Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was glad to see the release of the Aurora College transformation to a polytech that had a strong focus on trades and technology. That document said many of the right things but did not go as far as saying some of the specifics I would like to see. Specifically, I would like to see us build an NWT trades curriculum built and designed for the North. My question is for the Minister responsible for Aurora College. Can we develop a northern-oriented trades curriculum? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The trades curriculum is based on nationally approved trades standards, so there is not a lot of wiggle room in there to develop our own if we want our journeypersons to be certified across Canada. We do have one trades program that is not national, that is unique to the territory. That is the housing maintainer program. That is one that is currently under review and being updated in a way the Member is referencing. I also want to point out that, with the transformation to a polytechnic university, there are opportunities for research and trades-related research, things like building methods for the North, the type of innovative things that the Member is talking about that would attract people from the rest of Canada, and hopefully around the world, to the polytechnic. That type of work, it is possible. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
I look forward to that work. I find it's truly exciting. One of the other issues that we have seen is: it has been very difficult for apprentices to find journeypersons and journeypersons to find apprentices, such that, if you are in a community and you want to be an apprentice, you often have to leave. Four years away from home can be a long time. If you are a journeyperson in that community, it can be hard to find an apprentice. However, I think some of the steps we have taken with putting Aurora College online really can be used in the future to pair journeypersons and apprentices up together, even if they do not happen to be in the same location all the time. Is the Minister willing to re-examine some of our apprenticeship things, processes, to increase that accessibility?
Absolutely, I am willing to re-examine that. I have heard from a lot of journeypersons and a lot of business owners over the years, and it is difficult to find journeypersons and apprentices. When you have an apprentice, it's hard to find someone to apprentice them. We do have the Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupational Certification Strategy, and part of that strategy is focused on improving access. I am not sure about some sort of distance model that may be done virtually. I don't know if that would fly because we do have to have a certain level of supervision, but there are other innovative ways of doing this. It could include a journeyperson who maybe is not tied to a specific business, maybe a roaming sort of journeyperson. That is just one idea. I am looking forward to being able to implement some of those changes during the life of this Assembly because we do need to react to the situation here in the Northwest Territories.
Yes. The idea of a roaming journeyperson is really an idea that excites me, and I recognize that some of the theory can be moved online. At the end of the day, there needs to be a practical, hands-on, in-person portion to getting any apprenticeship. Another area I would like to see the Minister focus on is: we employ a number of tradespeople in the NWT. I know they often try to get apprentice people, but I really think some more effort can be done in this area. Is the Minister of ECE willing to work with his colleagues in infrastructure, Housing Corporation, other departments that have journeypersons and mandate that they have to take on apprentices and work with them to make sure we are fulfilling that goal?
I am willing to work with them. There is already a lot of work going on between the Housing Corporation and ECE to try to figure out how can we leverage the journeypersons who work at the Housing Corporation with the LHOs across the territory. That type of work is ongoing. I'm not sure about mandating. I think that we could probably get there by cooperating. We can use a carrot instead of a stick in this situation.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. One of the other ways that we presently attract apprentices and encourage our journeypersons to take on apprentices is there is a subsidy for the first couple of years of any apprenticeship. That allows or encourages a tradesperson to take on an apprentice. However, I have heard from a number of constituents that, as that subsidy expires and it's not for their entire term, they struggle to keep on those apprentices. Then sometimes, people do not finish their ticket. Is the Minister willing to look into increasing the amount and length that we subsidize apprentices for? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Absolutely. I will look into that. The last time that subsidy program was updated was 2018, and that was done in consultation with the ATOC Board. We heard people around the territory, and we tried to think about how we can take this pot of money that we have, that would only cover about a quarter of what we would need it to if we wanted to fund everyone. The decision was made to spread it out over the early years. That being said, I am aware that there is a desire to change that and possibly expand it, so I am more than happy to look into that and hopefully expand this program in the future. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
