Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about young people working as surveyors, and these young people had a very great opportunity in the early stages of their careers in working with mentors that help refine their careers and their work as surveyors. My questions today are for the Minister of Lands. Could the Minister provide some examples of survey work that is currently taking place in the NWT? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have any ones off the top of my head. I mean, I will follow up on that and see if there is work that is ongoing right now, but I take the Member's point and I appreciate his comments about trying to get our young people interested in the trades, surveying and community property assessment and that. It's a thought that we've shared, and if we can encourage our young people to take those types of training, then there could be some opportunities available for them.
I'm glad the Minister didn't go on an obtuse tangent, but he committed to the idea of the point. Would the Minister agree or commit to work with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, municipalities, and other departments as required to find meaningful ways to recognize the work of First Nations surveyors in building our current communities? Mahsi.
I'll refrain from going on another tangent that the Member speaks of. I will be very diplomatic in my answers. Mr. Speaker, could I ask the Member to repeat that question please?
---Laughter
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that was a 360. Would the Minister agree to work with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, municipalities, and other departments as required to find meaningful ways to recognize the work of First Nations surveyors in building our current communities? Mahsi.
I could have just said yes in answer to his question. Yes, I will work with the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. We all know that he can be difficult to work with sometimes, but I will commit to working with him and seeing what kind of opportunities we can put together for people. I have been looking through a number of courses offered through other institutions and looking at what the requirements are, and there is no reason why we can't maybe look at making some of those opportunities available here. Again, the first part of it is to try to get our people across the Northwest Territories interested in this type of occupation. There will be opportunities for them.
I'd like to thank the Minister for his reply. What is the Department of Lands prepared to do in terms of promoting careers in surveying and geomatics among First Nations youth, highlighting how spending time on the land can enhance future professional skills?
We started the process during this exchange, where we're promoting trying to get those interested in surveying to take up the trade. I think one of the first things we do is have to identify where some of our needs are for training. If we can identify those, and if there are opportunities for us to put some training programs together, work with Education, work with the School of Community Government and try to get some opportunities available. But I think, with the exchange we just had today, that's a good start in promoting the desire to get our people interested in the trade, and that way they would have a fairly good occupation where there always seems to be a demand for that type of trade. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
