Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development often mentions her “Gathering Strength” document and recently allocated $1.6 billion for employment training, with $100 million going to the three northern territories.
The Yukon has one of the largest aboriginal population bases and a 15% unemployment rate. Our population is equivalent to that of the other two territories. The department does not fund trades training at all, but the Yukon will receive only $3.9 million of the $100 million. This is blatantly unfair. It is an unjustifiable division of resources, less than 4%.
It appears the minister will allow only two territories to gather strength, while starving the Yukon of desperately needed training dollars.