(Inaudible)…Culture and Employment, Mr. Speaker. In the goals of the department here, on goal five it says “Northerners will actively participate in communities and societies to their fullest.” Then later on in the binder it talks about the different opportunities that the department is going to initiate throughout 2010-11. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask the Minister in terms of the programs and training, as I spoke in my Member’s statement, in terms of training of young people. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment tell me what’s been done to prepare and implement training programs related to the Mackenzie Gas Project, Mackenzie Valley Highway or even the projects, and when will these programs become available to the young people in the Sahtu?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, through our Department of Education, Culture and Employment we do provide various subsidies and also training programs to the communities, whether it be apprenticeship, occupational certification that falls within the Apprenticeship Program, Occupational Program, Training on the Job. Mr. Speaker, we also provide Labour Market Development programs to the communities. That essentially involves building essential skills, self-employment, training on the job, apprenticeship, and youth employment and so forth, Mr. Speaker. Just recently we signed off with the federal government the Labour Market Agreement for those individuals that are youth and also that don’t qualify for EI, and work experience, skill development, community initiatives and building capacity. Mr. Speaker, these are just some of the training programs that we offer to the communities and there will be more in the other departments as well. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister did talk about the Labour Market Agreement. Also in the binder that I’ve been reading, the department is going to be developing a new framework, multi-year annual plans and program guidelines. I want to ask the Minister in terms of this initiative going forward in terms of involving the people in the Sahtu. Would he involve the people in the Sahtu in terms of going forward to have training programs in place, implemented and ready to go within the life of this government for the young people in the Sahtu region?
Mr. Speaker, by all means. Those are consultations that we need to have. We do have representatives at the regional levels; not just Sahtu region but other regions. We depend on their expertise because they’re fully aware of the community needs, the community programming, and what’s needed, what’s lacking. So those are areas that we need to have continuous consultation and dialogue with the Sahtu region.
Mr. Speaker, yes, we will have a dialogue with them. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, as I said in my statement, we have a high population of youth, young people under 25. It’s actually 45 percent of our population in the Sahtu that needs some attention. I want to ask the Minister in terms of helping the students in our regions, in our communities, to help them get into Aurora College programs in our communities under the Apprenticeship Training Program and working with them in terms of putting this Labour Market Agreement together so they could see people be productive members of society and to their communities.
Mr. Speaker, yes, we’ll definitely do what we can as a department, but I would encourage the Member to assist, as well, identifying those organizations that would pick up these apprentices. It’s almost as challenging a task for us as a department to seek out those organizations that are willing to take on these apprentices, but we’ll do what we can to train those individuals and provide subsidies for them to be trained as an apprentice. But at the same time, if the Member can assist in this area, that will be very helpful as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister is asking if I can assist. I can certainly do that, Mr. Speaker, in terms of going forward with putting programs in place for young people. I can do this through the request from myself in terms of also the leader from Fort Good Hope in terms of having a Sahtu education symposium where part of this discussion can be on the agenda in terms of going forward, and actually have other leaders to assist to make sure we get training on the ground for the people in the Sahtu.
I can commit to the Member that I am willing to work with them on this symposium that he’s referring to. He did bring that to my attention and I believe that’s going forward. I told him, if we’re invited, we’ll certainly be part of that ongoing process. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
