Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have said, we agree that this is a serious issue, the issue around access to the records and how the information has failed. We will look at that. I will report back to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I intend to follow up on this issue with some detail. Again, I will advise Members of what I am able to find out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, I'll discuss the issue with the Premier and my Cabinet colleagues, and review the situation and we will make an appropriate response. I don't want to commit to anything without having all of the details, all of the background that I can get. Mr. Speaker, I'll ensure, though, that Members are kept informed of what process we embark on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our colleague Mr. Braden is the chair of the AFS Interculture Program here in Yellowknife, and he has today invited a number of participants in that program to visit us in the Legislative Assembly. These are students who are visiting from other countries and attending school at Sir John Franklin. Mr. Speaker, the resident from Frame Lake who is here today -- at least temporarily from Frame Lake, he's actually from Denmark -- is Mr. Emil Madsen. He's hosted by Peter and Jenni Bannon.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't believe that there is a protocol in place for advising people of the fact that if someone who maybe didn't have authority to see all of their information saw it. It is an issue that needs to be followed up on, I agree with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be happy to update Members on a regular basis, not just one time at the end of the month. I will do it again in June and let Members know what has been happening with summer student employment. As the Member mentioned, one of the points I had made earlier is that there are varying lengths of jobs. A lot of departments look only for summer students to fill in for people who are on leave. So they look for summer students for an eight to 10-week period more than for the longer periods. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been extensive work done by human resources and FMBS over the past four years to look at this issue. It’s a topic that’s come up to the Cabinet table many times and we are working with the self-government negotiating teams at the tables to try to help them understand some of the issues surrounding taking over the positions. If a self-government entity is going to take on the delivery of a function, they are likely going to be looking at taking on the personnel. So we have been working on that and we have worked with the people at the table, both the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member says that we haven’t had any plans. In fact, when departments come forward through the business plan process to say here is what we need in order to implement the projects and the goals that the Legislative Assembly has set, that is some part of the plan for human resources. So each department has, up until now, been working at developing their own HR plan. The departments of Health and Social Services and FMBS have done detailed ones in concert with Human Resources and HR has made the offer to other departments to do more detailed ones with them. This...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the big changes we are proposing with the Income Security Program is a focus on bringing more than one department together to work with individuals; case management, if you will. Some of the level of support that might be required by some of the individuals in our system wouldn’t necessarily be available through one department. They may not all be available to changes through the Income security Program, but perhaps by case management working with Health and Social Services and the Income Support Program and the Housing Corporation, we may be able to find ways...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. By September of this year, the Income Support Program will be changed to provide a better level of support for persons with disabilities. We are also looking at changes that will accommodate some of the issue that the Member has talked about in terms of long-term planning for families who have youngsters with disabilities in a similar vein to the approach taken by the federal government recently. So, yes, Mr. Speaker, that’s underway. I am hoping in June to be able to announce the specifics of some of the changes we hope to implement in September.