Daryl Dolynny

Many of these recommendations are found in this report, a report that has been in the hands of the department for almost a year. Therefore, it’s time to ask our Minister to rip off his band-aid and allow the scab of our past to fully heal.

I’ll have questions later today for the Minister as to what he has been doing in addressing withdrawal management for the past year. Thank you.

Besides working on communication, what is the department doing to establish government-wide occupational health and safety training programs?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If the passive restraint program is in full effect, what we’re hearing is over 350-some thousand dollars. I guess the question is why still the overall increase overall. I mean, these are your numbers, not my numbers. We’re still at 2.9 percent in growth. I guess that’s the question. We don’t have an endless supply of money. Our revenues, as we heard from the Finance Minister, are dismal and they’re not looking any more favourable for the next two to three years. Are we going to continue to see forced growth at three or four times greater than our revenues for the next...

Keeping with the theme of the directorate, as it says provides expert financial advice, as the Minister indicated in his opening comments that the large percentage of the $688,000 or the 2.9 percent of the expenditure growth was due to the collective bargaining increases or annual increases. I would assume that these increases are not a surprise on an annual basis. I know these are negotiated over a tenure. We saw these increases coming. This should not be a surprise to the department. That being said, by what virtue, if we know these increases are coming, we know our revenues are only growing...

I do appreciate the response. I guess there would be no problem, then, for the Department of HR to provide this Member a complete list of all reporting documents that PeopleSoft has in order to report overtime banked hours as well as payouts, and would we be able to get a sample of each one of those reports and a description of what those reports can offer? Would the department commit to that?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Under directorate, this activity has a lot of hierarchy in terms of the overall mandate of the department. With that I need to elaborate on three areas, one of which I talked about earlier in my general comments that was unfortunately not responded to by the Minister. That was the issue of standardization of the overtime policies and again controlling our number one expense, which is wage dollars. With that, I believe that there is a concern about the standardization amongst departments, amongst the different types of occupational groups and how we bank, how we report...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Things are moving slowly. Issues and concerns surrounding the efficiency of our current Extended Health Benefits Program are well-enshrined in this House.

As I indicated earlier, the Minister has been acting in office for 585 days, has had ample time to review this file and has made unfulfilled promises to committee and to its residents.

Can the Minister indicate how many more days he needs to implement a proper catastrophic drug plan for all Northerners? Thank you.

I do appreciate the Minister reminding us about this pharmaceutical strategy that had not ever come to light here in the Assembly. It is not the panacea for all the solutions to the questions today.

So with that, in 2010 the honourable Minister Abernethy, in his former capacity as a Regular Member, recommended that the GNWT create a benefits plan for low-income families that do not have prescription drug coverage. The Minister responsible has been acting in this capacity for the past 585 days.

Can he inform the House if he has made good on his very own recommendation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to introduce, to you and through you, a resident of Range Lake, Ms. Candace Johnson, and of course all participants of the NWT Campaign School. Good luck this weekend; have fun. Of course, the NWT Status of Women Council, great job for hosting. Good luck with that. Thank you.