Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our country has invited 25,000 refugees to live in this wonderful country of ours, but our federal minister indicated that should not be at the expense of the poorest people in Canada and also that would include the Northwest Territories. We need to take care of our people first. Refugees will need a place to live and they will need a place to work and they will need a place for their kids to go to school. What I think is an important thing for the people of the Northwest Territories, especially people in the small communities, is that they need a place to work. We need jobs for the people in the small communities. Over the next four years, I would like to see this government work with the small communities to increase employments rates in the small communities to 55 per cent, Mr. Speaker.
Fifty-five per cent, to put it in some context, is a number that is manageable by small communities. Right now, most of the small communities' employment rates are in the 40 per cent category, some just slightly over 40 per cent. Overall in the Northwest Territories we're at about 66 per cent. It's not an insurmountable task to get to 55 per cent, as an example, in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. In the four communities that I represent, that means about 80 jobs.
I'm not asking about 80 jobs from the Government of Northwest Territories, I'm asking the government to spend strategically and use its infrastructure money and help other local governments and so on to put people to work. Right now, as opposed to putting people to work, what's happening is that our social spending continues to increase. It's a known and acceptable fact that employment rates and health outcomes are directly correlated. The lower the employment, the higher the health indicators we have in communities. That's also true for graduation rates, the rates of addictions, and the need for social housing. Employments rates in NWT are pretty good, as I indicated, but in the communities that I represent it's about 46 per cent, and I have done some work and I can see that it is very easy to achieve higher employment rates which will give us the numbers that we need to move forward.
