Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the first question, the costs of the proposal was one of the four important aspects that was evaluated, one of the four areas. The proposal was put out with a fixed cost in it. The proposal was advertised as having a budget set at a certain amount, and proponents were asked to respond to tell us what could be provided within that budget.

The issue of how much of the expenditures will be remaining in the North, again, there will be some variety, I guess. We will have to watch and see how much stays in the North. We have a responsibility, now that the contract has...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the best of my knowledge, that has never happened. If it has happened, it hasn’t been formally transmitted to the department so that we are aware of it.

Had something like that come to our attention, it would have been an issue that would have been a very serious concern and followed up.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has worked with some departments to prepare the long-term plan and stands ready to work with other departments as they are prepared to work with us. It is an offer that is out there. The department would agree that it is something that we need to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Hackett report did say that the government organization was out of whack with comparable size organizations, but we have taken their advice and will very shortly be at exactly the structure and number of employees that they recommend. So, Mr. Speaker, we have used their guidance to move to where we should be. An organizational design specialist would work with other departments, as well, to talk about how their structure should be established.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, this is a very exciting time of year. Over the past two weeks, graduation ceremonies have taken place at all three Aurora College campuses. Graduation ceremonies have started at schools throughout the Northwest Territories and will continue to take place over the next month.

Each graduation is a significant milestone in a person’s life. We are very proud of NWT graduates and I would like to take a moment to congratulate them on their commitment and dedication. Many have made sacrifices to reach their goals and their efforts go far beyond...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue has been reviewed quite thoroughly. As I’ve said, we’ve had it looked at by the Department of Justice, by the Department of Public Works and by the BIP monitoring office at ITI and we are following their advice, which is to ensure that we monitor very closely the performance of the current contractor to ensure that they are living up to the terms of the contract. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had the process reviewed by the BIP office at ITI. I’ve had the process reviewed by the Department of Justice and by Public Works. The advice that we have received is that we should continue with awarding the contract, or the contract should stand as awarded. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It isn’t possible for us to offer jobs at a lesser salary; we have the requirements for equal pay for work of equal value and we can’t try and get around that without it impacting on our public service. So we could always look at and examine different ways of doing it, but it would appear, from the raw numbers, that the private sector has become more attractive to the summer students. In 2003, 1,600 students registered for summer jobs. The government hired 343 that year, the same as it did last year when we had only 700 registered. This year, to date, we’ve only...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are constantly in communication with departments to advise them that we have summer students available and looking for work and encouraging them to hire students where available. The government, through HR, provides support through some programs to help departments take on students. There are 90 students supported through the Progressive Experience Program, and for health students the Relevant Experience Program doesn’t have a set limit to it. It’s up to the students to apply who are interested in the health care field. But we’ll certainly canvas departments to see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know if we have run into a situation like that. I don’t know what the exact protocol would be, but you can be assured that we would consider it to be a serious event and one that we would follow up on. But at this point, we have never been advised. In the past, I have heard rumours like the one that the Member has talked about. Every time we tried to follow up on it, we have never been able to find that it actually happened.

At this point, we don’t actually believe that it has happened. If it is found to be otherwise, there will be a very serious review of...