Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of finance today. Mr. Speaker, in the GNWT's response to last year's motion to match Canada's population growth, Cabinet said part of its population growth strategy is to retain residents that the NWT already has. How is the GNWT working to identify why NWT residents are actually leaving the territory so that they can specifically address what these reasons are. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly am also following the statistics that we get quite regularly on updates about population change. Mr. Speaker, I just want to note one interesting fact is we've actually seen an increase in international net migration into the territory. The birth rate, as I think the that was reported yesterday tends to remain fairly stable. So there are some interesting things to draw, and I do want to assure folks we certainly do keep an eye on that as well. As far as what we're doing to what we're doing to keep people aware of what's happening and why this is a good place to be, I can speak from the perspective of finance, Mr. Speaker. There's a lot of efforts being made in the Department of Finance to demonstrate why it's a good employer, which is certainly the biggest one of the biggest employers here in the Northwest Territories. And looking also, again, as an employer at whether we can be doing more to look at why people do leave the Northwest Territories. And a lot of that work does happen right now at the three mines. Thief tried to do exit interviews to look at. And, Mr. Speaker, in short, there's such a myriad of reasons, it becomes difficult to target just one, other than to tie it to look at what it is overall in the territories that does make this such a great place to be, and that is a lot of the work we do in this House to try to continue programs and services that are available to residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister will commit to investigating what can be done here a little bit farther. There are avenues and I think easy accessible avenues where more exit interviews can be done for GNWT employees. I think that there is more that can be done to give other residents who don't work for the government feedback on why they're leaving. And another interesting category that I find is people who are saying I've decided that I plan to leave within the next X number of years. One such example is someone who reach out to me and said we've decided we're leaving within the next five years; we're done. But we're giving ourselves a little bit of time. It would be interesting to know what is compelling these people to leave the territory. Is there something that would actually just change their mines and get them to stay, and if so, can we pull out those themes and address those things specifically. So is the Minister willing to look at territorial wide exit interviews. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as it is, there's actually a requirement or an expectation for the Department of Finance for GNWT employees to institute an exit interview process. That's part of the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework. We are expected to undertake that work and to have that ready to go in 20232024. So in that sense, that much of a commitment I can certainly make. And, Mr. Speaker, I know when there was some of these news articles came out the other day, I had an opportunity to speak with the other department, ITI that I'm responsible for. And looking there too alt whether we could perhaps work with the business community at why there may be changes, why people might be selling businesses, or looking to leave. So I don't disagree. I'm not sure how far of a commitment I can give to the Member here on the floor other than to say that there is some discussion happening right now with the departments, different departments at what we can be doing to reaching out to various parties and stakeholders in the community and certainly would be happy to hear those stories directly as we are figuring out what other routes and avenues we can take directly to reach out and to find out what more we can do to keep residents here and attract new ones. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pretty sure right about now it's 5:17 in Toronto and someone is driving home, wishing that they weren't spending an hour and a half on the road and wishing they knew where to go and be there was opportunities for them to get wherever they needed to be in five minutes. And so I'm wondering if the Minister of finance is interested in putting together a targeted marketic plan to let fellow Canadians know what wonderful things the Northwest Territories has to offer and what opportunities they can come up here and take advantage of right away. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a fairly intensive marketing campaign between 2010 and 2014 called come make our mark. It did have some successes. It certainly had a high number of inquiries. It had a high number of positive responses from business communities who said they were aware of the campaign that they had people coordinate coming to them because of that campaign. But it was a very expensive campaign to run, Mr. Speaker. And I don't necessarily know just how many more folks on the ground we actually have as a result of it. So, Mr. Speaker, I'm certainly I'm not saying no, but I do think there's some more looking that needs to be done at what was done before, did it have the impacts we wanted it to before we necessarily commit to another marketing campaign. That said, Mr. Speaker, the days of social media certainly have evolved. So I do hope that there's some room here where we can give a better response, a more positive response to that question in the coming in the coming time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do remember that campaign. I remember it being based on different people in the territory who were from different regions across Canada, and their faces were plastered in their home town, and it was so and so moved to the Northwest Territories kind of thing. So can you is my memory of that campaign come make your mark in the territory just like your friend from our home community did. But I don't move somewhere or have an idea of moving somewhere. And I've been here a long time, I'll admit that. But it's because I love the North. And you don't generally decide to up root your entire family because Jim or Bob or so and so lives there. It's something else is attracting you there that talks to you and what that place has to offer for you. And so I think that there's room for us to really sell all of the Northwest Territories has to offer, especially with some of the changes that have happened in the territory and also some of the things that have been here for absolutely ever that we want to be able to share with the world. But my last question for the Minister, Mr. Speaker, is when people visit an NWT tourism booth and I believe that there was an NWT tourism event here in Yellowknife, but right before the pandemic that we all got to go to, and there was a three day experience; there was a beautiful massive I think 20foot booth that people could go and really experience the northern lights. It was a very interactive experience, and it's exciting. And then you'd walk up to a human resources booth, and it's generally an eight by eight booth sorry, Mr. Speaker. It doesn't really sell it. It's got two people standing there, and if you want to ask questions, you can. So will the GNWT really take after tourism NWT and create some exciting booths that actually sell the territory when they go to these events. Thank you.
I'm thrilled that NWT tourism is getting a great shout out, Mr. Speaker. They do have some pretty incredible materials. Mr. Speaker, ITI and ECE work together in terms of immigration. So as far as trying to attract people here and that certainly is being from an international for immigration perspective, but that, I think, can influence what we're doing nationally within Canada as well. So let me take that away. I again, I've also seen updated materials from NWT tourism. I think think are, in fact, award winning materials on a national scale of what they have. Let me take that away. Again, as I said, I think we have responded already last year to the motion that was there. There was no lack of awareness of the need to grow our population, the labour market shortages across the board have made that real, and if there's an opportunity to perhaps share some of the materials we already have in a better way, then I expect that they'll be some appetite to do that if that can be easily done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
