Alfred Moses

I want to ask the Minister, has he changed any policies or do any policies need to be changed in order to get individuals into the job? Like I said yesterday, there were some challenges for some individuals in Inuvik who were just trying to get casual employment and had to go through all the hoops to get their application on the desk.

So, have any policies changed within the government system that allows residents of the Northwest Territories to actually get into these jobs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had some questions in the House yesterday in regard to some human resources issues. I just wanted to bring to attention today there was a Minister’s statement or a Minister’s news release on October 13, 2013, that mentioned the Regional Recruitment Program. I’ve made reference to it calling it the 80/20 program, where the residents of the NWT who actually try to get into the GNWT workforce get paid 80 percent of their salary and 20 percent of that overall salary goes into training.

I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources some questions later on the implementation...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The allowance for doubtful accounts is an estimate of the amount of accounts receivable upon which the GNWT does not expect to collect. In 2012-2013 allowance was about 41.4 percent of total loans receivable. In 2011-12 it was about 38.45 percent of the total loans receivable. The year prior it was approximately 30 percent.

The committee sees that this is a concern with the incremental increases over the years and wants to try to address that before next year gets a little bit higher. We want to make sure this government does the right thing in terms of monitoring it and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just before I begin, I too would like to thank the committee for all the hard work within the public accounts portfolio. Being this is the second time that we’ve moved forward in public accounts receivable, I just want to make note that again this year the standing committee noted with concern the substantial amount of money owing in accounts receivable from the Government of Nunavut. While this figure has decreased from close to $10 million in 2011-2012 to $7.78 million this year, the committee reiterates its concern that maintaining such a large interest-free...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to signing off on these forms, if the Commissioner for Oaths is not available to sign it off or they might be working or out of town – some communities don’t have too many of them – it seems that an easy fix to this may be to have someone in the Human Resources department sign off on these forms.

Could the Minister look at developing a position or giving someone in the Human Resources department authority to sign off on these? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Most recently, I heard that we had some GNWT employees who were trying to access their file and were told they had to go through ATIPP and pay the fees to access their own personnel files, which I believe under the UNW Agreement they have the right to look at their files.

If so, when did this practice come in, GNWT employees now having to pay $25 to access their own personnel files? Is that something new that HR has implemented and when did it occur? I’m sure committee hasn’t heard anything on that, so I would like a little more information on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and recognize the hard work and efforts of the NWT Recreation and Parks Association. From January 7th to March 4th, residents of the Northwest Territories participated in the event, The Walk to Talk Challenge. With records this year, we had 102 teams participate, and out of the 102 teams that participated, 73 had actually made it to Tuk, and I understand there were other teams that did make it but didn’t have their times submitted on time as well.

The grand total of kilometres that were logged was 207,808 kilometres.

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Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Government of the Northwest Territories monitor its loans receivable and develop targets and measures to improve collections, with a view to reducing the allowance for doubtful accounts to less than 30 percent. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a motion as well. I move that the Government of the Northwest Territories review its accounts receivable from Nunavut, the purpose of this review being to develop targets and measures to improve collections, and to identify and write off those debts that are deemed to be uncollectible. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just moving on with more of these human resources issues that have come to my attention, when we’re trying to get casual employees into the workforce, in some cases the individuals have to go through a criminal records check and there’s a cost to that. Most recently, I’ve heard when people are seeking employment with the GNWT, when they are filling out their forms and applications, now they have to look for a Commissioner for Oaths to sign off on the new forms.

I just want to know if the Minister would look at waiving those fees or if there is a process and how we can get this done a lot...