Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. What we would do with the working group is we would, of course, have it interdepartmental, because we all have contracts, most of us; and the other thing, of course, is we would bring in some industry partners to provide advice, as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you for that. Also, "Develop mentorship programs"; can you elaborate on that point, also? Mahsi.
Madam Premier.
The mentorship program? If you could ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Minister Simpson.
Minister for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The "Develop new mentorship programs to support emerging entrepreneurs" -- sorry, are we talking about the mentorship program or the apprentice? Oh, sorry, that's my mistake. The mentorship program is with ITI. You were right all along, Premier.
Mr. Bonnetrouge, could you please repeat your question?
We're all hard of hearing.
---Laughter
I was asking about the mentorship program, and I'm kind of wondering what that entails. What are they talking about when they're saying "mentorship program"? What will it look like, and what positions? Mahsi.
Minister for ITI.
As you can see in the mandate, this program will be developed going forward. I believe the idea is that we look at, say, small businesses or certain types of industry where there are people accessing our ITI programs in order to provide funding to get their business going, or to learn some certain aspects of the business. We would be looking to create a program where we could partner up successful businesspeople or successful tradespeople, or whatever program it might be under, that we then can partner them to these entrepreneurs or these new emerging businesses, so that they can learn from each other; or mostly learn from the mentor. It is under development, and we would be open to feedback on what that looks like.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Deh Cho.
What you're stating there is to work with qualified tradespeople, but at the same time, too, you have to remember that, in our small communities, we don't have qualified tradespeople in the communities. I'm really wondering how that's going to work, or if it's even going to do any good for the small communities, unless you bring in a tradesperson from outside into that program.
I'm also looking at, you know, it's kind of ambitious and I'm really looking forward to this, the working group that is going to develop employment opportunities. Like, we're looking at fall of 2020, 30 new jobs. Is that 30 new jobs in each community? Mahsi.
Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That's 30 jobs that will be new; it's not 30 in every community. Some communities, like Colville Lake, I mean, having 30 new jobs there might be really difficult to achieve. There are jobs, though, that can be brought into it. I know that using, for example, the Housing Corporation, housing maintainers are jobs that should be, in my opinion, in every single community. Where we have an LHO, there definitely should be housing maintainers there, oil burner mechanics, electricians, et cetera. We might need to bring in some journeypeople, but I think that's our obligation, to be able to provide people with the skills that they need to succeed. I don't think I would be adverse to bringing in people who are needed.
In small communities, small businesses are a viable option. For example, one of our options is opening up the housing units, housing homes, so that they can do small businesses, and people who do, for example, traditional artwork and things, they might be great at doing the artwork, but are they good at doing business? In my opinion, a lot of them are underselling. Where do I sell those to? Do I sell them to the person who is coming off the plane, or do I get them into a major centre and actually put them on a store shelf? Those are things that the mentorship program can assist with. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you for that. It almost sounds like the employment in the small communities would hinge upon the Housing Corporation's LHOs. I know, right now, in my community, anyway, they're running two or three boiler systems in seniors' homes; you know, multiple boiler systems. Technically, you're required to have an operating engineer or OBM ticket, and we don't have that in our community. We haven't had that for the last four or five years, and we always have to rely on the outside communities. People are not comfortable with that.
We always saw employment opportunities, apprenticeship opportunities, within the NWT Housing Corporation, I think, since the early 1980s, when they were formed, and it was never, ever happening. I think one or two years, we had one plumber/gasfitter come out of there. I know we had three housing maintainers; I was one of the housing maintainers there, but we have not had any specific trades within. We had a carpenter lately, so we got two carpenters who are out and about working somewhere else now. I am looking forward to those kind of opportunities for our communities, especially within housing, to provide apprenticeship opportunities. I kind of look forward to that. Mahsi.
Thank you. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree that there are lots of opportunities. When I was the housing Minister a couple of years ago, I believe we only had 15 apprentices. That is not okay. If we have 33 communities, we can do better than 15 apprentices within housing. I did hear the Member say that there were no qualified journeymen, but I also heard the Member say that he has a housing maintainer, so we do have one person who is actually certified. We just need to convince that one person to take on apprentices. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Any further questions, Member for Deh Cho? Okay. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My concern with this one is that it's being led by ECE, ITI, Housing Corporation, and ENR, four departments, and we all know the problem with silos. Will the Premier, commit to a report being filed each fall deadline here of what those 30 jobs and in which communities?
Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, as part of the mandate commitment, we will be doing an annual review, and so we will put those statistics in there. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any further questions to "Increase employment to small communities"? All right. Seeing none, committee, we will move to pages 16 and 17: "Make strategic infrastructure investments that connect communities, expand the economy or reduce the cost of living." Questions? Member for Kam Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I am wondering if the Premier can speak to the cost of doing the items found under "Advance the development of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Slave Geological Province Corridor, and the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project." Thank you.
Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know that we are in the assessment, the research portion of that. I will transfer it over to the Minister of Infrastructure to see if she has any more information other than what we have at the moment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you. Yes, so we are currently in the background sort of data collection, study, where we are hoping to, at the end of that, be able to produce the business cases, which would then include all of the costing, et cetera, for those projects. I do not have that information on hand at the moment.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
At this point, we are unsure of how much each of these data collection pieces is going to cost us at the end of the day?
Minister of Infrastructure.
[Microphone turned off] ...have the numbers on what's happening for this next period of time with the funding that we already received from the federal government and the money that we had committed, and we discussed that as part of the mains in the budget discussion. We have our funding at the moment for the work we are carrying forward. I can provide you with those actual numbers if you like. I do think we have provided them in the past. I just do not have them right in front of me right now.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My concern and the reason I am asking this is because all three of these projects are very expensive and projects we don't necessarily have the funding for in the length of this government. The reason I am asking is because I would like to know what our investment is going to be in the study of three highly expensive infrastructure projects that we aren't even sure we can afford to do at this point in time. Thank you.
Madam Premier.
Thank you, and I do take note, and it's actually a really good observation and a valid observation. When we all sat down as 19 Members before we elected Cabinet and the Executive, we made these priorities without all of the information that we should have gotten at the time. I think all Members would agree to that.
We also made a commitment as 19 Members that we would review the mandate, not the Ministers, the mandate, when that process comes about because we don't have enough money. We don't have enough money to deal with all these three infrastructure projects. We don't have enough money to meet all of these 19 priorities and all of these mandates. There is going to have to be discussion coming forward about whether we actually bring down our priorities, what do we focus our efforts on. I am hoping that all MLAs will take part in that exercise as we move forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you.
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess, looking at those major projects, if you look at this government, of course we do not have the money to take these on on our own, but we have got to look beyond that, though. Taltson hydro, for instance, that is close to Hay River, so I have interest in that. There is an opportunity to partner with Aboriginal or Indigenous groups and try to do something. I would hope that this government would reach out and take the first step to start talking about that, because there are jobs, there is some ownership, there is Indigenous ownership, and hopefully it's federal money because we need federal dollars to do these projects. Otherwise, all we are going to do is go through four years, three-and-a-half years, of nickel-and-diming small, little projects.
I think it's important that we stop saying that we can't do this and we can't do that. We can do them. We have just got to find ways to do it. We have got to realize that the federal government has a responsibility, as well, and they have a lot deeper projects. Some of these projects may not make a big dent in their pockets like it would ours, so I think that we have to be more positive. We have to actually look at these things realistically. I just don't want us to say, "No, we can't do it." I see the potential for that. I see the potential for the highway down the Mackenzie. It opens it up to the people to hopefully lower the cost of living. It opens up to petroleum exploration if that ever comes back, to mining. It just does so much. Of course, we are not going to do it ourselves. We need the federal government, but let's make that pitch to them and get after them. They need something, as well. They need something to showcase, just like we need something, so there is an opportunity to do that.
At the end of the day, it's about jobs. It's about kind of opening up the North. For the next three-and-a-half years, that is what I am going to harp on, is the economy, business, and making it easier for northern contractors, northern businesses, northern residents to have jobs and stay here. Just like Mr. Lafferty had made comments earlier today about southern firms coming in, well, in Hay River, we have got a bridge going up. If a southern firm comes back, they bring all their equipment. They weren't paying the contractor. The contractor had to send them a letter and say, "If you are not going to pay this invoice, do you want us to send it to the GNWT?" And then an hour later, yes, the invoices are getter processed.
Those are the type of things we have got to do, and that is what we are up against, but we need to support those businesses. We have got to look at just not saying we can't do it, because we can do it. We just need somebody with deeper pockets to help us. We can look after the smaller ones. We can look after creating the jobs in the communities. That is easy enough. We have housing that we have some major projects. There are lots of jobs there. We have the fish plant. We have all kinds of things that we could be doing that will create a lot of jobs, so I think we have just got to be a little more positive. If Diane were here, she would probably say yes, so thank you.
Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Hay River South.
No, it wasn't a question, just comments.
All right, so I will move to the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My concern with this area is that the prior government committed millions of dollars in shared funding to these three projects, which I really don't believe can be developed and completed simultaneously. We have a lot of money tied up in these three projects, in the start-up for them, in things like environmental assessment and design, where we know that all three projects can't go simultaneously. We also know that the millions tied up in the start-up of the three projects could, in some cases, be used for more urgent priorities, such as housing, for example. My question is: what efforts can we make to agree on staging these projects and redistributing the funding, or is all of this locked in in a way that we absolutely have no say over? Thank you.
Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree that we have infrastructure needs throughout, like housing, like education, like schools, health centres, et cetera, right across the board. We constantly go down to the federal government and explain. I hate to use the term, but I call ourselves the poor cousin. We have a huge gap before we could actually be at the same place as southern Canada. I am not only looking at the federal government for that. I have been talking to our other jurisdictions, Premiers across Canada, to address that, as well. When we met with the Premiers, our first meeting, they gave us, out of four priorities, one priority just for the three territories. That will be addressed in the Arctic and northern framework within that, which have all of the issues, social issues, housing issues, et cetera. It goes across the gamut. We are going to keep doing that.
I also want to recognize that, although we may not be able to do all three projects as one, I would be a little bit hesitant at this time to prioritize any of the three because we have a minority government. At this point, if the minority government stays in, they will be picking depending on theirs. Right now, climate change is huge with the Liberal government, so Taltson is probably a favourable one. If the minority government gets tossed out in this next couple years, the next government might not be as big on climate change, and they might want the Slave Geological Road.
We got federal money to do the environmental assessments. I think we should be lining up all three and ready to put on the table. When we come to the time when we look at our priorities again, that might be sooner than later, we do have to look at what is reasonable for the Government of the Northwest Territories to be able to move forward. All three projects are viable. All three projects will bring employment to the Northwest Territories and business opportunities. I think for us to put it forward would not be the best way. It is better for us to have all three business plans and say, "You pick," whatever government is in power of the day. Thank you, Madam Chair.
