Bob McLeod

Originally I grew up in Fort Providence, and I know that a number of people have been trained to work on marine operations. So I'm sure similar arrangements for training opportunities could be made available in the Member's constituency. I know the department has identified $100,000 that they're making available for marine training. Perhaps we can work together so that this individual could take advantage of that.

As I talked about earlier, we do have the Staff Retention Program. The Department of Human Resources will work very closely with the department responsible for marine operations to work with the affected employee with the objective of retaining him and finding him a similar position somewhere in the Northwest Territories.

We’ve had the opportunity to meet with the 118 potentially affected employees. Through the Staff Retention policy there are a number of options. One is education assistance, separation assistance or severance priority.

With regard to early retirement or potential retirement, that is, I guess, a decision that would have to be requested by the potentially affected employee. We’re prepared to look into that, and we're waiting for direction from the Members as well.

The Department of Human Resources and the home department of these 118 potentially affected employees, which is less than 2 per cent of the whole Government of the Northwest Territories’ workforce.... We work very closely with the potentially affected employees under our Staff Retention policy. And I emphasize “staff retention,” because it is our objective to keep as many of these potentially affected employees on the workforce.

Departmental HR staff and departmental management meet with those potentially affected employees that request a meeting. We work with them to make sure they understand...

I am pleased to recognize the family of Jim Peterson: his wife, Margaret Peterson; his daughter Amanda, Jim’s son Chad and also close friends Jack Levesque, Sandy Osborne and Don Santos. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, what the Member raises is certainly an objective that we’ve been working to achieve, and we are talking about our own people in our own communities. As the budget indicated yesterday, there are a number of strategic initiative committees. I think the Managing This Land Strategic Initiative will be looking at the whole area of agriculture, and we would look at identifying dollars that are available for investment with agriculture. If the committee comes out that it’s a priority — and I certainly think it is — then we’ll be doing more in this area.

As the Member indicates, having been born and raised in the Northwest Territories, I do know that producing your own food is certainly one way of reducing the costs. At one time every family that lived in the community had their own garden plot, and this is something the department has attempted to encourage. We do have a program where we assist communities to develop their own gardens and to start growing their own food, and we assist them to do so.

Employees that are seasonal-indeterminate obtain benefits on the same basis as any other indeterminate employee.

I know that seasonal workers are very important to the communities. Just to be very clear, maybe the Member could clarify what types of positions he is talking about. Is he talking about firefighters? Is he talking about highway workers?

It’s difficult to determine, because we have to take into consideration the individual needs or preferences of potentially affected employees.

We have set in place.... Through the Staff Retention policy, we make all the competitions that are coming forward available and known to the potentially affected employees.

We have received at least 50 résumés. The remainder, I assume, are waiting to see what transpires through the budget process. Our expectation is that potentially affected employees will probably have a better option. We are certainly encouraging our managers of the different...