Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned in my statement, my questions were directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment with regards to the Skills 4 Success. My first question to the Minister is: what is the progression or report since the Skills 4 Success was introduced in the Northwest Territories, more specifically in the Sahtu region? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did release the Skills 4 Success action plan in November of 2016, so we are just coming up to about a year of having that out there in the public and in the communities throughout the Northwest Territories. We are working with our partners. We are working with schools. We are working with post-secondary institutions and CLCs to get that information out there on how we can address that. Specifically with the Sahtu region, if the Member recalls, we have four goals under the Skills 4 Success, and under each one we have a lot of priorities. To get a progress on all the priorities would take a lot of work, but I can assure the Member that we are doing a lot of work throughout the Northwest Territories in every community and in all the regions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know it was a broad question, but as I mentioned in my statement, it is a very proactive measure to see that the department is identifying and forecasting the opportunity so that it can be shared with our students in the academic classroom world. My question is: as mentioned in my statement, what work initiatives are under way with the Department of Health and Social Services in preparation for the transitional start-up at the Sahtu Regional Health Centre?
We have a small community employment strategy as well that we are working with. We have our apprenticeship, trades, and occupational strategy that we're trying to see how we can work with our small communities in our regions. I would have to see specifically what is coming out of our regional office in the Sahtu and how they have been working to get the skill force up, and people certified so that they can enter the work force and be part of the building and ongoing staffing at the health centre in Norman Wells, so I would have to talk with my colleague as well as look at what our regional staff is doing with it at the Department of ECE in the Sahtu.
It leads me to my third question here: would the Minister work with the counterpart there, the Minister of Health and Social Services, to coordinate together both departments making community visits to share the forecasted opportunities as identified in the Skills 4 Success program?
I know our career development officers at the regional centres do a great job of highlighting the Skills 4 Success document, the action plan, as well as our labour market information needs assessment. We work with partners with other departments. We work with our partners in business. We work with our partners in education, taking it into the schools as well as post-secondary. I will make sure that my colleagues within the Department of Health and Social Services, as we look forward to having more work force in the health centre for an ongoing purpose, do understand some of the needs of staffing at the health centre.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question, getting back to the action plan or the campaign plan, if you want to call it that: would the Minister share a marketing campaign brochure, addressed to the Sahtu leadership, identifying the opportunities in the Skills 4 Success initiative? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I have travelled over the Northwest Territories and been to career fairs, NWT Skills, our department does a great job of highlighting the labour market information needs assessment. The opportunities with Skills 4 Success, immigration strategy, ATOC strategy, a lot of the good things that our department is doing, and ensure the Member that we are getting out there, giving that information to residents and to our partners. However, any resident in the NWT can access our website as well. It has a lot of good information on all of our strategies and how to apply to them, and see what kind of program services as well as funding that they are entitled to or can apply on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
