Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a mandate commitment and a priority of this Assembly to increase employment in small communities, specifically, in the mandate, by 125 jobs, Mr. Speaker. I will have some questions later today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about exactly what that looks like and what that means. It's a hard number to put in context.
But I think firstly, Mr. Speaker, in developing this work, we have to realize what we're up against. The Northwest Territories is not immune from the globalization that affects all communities where somehow High Liner fish bought in a supermarket is cheaper than the fish that a fisherman catches right out in the lake in their front yard, Mr. Speaker. We are not immune from urbanization. We are seeing the population of many of our small communities decline and, in fact, our territorial population is largely static as people move to urban centres all across the planet, Mr. Speaker.
And Mr. Speaker, at the heart of this debate about increasing employment in small communities, there is a tension that the Northwest Territories has more jobs than people, Mr. Speaker. That is why many of our mines are southern. It's why the majority of our workforce is not Indigenous and not going here. But those jobs do not align with our current education and our current workforce skills. Many of those jobs are not in the small communities. Therefore, if someone in a small community goes and successfully becomes an engineer, it is most likely they're not returning to their community to work.
Mr. Speaker, but people in a small community have a right to meaningful employment. And that can look in many things. There is pride in driving the water truck. There is pride in getting your ticket and becoming an OBM. There is pride working at your local band office. We need to make sure we are in every community and everyone working in a small community can have a job if they need them.
Mr. Speaker, in 2018 we completed a small community employment strategy. The Premier at that time was the Minister responsible. It was a six-year plan. When I look at that plan, it has a bunch of kind of lofty goals and objectives and it has no hard measurements. I'm confused what it was intending to accomplish and, more importantly, what it has actually accomplished in the last four years.
Mr. Speaker, we have a number of mandate commitments and a number of things happening across this government to increase employment in small communities. However, I'm unsure whether we are actually doing that, and I'll have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.
