Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of MACA. Given the community of youth and the nature of the department, it might be good to see what the Minister is willing to hire students in the communities. The department, going back through the Summer Student Employment Program from last year to this year, there’s only six students being hired. Is there any increase to the number of students being hired in the communities in the Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We currently have six summer students within the department. In some of the smaller communities, the recreation department in the community would use some of the money from MACA to bring on one or two summer students. If we were to take into consideration all the different agencies and delivering agents for some of the departments -- MACA or housing -- then we’d find that our summer student numbers would go up. The communities themselves would be able to try and access monies to bring on a summer student.
When the departments start planning on hiring summer students for the summer work season, how much money is the department giving to each community?
We make a contribution to each community. I think last year we made the contribution of $825,000 to the recreation in each community. We have it broken down by the communities. If they’re wanting to they’re able to use that money to… I mean, again, it would be the decision of the community. We can’t tell them how specifically to spend it. Through the committee of Rural and Remote Communities I believe we had identified some money that we wanted to funnel into the communities to help the communities with creating some employment that would obviously include summer students.
Although we’d obviously like to see increases in hires, would the Minister commit to hiring at least six summer students and try to double it to 12 this summer at Municipal and Community Affairs?
The departments within MACA have come back and said, well, they’ve funded for six students and this is what we’ve identified now. I think there’s an opportunity here for maybe all of us as MLAs to bring on a summer student. That would be an additional 19 summer students that we could potentially hire for two or three months. That’s something that we should consider.
In this day and age we have a lot of students that are out there looking for summer employment. I think it’s incumbent on us as Members, as departments, as all the delivering agents in the communities, the communities themselves, to see how many of these summer students we can put to work so as to be able to gather up some money for going back to school next year.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to direct my questions on this topic today to the Premier, the Minister responsible for the Executive and for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. The Department of Executive and DAAIR hired two summer students last year. To date how many students have been hired for this year?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have one that is hired and two positions that are in the process of being filled within Executive. Within Aboriginal Affairs I have two working in the department and another P1 in the process, as well.
It will be good to see some summer students working especially in DAAIR that are P1 candidates, because I’ve often found it curious that when DAAIR comes before us as committee and so on, that amongst their management there has been on occasion no Aboriginal representation in a department that actually oversees Aboriginal affairs and relations.
I’d like to ask the Premier when the planning for hiring summer students started, what does the department do? Do they look around at jobs that have been set aside? How is the planning? Take us behind the scenes and how the planning is done for summer students. Because, I mean, we are looking for value for money and I’m sure there must be a backlog of things that build up that people don’t get to. Tell us, how do you begin to identify work that could be done by a summer student?
The process that we use, number one is if there...and through the Department of Human Resources working through a number of categories and programs we have in place. For example, as individuals go through to college or university and they have specific training that could then be used by the department in some of the work we have scheduled for the summer season.
I’ll use last year for an example. We knew we were going to be tasking our people within Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations on the Northern Leaders’ Forum work on vision exercise, so we hired a couple of individuals there to help us with that work. So it’s that kind of planning when we know we have additional work to be done that we would begin that planning process, align with the pool of students that have been registered with the work that would be required if it fits with their school and experience in that area and progressive training in a number of areas.
I must say as well, though, at times we are targeted in a sense, pointing out that at the senior management table we seem to have a lack of Aboriginal people there, I can go through a list of Aboriginal people who have come up through the system and that have been scooped, I might say, by other departments as they’ve moved on to permanent jobs within the government in other departments. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it’s very reassuring to hear that it isn’t just looking for tasks that have languished on the back burner throughout the rest of the year and then looking at perhaps getting summer students to different jobs that perhaps are not departmental specific, but that we could take specific training that our post-secondary students are involved in and then apply that to initiatives being undertaken by that department to contribute to that. That’s very reassuring to hear.
Mr. Speaker, do you think it would be at all reasonably possible that we might get a total of five students between the Department of Executive and DAAIR for this coming summer? Would that be a goal that would be achievable? Thank you.
I believe we will be there this summer, with a total of five between the two departments.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of ITI, Mr. McLeod. It’s in regard to the position that he holds in regard to the area of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I think that a lot of times we lose sight that we do have subsidiaries out there, regardless if it’s through the Business Credit Corporation. In my riding we have the Fort McPherson Canvas Shop, which, again, gives younger people the opportunity to get training, but more importantly, get their first jobs.
Also, the other area in which the Minister is responsible is the area of tourism, in which a lot of Members in this House have had that opportunity of getting summer employment in that area. Again, I’d like to ask the Minister, as a department, have you looked at all the subsidiaries and all the different programs and services that you deliver to try to enhance the summer employment programs so that we can get the summer students in the different areas, regardless if it’s through the Business Credit Corporation, their subsidiaries, or through the parks and tourism infrastructure we have throughout the Northwest Territories so we give them that opportunity and also in the front-line workers?
I’d like to ask the Minister, have you broadened your scope of areas that summer students can work in so that we can hire more summer students in your department? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member may recall, when legislation was passed establishing the BDIC, that I’m very limited to the kind of direction I can give to the board. I can write them a letter recommending they hire more summer students, and I’m prepared to do so, but you have to also recognize the fact that the BDIC subsidiaries, we have to get FMB approval to subsidize jobs, because we figure that a job that’s not fully paid for is better than no job at all. In most of the subsidiaries we have to subsidize jobs up to a maximum of $25,000 per job, so we’re limited on that basis, as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as we noted last year, this department had one of the higher summer hires by way of 32 positions, but I notice it’s down this year. I’d like to ask the Minister, to date, how many positions have been hired and are we going to try to exceed the 32 positions from last year.
I’m pleased to report that without the first month not being completed yet -- there’s still three more months of summer employment available -- to date we’ve hired 26 summer students. We’re about five or six away from meeting our target for this year. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think the message we’re trying to send here to the Ministers and the different departments is that we want you to not only meet but we want you to beat those numbers from last year and get more summer students into the public workforce. I’d like to ask the Minister when did you start planning to hire summer students, and more importantly, what are we doing by way of promoting those opportunities so the students are aware that those opportunities are out there.
We started back in December and we identified the jobs on an ongoing basis, plus we also have projects that we gear to skills that different students have. For example, if we have a project, then we can start looking for students that have those skill sets that allow us to undertake projects that will allow us to go forward.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we heard earlier from the Minister, he doesn’t really like to be seen as directing departments or even tour operators for that, but I’d just like to suggest to the Minister that he write those letters and try to entice those people that are handling government contracts or providing government services, that they do consider summer employment as one of their options to stimulate our economy, but more importantly, give our young people an opportunity to go to work. Thank you.
I just want to indicate to the Member that I like to direct corporations but the legislation prevents me from doing so, so I’m just allowed to write them letters. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation with respect to the summer hire of students.
I want to ask the Minister, to date, how many students have been hired in the communities, the regions or headquarters that he could provide to the House today.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We place great emphasis on hiring students. We think it’s an important part of our practice to have students involved in our projects and in our departments. With the departments that I represent, both Public Works and Services and Transportation, so far we’ve hired 34 students. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, last year the Department of Transportation hired 31 students. Certainly, then, we want to see that number matched or even to increase. I want to ask for clarification, because the Minister is also responsible for DPW. When he said 34, was that the combination of both departments? I just want to ask about the Transportation numbers. Can the Minister clarify those numbers for me?
With the departments I represent, our goal is to hire 48 students, and we’re just about there. We’re short roughly a dozen students. The reason for that is we have a number of students who have identified that they want to work with us but they still haven’t, in some cases, finalized their registration with HR or are requiring certain documentation. We fully expect to reach our goal of 48 for both departments. Thank you.
What a Minister, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister are there other employment opportunities for the students such as specializing in the areas such as engineering and bridge construction, any of the summer students that are working in that area that the Minister has opportunities for these summer students to work.
There are opportunities in all our projects that we undertake to deliver, including with the contractors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister inform the House how many of these summer students have come on board with the Department of Transportation or PWS such as engineering or bridge construction or any other fields that the department is working in?
I’d need clarity to that question on whether he’s referring to this year or since the start of this government, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Now, the Department of Health and Social Services has made a significant commitment in the past to employ northern nursing and other allied health professional students every summer. To this end, they have implemented a Related Experience Program to help the authorities hire these students. Last year the authorities across the Northwest Territories employed 45 students who fell into this category: two in the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority; 13 in Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority; 12 at Stanton; six in the Beau-Del Authority; six in Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority; five in the Deh Cho; and one in the Sahtu. This year the numbers don’t seem to be what they were last year, Mr. Speaker. We have heard from nursing students that they haven’t been having any luck, or at least limited luck obtaining related experience employment.
Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister is: does the Related Experience Program still exist and will the Minister commit to working with the authorities in the Northwest Territories to ensure that at least 45 -- preferably more -- students who qualify for the Relevant Experience Program are hired again this summer? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will commit to meet with the deputy before the end of session tomorrow to get a better understanding of the numbers on a comparative basis and be able to speak more fully to that to the Member. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for that and look forward to receiving that information from him.
The second question I’d have is: inside the Department of Health and Social Services, last summer it looks like they hired 10 summer students and this year, again, the numbers don’t seem to be what they were last year. It’s already almost the third week in May. I’d like to ask the Minister how many summer students have been hired within the Department of Health and Social Services. Thank you.
Thank you. My list tells me there was seven that have been hired for this year, keeping in mind that every authority and the department, every department of government has been asked to manage their dollars in the most efficient way possible and it reflects some of those pressures, but seven is on the list I have here. Thank you.
Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister, the Department of Health and Social Services hired 10 summer students last summer. I’d like to ask the Minister, is the department committed to again hiring 10 summer students this summer. Thank you.
