Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment what he’s doing about holding the mines to account on their economic agreements and perhaps even inviting the opportunity of having the mines – let’s be very clear – subsidize a northern workforce to come south to work at those mines. So, in short, what is the Minister of ITI doing with regard to Section 10 of the socio-economic agreement in having ensured it’s implemented and fulfilled? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue to work with industry. We work with the mines. I also work closely with my counterpart at Education, Culture and Employment who are responsible for mine training in the Northwest Territories, and Health and Social Services through Minister Beaulieu. We meet regularly with the mines and we have to continue the dialogue on the reasons why the numbers aren’t what they should be and we will continue that dialogue. It does us good to continue to work together on finding solutions to getting our people employed at those mines. Thank you.
I could have sworn that was an answer from the Minister of Education; we need discussions, discussions, meetings and more discussion. For the record, Section 10 is about remedies where, if you cannot reasonably meet those commitments, you put in a formal written statement that talks about how you can achieve them and how can you.
So now to Section 9, how is the Minister holding these mines to account under Section 9 of the socio-economic agreement that puts Northerners to work?
Thank you. The three mining companies were before the Member’s committee last fall. These concerns weren’t raised at that time with me from the mines. Again, we meet with the mining presidents, we meet with industry at every opportunity. We just recently had a meeting between the three Ministers and the mines here in Yellowknife not too long ago. We need to find a way forward, and in this case it does us little good to be fighting with industry, in the case of De Beers, a company that’s going to invest close to $1 billion into this territory and provide many more job opportunities here in the NWT. Thank you.
More job opportunities for the southern workforce as I describe as tourists just visiting. Section 8 of the socio-economic agreement speaks to remedies. I have not heard any solutions other than let’s talk, let’s trade dialogue, let’s have meetings. Who is defending the northern person who needs a job, who is opening up opportunities? It doesn’t sound like this Minister, and if he is, then let’s hear concrete facts and commitments on how he’s doing that, because I haven’t heard anything to date. Thank you.
Thank you. Again, we continue the dialogue with industry and working with the other Ministers I spoke of earlier. I’d be more than happy to sit down with the Member – he’s the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure – and come forward with a plan together. I mean, we need to be working together on solutions on how we can arrive at more employment numbers here in the Northwest Territories, and I extend that offer to the Member as the chair of the standing committee and his committee to sit down with you. We’ll bring the mining companies back, we can have that dialogue, we can chart a course forward together. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not the problem. The reality is the mine isn’t meeting its commitment. It barely meets 50 percent of northern Aboriginal workforce, just barely over 50 percent northern workforce, 64 percent of our workforce in total is coming from the South. You know, those tourists, just visiting, working here.
I have not heard anything on what concrete actions can he take to get Northerners working at this mine, because the way the commitments are written in the socio-economic agreement they’re not fulfilled, Section 10 is ignored, Section 9 is ignored, Section 8 is ignored. Who is responsible and who is taking responsibility for this? Thank you.
---Applause
Sorry, Mr. Ramsay. Let’s have a little bit of decorum in here, a little bit of respect for Members’ replies and questions here. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s in both industry and the Government of the Northwest Territories’ best interest to have employees living here in the Northwest Territories. Again, ITI was responsible for the negotiation and completion of the socio-economic agreements and the training requirement is the responsibility of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. As I mentioned earlier, we work closely with Minister Lafferty and his staff, we are currently trying to put together a pan-territorial approach to mine training that would look at providing the funding for both the Nunavut Territory, the Yukon Territory and ourselves for years to come because of the mining activity taking place in the three northern territories. We’re hopeful that we can get some success on trying to find some funding from the federal government on that initiative and there will be some good news coming soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 9, written questions. Item 10, returns to written questions. Item 11, replies to opening address. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 14 on the Order Paper. Thank you.
---Unanimous consent granted
