Thank you to the Minister for his reply and his acknowledgement to my Member's statement. I appreciate that. Mr. Speaker, in the Minister's statement he also talked about how they will be implementing incentives for employers and in particular encouraging target groups like Indigenous residents and women to consider careers in the trades and that is good, but I would like to elaborate with the Minister and ask him: can he describe the ways in which the department will encourage the women and Indigenous people themselves to participate in trades and apprenticeship?
The resources that are going to be used to encourage this is through the schools. We will talk with students in the schools, as well as our career development officers, our employment transition officers that go out into the communities and actually get this information to those that might be on income assistance or looking at a career moving forward, and most recently we also made an announcement and an improvement into our small community employment support program that does on-the-job training, so we will work with our Aboriginal groups. As you heard earlier, one of my colleagues mentioned that we do have these bilateral meetings and this is something that we can continue to support and work together with our stakeholders and partners throughout the Northwest Territories to encourage more Indigenous people getting to the trades or into the workforce, as well as women into the trades and other workforces.
Thank you to the Minister once again for a good answer on that. I think the small community support program will be an excellent way in which to accomplish that. Mr. Speaker, the Minister's statement says that approximately 4,700 apprentices have been certified under the government's apprenticeship program. That is, in my view, a success. Does the department have any figures to indicate how many of those people remain in the NWT currently? Have we been tracking northern employment retention in the trades?
That is one of the goals of our strategy, is to keep a northern workforce here in the North working, as well as looking at recruiting others to come up here and help industry for the in-demand jobs that we are seeing that is out there. I don't have the exact data in front of me of how many are still here and how many we are recruiting, but I can get that information for the Member and share it with him.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and yes, I would agree that that is an important aspect. I mean, if we are the ones putting the effort and the investment into our youth and having them become successful trades journeypeople, well, then we would like to see them stay here in the North and be contributors here. Mr. Speaker, we obviously live in changing times. I would like to know: how does the department ensure that it stays on top of changing industry trends and technical innovations to make sure that our apprentices and tradespeople have the most up-to-date knowledge and skills possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and with our Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupational Certification Board, when we have meetings with them, get updates, we will ensure that. This is a concern of the Member, but I am sure they stay on top of it. It is industry-driven, so anything new and innovative that we are doing in industry, I am sure the board is on top of that. I have full trust and confidence that they are working in the best interests of industry, but also in the best interests of Northerners, and we will make sure that is part of the next discussions that we have with the board.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On our last sitting, I brought up the issue of airline passengers arriving at the Yellowknife Airport late at night; you know, if a flight is delayed, maybe at 1:00 in the morning or so, and then having to catch their connecting flight to Hay River early the next morning. The issue was that the airport would close for about a 90-minute window, and these people have to find somewhere to stay. Often there are no hotel rooms, and I know people who were lucky enough that a cab driver let them sleep on their couch for those couple hours. I asked the Minister about this before. He told me that, once Bill 7 passes, the revolving fund, which it did, they would start looking into this. Today he made a statement on the Yellowknife Airport Evolution, and I am wondering is a plan to keep the airport open 24 hours in the works so that his constituents do not have to sleep on strangers' couches. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated in the House today, as we move forward on July 1st with the revolving fund for the airport, we believe it is going to be an economic driver for the City of Yellowknife and the citizens of the Northwest Territories. I believe that is something that we are going to have to have a look at through the business process. As I have said in the House, we have a number of consultative committees that look at this issue, and I will make sure that this is one of the ones that is on the table for them to have a look at moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Maybe someday, I guess. The Minister also mentioned the Department of Infrastructure is working with carriers on new or expanded routes. I know airfare and air travel into Hay River is a major issue. Can the Minister confirm whether or not the Department of Infrastructure is working on bringing new air carriers into the Yellowknife-Hay River route or perhaps working on a route from Yellowknife to Edmonton that stops in Hay River?
Our job is not to lobby airline industries for which routes they take. Our job is to put the practices and opportunities in place that allow for businesses to develop in the Northwest Territories. I believe we have done that setting up the revolving fund. What came out of that, as soon as we brought this initiative forward, we had a number of air carriers get a hold of the department about possible routes coming particularly to the YZF airport around the revolving fund. I think that is an ongoing basis, and I think there are great opportunities particularly for the YZF airport.
I will speak to Hay River in short, as I know the Mayor of Hay River has raised this as a concern. I know he has reached out to a couple carriers in specific to try to get them to bring opportunities to Hay River and have a look at it. I believe as the economy in the South Slave picks up with a couple of initiatives that we are looking at moving forward down there, there will be an opportunity maybe for an air carrier to have a better look at it, and the economies of scales will work a little bit better for them. I personally have reached out to one carrier myself, too, to ask them to have a look at the situation in Hay River.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in Committee of the Whole, we rolled the money for the sobering centre into the current year's spending because the money had not been spent last year. So it seems like a good time to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services for an update on creating a sobering centre in Yellowknife. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have been in the Assembly for a large number of years now, and this has been possibly one of the most frustrating files that I have worked on. Something that should be such a good news story has turned out to be quite a frustration. We had hoped we would have a location by now. We have had several locations that we thought we were very close on, and for a variety of reasons such as contaminations in buildings, inability to get leases, we have not been able to get a firm location. We have come up with a temporary solution that will be beginning shortly. We are looking at doing some joint releases with the city. I will not say what that is at this point in time, but I did share it with the Members. The Members did get an update by e-mail where we are, and I did indicate that we are working on a joint release with the city. At that point, I will be making it public to residents of Yellowknife in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I understand that what he is working on now is a temporary solution. Could he please talk about what he is doing toward a long-term solution?
We have to look at this in a short-, medium-, and long-term approach. We do have something in the works for the short term, which we hope to be announcing very shortly, in cooperation with the city, who has been a fantastic partner on this. In the medium-term, well, we have to put it in medium-term because there is a longer plan in place. We have looked to acquire and put a hold on the downtown location, which is the Yellowknife Day Care at this point. They are vacating the building. The GNWT owns the building. That building does have to come down. We believe that that is a prime location for a sobering centre day shelter in the downtown core, but we will not be able to move onto that site for approximately two years, which means we have to come up with a medium-term solution.
For the medium-term solution, we are looking at a number of different properties in Yellowknife. We have got two that are possible. I would hate to say what those properties are because we have had lots of properties that got really close, almost to the point where we were ready to do some retrofitting, and have failed at the last minute due to environmental remediation or other issues. So we have a short-term solution we are going to be announcing shortly. We are still looking for the medium-term, and we have a long-term plan for a future sobering centre day shelter here in Yellowknife.
Lots of good news in that answer. What I hear is that it is really the medium-term now that presents problems. I am sure that this is a very high priority for you to provide continuity of service once the sobering centre opens. I know that this has been frustrating, that there have been a lot of setbacks. What kinds of new approaches can you take to try and work with landlords or repurpose GNWT-owned assets to find that medium-term solution?
Last time we talked about this in the House, I was inundated, thankfully, with just a large number of people saying, "Have you tried this building?" "Have you looked at that property?" "Have you followed up with?" The answer in most situations is, yes, we have looked at those properties. We've talked to those landlords. We've been looking for a solution. There were a couple that were a little bit more difficult because it involved moving GNWT staff and re-profiling billing just as the Member has suggested. We are looking at some current GNWT space that we might have to take our staff out of and relocate. I'm not going to name those places at this point in time because we're still working on some of the details and there's another property that may be available. We're trying to ascertain whether or not that is something we can get on the medium-term basis.
I've made the mistake, Mr. Speaker, of saying we're close a couple of times on a medium-term solution, so I'm going to cautious. I want to say that we're going to have something in place shortly. The only thing I can say for sure is we've got a short-term solution in place that we're going to announce shortly. That will take us to the end of September. We're really hoping we can find a medium-term solution because, as the Member has said, continuity on this is going to be critical.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I'd like to thank the Minister for his response. In addition to the physical location of the sobering centre, could the Minister please review what kind of staffing and services will be available in that facility? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services has talked to the stakeholders. We have listened to the comments and suggestions from Members. We have put together a bit of a program design on how a sobering centre would operate here in the Northwest Territories and that has often driven the size of the location we need to have and how many beds we can support. So we already have that in place. I'm happy to share that with committee if committee is interested. I'm happy to come and have a conversation with committee and provide them with a bit of an update on where we are as far as programming. We haven't been there to that point so far because we've been struggling to find a location, but I'm happy to meet with committee at their request.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to follow up with some more questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. During the presentation on Wednesday, the Minister and his staff spoke about healthier relationship programming. Can the Minister briefly explain to us what that program involves? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As stated in the NWT Safe Schools Legislation and Regulations, every school in the NWT is required to offer healthy relationship programming to its students. Our department works with the University of Western Ontario Centre for School Mental Health to deliver a healthy relationship training program for NWT grades 7 to 10, teachers, and other school staff. The evidence-based program is for grades 7 to 10 students. It teaches students how to build relationship skills, understanding of making safe decisions about substance abuse, sexual relationships, bullying, as well as violence. That's the main focus of these healthy relationships. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for that explanation. It's great to hear what they're doing there. Can the Minister advise us how this program was promoted during implementation?
Approximately 225 NWT teachers across the North have been trained in the healthy relationships program called "The Fourth R." Training is provided to all NWT schools free of charge as well through continued working through the partnerships that we do have with the University of Western Ontario and as part of a federally- funded research project on youth and mental health. We work with our partnerships with the University of Western Ontario. We offer it to all schools in the Northwest Territories, and any schools that haven't received the training or feel that they might want more training, just contact their education authorities or the superintendents to get that training offered.
I thank the Minister for his answer. This is very important program and I appreciate the department for the work they're doing in this area, especially with all the bullying that we hear about through the news and from what I'm hearing from parents. Can the Minister explain how this information is shared with parents in the DA member annually so they know that this is a system that the Education Department is implementing in all schools across the Northwest Territories?
As part of regular school businesses, both schools and education bodies have the responsibility to get any type of information that we work with these education authorities or initiatives of the department to the parents and to people that are doing work inside the schools. DE members are informed about school programs through their principals and their superintendents and the requirements such a program as well as it is required under the Safe and Caring Schools Legislation Regulation. It is a responsibility of our education authorities, our principals and superintendents to make sure this information is shared with parents.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess I'm struggling with some of the parents not hearing about it, and it is something like that. I guess, is the Minister able to provide me and other Regular Members with an update package so we can better understand this program and actually help promote this process so that parents are aware of how our education system is working and how we're making it healthier and better for our students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did make a commitment during the presentation that we had to standing committee the other night and we'll make that commitment in the House that we will get those packages, Safe and Caring School packages to all Members should they want them, but we'll make sure that the honourable Member from Nahendeh gets the package and that all Members that would like one, we'll get one to them as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We spent a lot of time this sitting debating education. I'd like to ask the Minister of Education now how the ambitious plans for post-secondary education are rolling out of the departmental level and if he can give an update to the House on the work to date on developing a thorough post-secondary education regime to the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As all Members know, we are currently going to conduct the foundational review. I believe we're still waiting for feedback on the terms of reference that's before committee, and as soon as we get those terms of reference back on this foundational review, we'll go ahead and move and see the structure within our Aurora College system but also looking at utilizing our community learning centres a lot more and taking direction from our Skills 4 Success focus and also working with our partners' continued support with our other partners that run post-secondary programming. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Sadly, it sounds like not much has changed. I'm particularly interested in post-secondary academic education. I think the community learning centres do an amazing job, but I'm more focused on the degree granting institutions. I know that the Minister committed to doing a bit of work on this, developing some legislation around it. Can he provide an update on that legislative process and when we're going to be able to grant northern degrees from northern institutions here in the North?
Yes, we are currently working on that legislation. We are going to be doing some consultations during the summer months and then get the feedback from our stakeholders and partners on that and then proceed forward. However, we're still going to have to look at the foundational review of the port where we are going in terms of post-secondary, which I made a commitment to the House to look at that foundational review with the Aurora College but also getting feedback from other institutions and other stakeholders in the Northwest Territories regarding the legislation that the Member has been bringing up.
We're still at the consultation stage. I think that's helpful for understanding our progress to date. In addition to northern institutions, their willing partners are very close to us in northern Alberta who have been trying to make inroads with our student population. Has the Minister had any interaction with these institutions in trying to bring their programming into the North and make it more accessible to Northerners?
Yes, and we also support our students going to those institutions for post-secondary program. In 2016-2017, there was over $60 million paid in Student Financial Assistance benefits supporting our students to go to post-secondary education down south. We continue to work with partners at the University of Alberta, University of Regina, University of Saskatoon, University of Victoria, for some programs that we currently are delivering within the Aurora College, and we will continue to enhance and build on those partnerships.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for that. I appreciate that the government provides probably the best support in Canada for students attending university down south. I am going to re-ask that question with just a bit of different language. Rather than send our students to these institutions, can we bring these institutions to the North? Can they establish a campus or a branch here? Has he had those discussions, and is he working toward that goal? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and yes, we have had discussions with the partners that we are currently in agreements with, and as I mentioned, we are going through this foundational review right now. We are just waiting on the terms of reference feedback from standing committee. We will go ahead and proceed on that foundational review, and hopefully in the early new year, 2018, we will be moving forward and hopefully have some good structured programs in the 2018-2019 academic year.
