NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

Members of the NWT legislative assembly on Thursday came together to unanimously support a motion asking the Government of Canada to announce a successor strategy to the highly successful Aboriginal Skills and Partnership Program (ASEP), due to expire March 31.

Senior Underground Mine Training Instructor Pat Tymchatyn, right, assists Wanda Sabourin of Fort Providence, left, in assembling her breathing apparatus as part of her training under the Mine Training Society's Underground Miner Training Program. The society is one of several organizations partly funded under the federal government's Aboriginal Skills and Partnership Program, set to run out in one year. - photo courtesy of Mine Training Society

The Mine Training Society is one organization that depends on funding from the program to help finance training of Northern workers.

"We need a program like ASEP to continue, because let's face it, we are only beginning to scratch the surface of all the resources we have up here," said Hilary Jones, general manager of the Mine Training Society. "We have the potential of the pipeline, potential of the highway -- large scale projects that need people to work in them and people in our communities who want to work on these projects," she said.

Jones said she can't think of a reason why the federal government would not implement a successor strategy.

"ASEP works. It pays back, it creates tax-payers, cuts down on social assistance, and the need for other social programming because people are employed. This is a very successful program that has helped employ 6,600 people across Canada and 900 of those were in the NWT. So having both sides of the legislature come together is a clarion call to the federal government that we need this."

The program provides training opportunities for aboriginal Northerners, preparing people for long-term and sustainable employment. The program provides funding for the Mine Training Society, the Building Inuvialuit Potential Society and the Dehcho First Nations to train aboriginal Northerners for employment in mining, transportation, construction and petroleum exploration sectors.

MLA for Great Slave Glen Abernethy, who brought the motion before the legislative assembly, said he thinks Ottawa got the message.

"It sent a clear message that we all stand behind this and that this is important to the entire NWT, to the people of the NWT for their future," said Abernethy. "We need this training to get done for our people so they can get jobs in the mines, in the transportation sector and in the oil and gas sector. Having the training here is going to be critical and we need to make sure we are doing everything we can with our partners to make sure people are getting Northern jobs," he said.

Abernethy said that without the funding, the ability for organizations like the Mine Training Society to train Northern workers will be strained. "The partners up here don't have the dollars to run the programs as they are now. They can contribute, but the impact will be dramatically reduced. I don't think they can afford to give more than they are giving right now. The federal money is make or break on many of these programs."

Bright Lubansa, program director for the Building Inuvialuit Potential Society, said "The program is highly beneficial for the people in our communities and it has had quite tremendous results. It's important that it is not a handout program. The people who benefit from it through training experience an uplift in their life and that's good to see. It adds value to life," said Lubansa.

The Mine Training Society, Building Inuvialuit Potential Society and the Deh Cho First Nations have used $21.5 million in contributions from the ASEP program to help train and employ aboriginal Northerners.

The Government of Canada created the program in 2003 to increase aboriginal participation in the Canadian workforce. The program was extended through 2012 in 2007 and can only be extended once under current regulations.

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