Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about the need for GNWT departments responsible for capital acquisitions, specifically Infrastructure, the Housing Corporation, and Finance, to better utilise the tens, or rather hundreds, of millions of dollars they spend annually on infrastructure to increase the number of skilled workers in the NWT. I honestly personally consider it irresponsible that we're not doing this to a much greater extent.
When the Department of Infrastructure's budget was being debated in Committee of the Whole, the Minister of Information told me that I should direct my questions about training to the Minister of ECE, so I have some questions for the Minister of ECE. We'll start with the basics. According to ECE's Apprenticeship, Trades, and Occupational Certification Strategic Plan, the NWT is facing a worsening shortage of skilled labour. What is ECE doing to increase the number of journeymen and skilled workers in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right. There is an issue about apprenticeships; in fact, it's a national issue that the numbers are going down, so we need to work on that. Since the Skills 4 Success was introduced in 2015, though, we have had 375 new apprenticeships and 188 certificates of qualification issued. One of the bigger issues that we recognize in doing that work, though, is that, one, it's getting them into it, but it's also supporting our apprenticeships to complete. So that is one of our strategies that we're looking at. In 2017, we did an Apprenticeship, Trades, and Occupational Certification Strategy to address the needs that we have for apprenticeships. We've made a lot of progress, actually, so I want to go over some of that.
Some of the progress that we've done is we've revised the Trades and Occupations Wage Subsidy Program to better support employers; so we've increased that for them. That happened in April 2018. We are also working in cooperation with Aurora College to deliver new programs. That includes the revised Housing Maintainer Program and introducing the Pre-employment Carpentry and Pre-employment Electrical Programs. We are developing a communication strategy, which will be implemented in the beginning of March 2019. We are also doing a training module for career development officers, which will be offered in May 2019. So those are done.
Some of the things that we are also in the process of doing is we are reviewing our apprenticeship record book to streamline the reporting. We get a lot of complaints. People say it's cumbersome, so hopefully this will work to streamline things and make them easier. We are leading a pan-territorial working group to revise and redesign the Housing Maintainer Occupational Standards. This is in process, and we are currently at the second year of our strategy. So we have a lot of work to do, but we've done quite a bit. We recognize that it's an issue, and we are working as hard as we can to address it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I looked into what ECE is doing. They're actually doing quite a few things, and I think even more than the Minister just mentioned. I think they need to improve their supports for the career development officers. I think we probably need an extra one in Hay River. The community learning centres at Aurora College probably need to be better utilized, as well, to help people train to actually take the trades entrance exam, which is a big barrier to many people. There are a lot of investments there, and I'm not a fan of just throwing money at a problem and hoping that it fixes it. We need to know what the problem is and if what we're doing to address it is effective. That being said, the strategic plan the Minister mentioned calls for the creation of performance measures and indicators and the implementation of an effective data management and information system to track and report on results. What is the status of this work?
I want to acknowledge the MLA for actually talking about some of the things that we have done, because it's nice to hear in the House. We have a lot of work to do, but it's also nice to recognize that we are working at things, so thank you for that comment.
What are we doing? We have developed our measurement plan. It is already done. Some of the indicators that we have been looking at: we will be measuring stakeholder satisfaction with the program, that is normal; the number of apprentices that are registered and that are certified under the program; and the number and the type of new trades programs introduced. Those are a few of the things that we will be measuring. That is done. That work is done.
We are actually, in the next couple of months, going to be reviewing the outcomes of our evaluations to see what needs to be done. This fits really well within our polytechnic visioning because the vision exercise is talking about what we need in the territory. This work is coming at an opportune time to be able to look at where we are moving forward within our polytechnic university.
As I have stated, we need a whole-of-government effort to effectively address this issue. We need ECE, ITI, Infrastructure, Finance, the Housing Corporation, and probably even Health and Social Services, all working together.
When I asked questions about training to the Minister of Infrastructure, he directed me to address my questions to the Minister of ECE. This leads me to believe that there is some sort of formal relationship between the departments, which is great. I know that the Minister of Infrastructure has stated that there was training done with the Canyon Creek project and the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway, but I want to make sure that there are training opportunities for the fish plant in Hay River and the 48-bed long-term care facility in Hay River and all of those projects, Mr. Speaker. We have to utilize every one.
In terms of a formal relationship, are there MOUs or other similar instruments in place with Infrastructure and the Housing Corporation regarding using infrastructure projects for training and with Finance regarding utilizing P3 projects for training? Does ECE have these types of MOUs?
We don't have a traditional MOU, because that is not something that we use traditionally across departments. It is more what we use with contractors outside of the government.
However, in saying that, we do work very closely across the departments. Our deputy ministers meet regularly. We have committees of Cabinet who sit and meet regularly. As well, we have our regional training partnerships that ECE uses. It has representation from ECE, Aurora College, Indigenous governments, and industry partners. We work closely, as closely as we can.
Some of the projects where we have been finding examples of how we work together have been the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway and the Canyon Creek all-season road. With the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway, approximately 185 people were trained on that. The contractor trained over 70 people using simulators to operate rock trucks, graters, and excavator equipment. We provided additional on-the-job training. They also trained one administrative assistant, one heavy equipment support person, three apprentices, and 40 individuals with class 1 and class 3 driver's licences. As well, within the Canyon Creek project, the contractor provided training for 12 trainees and 16 heavy equipment operators, as well as employment opportunities for 50 people during that.
Those are just two examples. I have a list of them, but I am not going to go through them all, Mr. Speaker. We try to work as closely as possible. We need to do better. We know that, but we are trying.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give the government credit for what they have done in the past, but I am looking to the future. That is what I am concerned about.
I know that the deputy ministers meet and Cabinet meets, but there is nothing official in place. In the absence of any official relationship, how, exactly, does ECE engage with Infrastructure, the Housing Corporation, and Finance in the evaluation of capital needs and the development and evaluation of RFPs to ensure that training opportunities are fully realized? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As stated before, we do have a deputy ministers committee, as well as a Committee-of-Cabinet to work with the economy. We still have work to do. Major projects, such as when we look at mines, socio-economic agreements, et cetera, we sit together. The Ministers actually sit together at the table and discuss what we need. Those are put into things such as socio-economic agreements.
All of the departments, when it comes to capital needs, believe me, we are all at that table. We all have our own interests in that process, though, I think, maybe more so than working collaboratively together. What we are falling down, though, in my opinion, is the evaluation of RFPs. That is something that we actually should be looking more at. I will bring that to the Committee-of-Cabinet for the Economy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
