Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As this government has committed to growing the population of the Northwest Territories over the next few years, one of the areas that I talked about in the past is our link between the students who are going out to schools and the Department of HR. We have a disconnect there. I think that we should be able to communicate with those students and link them to jobs before they’ve even completed their education.
Hay River has a great couple of students right now. Mr. Lance Crook is finishing up his education, a doctorate, and he’s in Hay River doing some training. We also have R.J. Simpson, who has finished his degree in law and is looking for the GNWT to do articling. He’s having difficulties finding a position.
The problem we have is that exact thing. Why is Mr. Simpson coming back to the Northwest Territories now to get an articling position? Shouldn’t we have already known that from student financial assistance that that was what he was doing? Shouldn’t we have talked to HR and the Department of Justice and linked this together so Mr. Simpson and other students have an opportunity to come back? The problem now is he’s considering, do I stay in the Northwest Territories or do I go south where I can actually get a position? We should have linked that in his first and second year of school, to HR, to the department he will potentially be working for. Why is there a disconnect?
I know the Department of ECE is looking to create this checkbox so HR can communicate with Justice and everybody else. There is definitely a disconnect with our GNWT. We need to find that link and we need to make sure all our students come back. We are paying for that student financial assistance. We should maximize that opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
