Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. This week I believe the Minister and his department will be going out and doing some regional engagements throughout the Northwest Territories starting, I believe, today in Hay River, regarding a program called Skills for Success Initiative.
I want to ask the Minister in terms of this Skills for Success Initiative, what does he plan to get out of these regional engagements? I believe there’s a symposium that’s happening next month here in Yellowknife. What’s the Minister’s goal and objective of these regional engagements and the symposium he’s going to be hosting next month? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the forum we are having in these communities, more specifically Hay River, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Inuvik, Norman Wells, Yellowknife and Behchoko in February and March, is to gather all the information, the data that we require that will lead to the development of a strategic framework that will set out a new direction for adults and post-secondary and skills training in the Northwest Territories. That will be followed by an action plan, monitoring and evaluation and also an accountability plan. So there is a great deal of work ahead of us, but we want to compile the information to share the northern perspective, to hear their voices and plant a seed from there. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I know he’s going to all the regional centres. What is he doing for all the small communities where you’ve heard, more and more in this House, that’s where we’re having the highest unemployment rates? They are in the small communities.
How is he getting input or engaging people in the small communities to get them on board for this program but also get them trained and educated so they can get the employment they need, support their families and also the economy? What is he doing to engage the small communities outside of these regional centres that he mentioned earlier? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I agree with the Member that we also need to focus on small communities. Small communities tend to feel left out and this is an area that will capture them as well. Even though we have regional representatives, that does consist of community members as well. That is educators, trainers, students, employers, industries, job seekers. All those will be captured. I assure you the small communities will be well represented.
I appreciate the effort. The Minister is showing the need to engage the residents of the Northwest Territories. I went on the Department of Education, Culture and Employment website and I was looking at what we currently do for the labour market and got some information. What I did pull up was an NWT Labour Force Development Framework from 2009-2010 that is supposed to guide us until 2020 that has specific recommendations, statistics from all the communities and from the Bureau of Statistics Canada, some really good reports.
I didn’t get a chance to look at all the reports, but why is the Minister redeveloping a framework that he went out and engaged in in 2009-2010 and actually has reports right up to 2013, I believe. Why does he want to reinvent the wheel and spend more money, when this government has been telling us to be on a fiscal restraint policy, and start putting the words into action? We have something here. Let’s start putting into action instead of consulting about it and talking about it. Why is the Minister reinventing the wheel when we already have it here, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
I am fully aware of the framework that was initiated in 2009. It has been six years now. A lot of things have changed over that six-year period, such as employment and training stats. We’ve been told over and over, either by this Assembly or the general public, that we need to engage the public. We need to seek their input. We need to gather that data. That’s what we’re doing, Mr. Speaker. Over six years there’s been a lot of work put into play and now we want to build on that. That’s what we’re doing. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
We’ve got some really good strategies out there such as the Economic Opportunities Strategy, which was mentioned earlier, the Oil and Gas Strategy being developed, Mineral Strategy. We have strategies in place. These reports give us information on what has been happening. Now we have to put it into action.
All the recommendations are in there, I’ve read it. Why don’t we put those into action rather than continuing to talk about it? We know these statistics are low. We know the economy is slow.
Will the Minister take this report and give this Assembly and residents of the Northwest Territories an up-to-date report on the progress his department has made with regard to this framework? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That’s exactly what is going to be happening. Today and tomorrow in Hay River there’s a visitation that’s happening, and in the following regions, as well, up to March 2nd. Once there have been visitations and forums that have taken place, then there will be a follow-up with an action plan and also monitoring, evaluation and accountability. That needs to be established. Once the action plan has been developed in the business planning process, then we will be moving forward to implementation. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
