Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment as the Minister responsible for the nominee program.
The Yukon government set up a dedicated Ukrainian family support desk just recently. It provides information on federal programs to assist with immigration and family reunification, connects employers who would offer employment to Ukrainians arriving in the Yukon, and guides Ukrainians looking for employment opportunities in the Yukon.
Is the Minister willing to set up a similar proactive service supporting immigration efforts to the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we have a service desk already. It is not specific to Ukraine, but it can handle the calls and the requests for information. So anyone who wants to contact them by email can contact @email or by phone at 18554405450. Thank you.
Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the success of the Atlantic, Yukon, and Manitoba pilot programs, is the Minister willing to work with the federal government to establish an NWT pilot program for immigration that allows for labour market assessment exemptions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And those conversations have begun. I will say that that the pandemic has done a couple things. It has really shifted the focus from immigration because no one was coming in for a couple years. So there was very limited thought about travel. But it also highlighted the labour shortages that we have here in the territory. And I think it's actually refocused us now on the need to improve our immigration services and increase the number of people settling in the territory, bringing their services here.
And so we are looking at making some changes. The program that the Member is referencing is it was years in the making. It is a substantial amount of effort and time to create such a program. And I would love to say, yeah, we're going to do that, but it's going to take years of work with the federal government to do something like that. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that things take time, but I think we also have the benefit of the fact that we're not trying to reinvent the wheel, that the Yukon really has already established a program that works well in the North and that it is something that the NWT could potentially take and change to suit the needs of the Northwest Territories and what Northerners here in the NWT want to see. So I hope that the government will continue taking the steps to move that forward.
Mr. Speaker, my next question is given the vital role of that immigration has played in economic recovery of other jurisdictions, will the Minister establish an immigration advisory council cochaired by the Minister himself so that the GNWT can work both with local businesses and those with lived experience in immigration to help improve our immigration processes and also supports for people going through that process so that we can proactively work to increase our population size? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And just to be clear about my previous answer, the federal government will make it take years for us to get the program that the Member's talking about. They have processes in place that they take immigration very seriously, and they have a very robust process that does take time. So even to we can't just transplant a program from the Yukon. There is a lot involved.
In terms of an immigration advisory council, we're not looking to establish something like that at this time; however, I understand what the Member is getting at. And right now, ECE and ITI are going out and proactively reaching out to to businesses and people who are familiar with the Nominee program to find out what we can do to improve the program.
So some of that work is beginning, and we'll see what comes of that. Perhaps there is some sort of a formalized body down the road that can then help us focus our efforts, but that's not what something we're looking to establish right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hope that the work being done with engagement on the Nominee program will one day lead to just a really long series of yeses for me for the Minister in this House.
My last question actually relates to an answer that was given by the Minister of Health and Social Services earlier today about trying to work with people coming from the for example, the Ukraine in order to access additional health care workers. And similar to that, other jurisdictions have set up MOUs. And a great example is Manitoba has set up an MOU with the Philippines in regards to internationally educated nurses and facilitating that process.
And so I'm wondering if there is an intent with ECE working in conjunction with potentially Health and Social Services to set up MOUs with different countries in order for us to increase our health care workers here in the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're not looking to do something like that right now; however, I will say that I have been involved in meetings with all of the ministers of education from across Canada, and we talk about these exact type of things. So I definitely see the value in it.
And I think that as a government, we have to choose what our focuses are, and we can't do everything. We don't invest as much money in immigration as places like the Yukon do. I'm not sure what their budget is, but I know that it is more, and they have more employers, and they can put more emphasis on this.
And so in the coming years, we're going to have to decide is our labour shortage worthy of having investments in areas like immigration, and if so, then we can perhaps make the program a bit more robust and do a bit more of these initiatives that the Member is speaking of. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
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