Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are related to Human Resources and summer students and they’re for the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. My records show me that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment hired 20 summer students last year. Could the Minister please tell me to date how many summer students has the Department of Education, Culture and Employment hired so far this year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The information that we do have, we have 13 summer students within Education, Culture and Employment. Also, there will be additional student employment within the board operations at the regional level. Mahsi.
Thank you. I’m glad the Minister brought up the boards. I’m wondering what proactive steps, if any, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is taking overall to encourage all the health boards out there to hire as many students as possible. That way we would be getting some students into the community, which I think would be great.
Mahsi. This particular area is always of interest for us, because we have to fill that capacity at the community level and at the regional level. We do enforce and also have a thorough discussion with the education boards to have their targets, specific numbers of students that should be hired on an annual basis, as we do within our GNWT department. So we’ll continue to stress that on an annual basis when it comes to December-January period. Mahsi.
For the record, in my previous question I meant education boards, not health boards. This department is one of the largest departments that we have and it’s responsible for education, culture, and employment. I’m wondering in the employment capacity of this department if this department is taking any proactive action to work with businesses throughout the Territories to find ways to encourage them to employ summer students themselves.
That’s one of our objectives, is to work with other potential business partners, as well. We deal with whether it be the Mine Training Society or other NGOs and the business arm. We promote more of a building capacity with the students being hired. Even within our department having a job shadowing and other areas. Definitely those are areas that we need to continue to stress with the potential business partners and we’ll continue to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given that Education, Culture and Employment is one of our largest departments and it has a mandate for education and employment -- I’ve already indicated that the department hired 20 students last year -- and given that it has quite possibly one of the largest budgets in this government, I’m hoping that the Minister will meet or beat their previous targets. The Minister has already heard this terminology, but I’d like to say if any department out there can beat their target from last year of 20, it should be Education, Culture and Employment, given the sheer size of the department and the fact it has one of the largest budgets. I would like the Minister today to commit to at least meeting the 20, but preferably beating it and increasing the number of summer students that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment hires during this summer.
I think we can either meet or exceed the number that we have, especially when we count the money that we allocate to the education board operations in the regional level. Most of our money, the $300 million, goes to the board operations. If we count those students at that level, I’m sure that we can exceed the numbers that are before us from last year on the ECE area. Those are the areas we need to stress and continue to work with on an annual basis.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
