minister consider having the Small Communities Employment Strategy delivered at a local level as much as possible?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. That’s one of our intents as a department, and I believe that is the GNWT’s intent to deliver programming at the community level as much as possible, whether it be at the regional office, at the local office. I’ll continue to work with the Member on the areas of challenges that we may have. Our goal is to effectively and efficiently deliver those key programmings into the communities.
Will the Minister allow as much flexibility into the program, into the three programs with the intent of maximizing local spending at the local level?
I need to work with the Member on the specific item that he’s referring to and defining the flexibility. We do have staff at the community level that work closely with the regional office, and also from regional office to headquarter office. We can provide those valuable services to the community through that venue.
When we talk about it at the community level, if we don’t have people present, then how can we deliver that program effectively? Those are areas that we need to seriously look at and how can we deliver those in a timely manner and efficiently. I will continue to work with the Members on this particular piece of work.
Will the Minister pass the majority of the responsibility of delivery to community client service officers at the community level which we have in Tu Nedhe, have them fill the roles as career development officers which are usually regionalized or headquartered and have them play a role during the rest of their time for the day? Right now they’re working half days. Have them do the career development officer position so that they can work full time in the communities.
In Lutselk’e we have a dedicated half-time position client services officer. This particular position deals with various cases on the client files. Adding more duty to that individual’s duties may be a challenge to some degree. Another area we can look at is the regional staff being visible in the community as much as possible. They are responsible for Lutselk’e and Fort Res. I can look at that angle, how we can deliver with the resources we have from the regional perspective into the community. I, again, will work closely with the Member on this.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Within the confines of these programs, would the Minister consider contribution agreements with the Aboriginal and local governments for transferring funds to those governments for employment purposes?
Those different contribution agreements we have conducted in the past with the First Nations community organizations. We can look at it as a potential to explore those areas and see what can come out of that or involve the Member in the discussion, as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
