Bob McLeod

With the recent developments in new technologies in renewable and alternative forms of energy, I think it would be appropriate for us to do so. Our only consideration is we’ve been working mainly at the behest of the communities and we would want to go back to the communities and indicate that we want to take another look at... I guess to me I think the best course would be to find a way to use all forms of energy. I know we talked to different provinces and they’re using alternative and renewable energy to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. There are certainly new capacities in storage of...

Thank you. I guess the reason summer students are hired in January and February is we ask summer students to put in their applications by the end of December of every year. So for 2012 we ask the summer students to put in, those interested in getting summer employment, to put in their applications by December of 2011. So we’re quite prepared to look at the process. If it means that we should wait until April for summer students to put in their applications and have everybody compete for every job and if we think that works out in the best interests, we’ll be prepared to look at that and see...

As I’ve said many times, our staffing in the Government of the Northwest Territories is based on merit. If the Member has any incidences where he’s seen hiring done because of who you know, well, we certainly want to be made aware of it so that we can investigate.

In every instance we try to follow the merit principle. As far as hiring of summer students, if he wants to hire only the most experienced summer students, only summer students that are in the fourth year of their programs... We try to make sure that we have a mix of summer students and we try to make sure that we hire as many summer...

In the past when we looked at developing the NWT film industry, we had concerns that we wanted to make sure that the Northwest Territories benefitted. Through the work of the consultant, we were able to identify that NWT filmmakers were causing the Northwest Territories to benefit to the order of magnitude of $9 million, and that was without the government investing any money.

We do have the approach to collecting this information. We’ll continue to do it. We will collect it on a regular basis. It’s our intention to continue to invest, and invest more money as we go along and as our government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member noted, the Department of Human Resources has been working very closely with all of the departments and the government to develop an Occupational Health and Safety Program. It’s taken a couple of years to do so. We now have a program that we’re implementing. It will be fully implemented by 2011-2012.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have Alan Cash, deputy secretary to Cabinet; on my left, I have Mark Aitken, the director of legislation with the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to introduce Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Public Utilities Act.

Members will recall last year’s release of Creating a Brighter Future, a comprehensive response to almost two years of extensive consultations held with communities, key stakeholders, the general public, and Regular Members. Creating a Brighter Future detailed this government’s public commitment to a number of specific actions with respect to the Northwest Territories’ electricity system, including commitments to introduce amendments to the Public Utilities Act.

These legislative amendments have...

Yes, I would, Mr. Chairman.

I can provide the following information: The top three natures of injury were: sprains, strains, and tears, 15 percent; bruises and contusions, 13 percent; cuts and lacerations, 9 percent; and the top three locations of injury were Yellowknife, 51 percent; Fort Smith, 16 percent; Inuvik, 10 percent. The majority of the incidents are in facilities that operate 24/7, 365 days a year, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

I guess that’s the approach that we want to take. We’re having these occupational health and safety standards and committees, and in conjunction with that we’ve also started focusing on our duty to accommodate. We’ve hired a duty to accommodate officer. We’ll be working very closely with WSCC so that we can work with individuals and help them get accommodated earlier rather than having to pay compensation, because, like, 62.4 percent of our costs are due to compensation. Thank you.