Finance Committee on Sept. 30th, 2009

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ladies and gentlemen, like Monsieur Laforest, this is my first visit to Yellowknife, and I'm very pleased to be here in the beautiful Northwest Territories. It really is a stunning region to visit, and I hope that more Canadians choose to visit here.

I thank you all for your presentations. I've heard from a number of you about the need for more education and skills training. I believe the key to future prosperity for all Canadians is higher education, and it's a common theme we hear wherever we go.

What I've heard from Mr. Connell, Mr. Schultz, and Mr. Simailak is a need for further investment, but I haven't heard a specific request. What do we need? What can we do? Is there one specific request, or two or three specific requests this committee can take to the Government of Canada to address this issue? Do we need to make a further investment in bricks and mortar in a specific educational institution here in the Northwest Territories? Do we need to make investment in distance learning that can benefit people throughout the region, wherever they're located? Do we need to provide more funding for students to be able to travel to educational institutions in Alberta or elsewhere? Perhaps you could help me with that.

Mr. Schultz, maybe you could start.

[Tim Schultz]

I'll take a shot at it.

This is my second trip to Yellowknife. I've seen it in January and at night, so I can't really respond too much on the beauty of it. I'll have to take a look when I leave for the airport today.

Obviously, I represent educational institutions in Alberta, and I think maybe it's a good idea I came up here today, rather than making a presentation in Edmonton yesterday, because it seems to me it has always been a jurisdictional issue on post-secondary education. It's a provincial jurisdiction, so what role does the federal government play in providing post-secondary education opportunities to any Canadian, regardless of where they live? It seems to me the problems in the north are certainly unique to those in the southern parts of the country, and it's just the ability to create the capacity and the number of people who can access those programs up here. There are no universities in the north. I think there's maybe only one or two colleges in the north. I think there's a college in the Yukon and there's a college in the Northwest Territories.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Can I ask you about that? Did either of those colleges make an application to the knowledge infrastructure program this year? The government is spending $2 billion on colleges and universities across Canada. Do you know if they applied?

[Tim Schultz]

I can't answer that question. I know that all of our colleges did. I would assume they have.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I hope some funding was received.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Ms. Melhorn wanted to comment briefly.

[Margaret Melhorn]

The Northwest Territories received $2 million through the knowledge infrastructure program. The proposals have been put into Canada for those and we have identified matching funding.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Excellent. What was that for specifically?

[Margaret Melhorn]

I believe it will be for community learning centres, which are associated with adult education.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Okay.

Mr. Simailak, do you have anything to add on that point about education-specific requests on investment in education? If not, I have another question.

The government has provided some funding in recent years for apprenticeship funding, which we know has been quite popular.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Simailak.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I'm sorry, Mr. Simailak. I didn't mean to cut you off.

[David Simailak]

Thank you.

We want to train our people to work at the gold mine that's opening up this coming winter and hopefully pouring the first brick of gold in January. We want to train our people to work there.

When I was the minister in our government, I started the process of trying to get the training started, specifically for that mine. That was back in 2004. We haven't trained a single person yet.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Why not? What do you need? Specifically, what do you need? You say “more investment”, but I just don't know exactly what you need.

[David Simailak]

We need more investment in our school system.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Is that in your local school systems? Is that the primary school system or post-secondary?

[David Simailak]

In primary, but we also need direct investment in our adult education programs.

We have the Nunavut Arctic College. It's a beautiful concept, but it receives very little funding to actually train the people who want and need the training.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Has Nunavut Arctic College applied for any infrastructure funding?

[David Simailak]

I don't know, but I'm sure it would have.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I'm going to shift programs, perhaps to something that could help. There is funding that students get both before they enter the program and immediately upon completing the program, before they start working. We've found that to be beneficial in other parts of Canada.

In my area, the Mississauga region of Ontario, a lot of young people and older workers have taken advantage of that. They appreciate the opportunity to get funds in advance and upon completion of the apprenticeship training.

Is that something that would help, Mr. Connell, at AEM? Are those the kinds of skills you need?

[Larry Connell]

Yes. The problem goes even deeper than that. For example, we are entering and looking at apprenticeships right now. We're looking at getting the practice going. The trouble is that the educational levels of the people applying for work at our site don't meet the level of ability needed to even enter the apprenticeship program. They don't have--

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Do you mean that they need to get to the secondary level?

[Larry Connell]

Yes. For example, out of all the people applying to us, very, very few have a grade 10 education level, let alone a high-school education level. As you've heard, the mining industry is moving into a high-tech age. As a result, the level of education that's required to participate fully in it is growing, and the north is being left behind.

In my opinion, it's not about buildings and mortar and bricks. It's about support to the GN and how these programs get delivered and the unique problems--

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I'm sorry. What is the GN?

[Larry Connell]

It's the Government of Nunavut. It's called the Government of Nunavut Department of Education.

Get that education to the ground.