Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I am concerned with addictions in the Northwest Territories and the lack of productivity it’s causing in our industries. My questions are going to be for the Minister of ITI.
Has the Department of ITI had any involvement with a drug and alcohol program for industry?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, when you have 3,000 migrant workers working in the Northwest Territories and people in small communities aren’t being employed, you have to start asking some questions. I’m glad the Member brought that issue up today, because I really do believe that we need to get more people working. If you get a training program where there are 24 individuals from a community and 12 of them fail a drug test, that certainly is an issue and it’s something that we have to pay attention to.
Training programs that are being put together, and I look at what is happening in the Sahtu – and the Norman Wells Land Corp has put together a training program run this past summer and it will be run again next summer – it’s important that basic life skills are taught to the younger people that want to be employed, in this case, with the oil and gas development in the Sahtu. The same can be said for mining. People have to learn that when the alarm clock goes off, you get out of bed and you go to work. You collect your paycheque and you keep working. Those types of basic life skills have to be ingrained in young people across the territory.
We continue to work with industry to find ways that that type of training can get out there and have a meaningful impact on our economy, and allow people in our small communities and across the territory to be gainfully employed.
I’m glad the Minister understands the problem here. My question is, though – the diamond mines have been here for a long time, for many years – what programs has his department worked with the diamond mines, for example, to get these people in the Northwest Territories to the job to be able to contribute to the economy of the Northwest Territories?
We haven’t quantified what that impact would be on the economy. At the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment we wouldn’t have programs like that. As I mentioned in my previous response, our goal is to work with other departments, with Health and Social Services, with Education, Culture and Employment to find a way to get those types of training programs out there. This department is not responsible for that type of training. But we do certainly work with industry. We recognize that it is a problem. Industry has brought that to our attention. Again, it’s not just mining and oil and gas, it’s other, you know, tourism. It runs the full gamut of the economy of the Northwest Territories and it’s certainly something we recognize.
I want to thank the Member for raising it. It’s a big issue. Perhaps we should take a look at quantifying what it means and the impact that addictions and people not able to pass a basic drug or alcohol test to get employment and what it means to the unemployment rates in some of our communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
