Mr. Speaker, I think I’ve highlighted some of the reasons and I’m happy to repeat them again. I said that because the lender pulled the loan and the GNWT became saddled with it, I think we should be investigating exactly why that happened, what led up to that and what information caused such destruction and angst for them to do that.

What more information is the Minister looking at or need to look at in order to say, wait a minute, something happened here, we almost paralyzed the government with this situation. As such, once again I ask the Minister, would he be willing to launch an audit to...

It was my understanding that the former Minister promised this and other people have been promising that we will have an independent audit. Quite frankly, if the Department of Transportation is monitoring themselves, we might as well just surrender to the results already because it does seem somewhat biased. I’m not trying to be mean here today, but self-evaluation really only works well when you’re, I guess, meditating.

I ask once again for the taxpayer, for the people in the Northwest Territories, would the Minister look at launching an independent audit that had teeth so we could truly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties noted its generally positive experiences with its industry partners. A representative of the Three Affiliated Tribes Tribal Economic Development Office, or TERO, shared his experience that oil companies’ priority is to make a profit, but they are generally willing to work with communities and governments. Statoil emphasized its commitment to collaboration and open communication with stakeholders. North Dakota officials recommended that governments work closely with industry to...

One would be better than none. So, frankly, five is better than none, absolutely. I agree with the Minister on that. When we look at the landslide and the fact that way more people enter than ever graduate, it’s almost a disappointment. That’s why I bring my last question to the House.

The Minister says we need to re-valuate. Fantastic news. I want to know what that looks like and will he address the lack of the Bachelor of Social Work Program here in the Northwest Territories. As I began my Member’s statement today, now is our opportunity to develop a Social Work Program just like we did for...

We know, without any doubt, that the Minister is a strong advocate for language, culture and small communities. As the Minister and from the department’s point of view, does the Minister believe that small communities and, more specifically, First Nations families and Northerners, would they be more receptive of social workers trained here in the Northwest Territories that are both culturally and, in a language context, familiar with this environment, versus southern-trained social workers who take these jobs and are trained elsewhere outside the North? Thank you.

Thank you. This is actually the first time in this term, I think, I’ve asked for more time because I feel it’s such an important topic to ensure my statement fully gets out.

I ask ourselves: Is the diploma program enough? I will tell you the diploma program itself is great, but it’s not enough. Have we done all that we can? I don’t believe we are doing all we can. I believe if our government is serious about training social workers who are in touch with the people, who are in touch with the culture, who are in touch with the communities, we should be asking ourselves: Why aren’t we leaning...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When Mr. Yakeleya first stated this idea to me, I thought it was a fantastic idea. It’s quite a breath of fresh air in the way we do business, and we should really target areas that could really use not only educational opportunities, but educational opportunities that are necessary and are relevant.

This motion is, really, it’s talking about the tsunami of opportunities that are sort of creeping along and about to crash into the Sahtu region. There is so much opportunity there, but one of the key things to this is they need skilled workers that are relevant to that...

I’m glad the Minister brought up 24 grads in the last five years. If anyone’s math is as good as mine, you’ll realize that’s less than five a year, on average, that graduate from the program. Statistics speak for themselves. As I understand it, far more don’t graduate than enter the program. Maybe the Minister can enlighten this House on the statistics. As I’m aware of it, we can have 30 people who enter the program in one intake year, but only five come out of the program. To me, our statistics aren’t showing good results.

Would the Minister enlighten this House on the intake of the program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about social workers and the need for social work training and the appropriate education that could rightly fit in at Aurora College.

As we all know, you can parachute somebody into the North but that doesn’t necessarily truly make them a Northerner. It’s almost something that has to be born and bred into your DNA. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education a particular question about the department’s point of view when it comes to Northerners.

Does the department feel that trained, northern graduates who are Northerners have a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start off today’s Member’s statement by referencing a document that’s been before the House. It was the NWT Standing Committee on Social Programs did a review of the Child and Family Services Act and it was authored by Cindy Blackstock – she was a PhD – back in April of 2010. The reference of her document was called I Want to Grow Up in My Community and it’s a review.

The good work done in that report, I feel it’s necessary to highlight the very first line because I think that’s what really becomes the most shocking and hopefully powerful, and it will resonate...