Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After the long deliberation yesterday of the supplementary infrastructure budget, I went home, I didn’t have any supper, I sat down on my couch, all alone in the dark.
---Laughter
However, Mr. Speaker, sitting there I thought about the rich resources that we have in the Sahtu region and the need for young people to start getting the proper education and training for the development that possibly could happen in the next four, five, or 10 more years.
We have a high population of young people. A couple of years ago, 45 percent of the entire Sahtu population was under 24 years of age. We need a Sahtu tech, a Sahtu college, a real college, real opportunity to bring the young people into one location. They have campuses in Inuvik, here in Yellowknife and in Fort Smith. We need a college like Keyano College or the college in Whitehorse.
We’ve had resource development happening since 1921. That’s over 90 years. We need to prepare our young people to get into the workforce. They are no longer the trappers and the hunters of my grandfather and the ancestors of my people. We need to properly prepare them to go out into the workforce. We need to get them ready and we need to start talking about partnerships with industry, the different government agencies and the Sahtu leadership to start talking and planning for a Sahtu tech in our region and to prepare our young people.
It is irresponsible of this government to send our young people out with minimum training from the Aurora College campus. People are telling us the campus is not living up to what it should be. So we need to start preparing our people to do the things that are fair and just, and give our children a fair opportunity to make it in the world, because they can do it.
I’ll have questions for the Minister of Education and Culture at the appropriate time.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
