David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t think a session goes by where I don’t have some questions for the Minister who happens to be responsible for Human Resources. We’ve heard again, during this sitting of the House, some more concerns regarding human resources and the rollout of this new upgrade. The first question I think that really needs to be asked is, I want to know specifically why the contractor, Answerthink, who was responsible for the upgrade, had their contract terminated on the exact date that the upgrade went live and that was July 3rd. I think I need an explanation on...

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Next on the list I have Minister Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to discuss some issues today surrounding the operation and the management of the Department of Human Resources. Recently, there have been two well-known incidents where the Department of Human Resources have had some very serious issues to address. The first, Mr. Speaker, was the breach of PeopleSoft last winter where employees’ private information was available to others on PeopleSoft. This was known to staff of Human Resources. However, they failed to inform the Minister that there was a security breach in the software. This took place for about a month....

Mahsi, Mr. Villeneuve. Next on the list I’ve got Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Premier for his comments. I also thank the Members who spoke in favour of the motion that we have before us today. I just wanted to close with saying a few more things.

I know the Premier spoke of making decisions as a territory and being accountable. That’s all fine and good, Mr. Speaker, but at no moment in time were Members of this House, Regular Members, part of the decision-making process to spend the additional $2 million, and that, to me, is the fundamental problem that I have with the bridge project. That was a unilateral decision by Cabinet...

  WHEREAS a Deh Cho Bridge would be a desirable, permanent road link in the NWT's transportation infrastructure;

AND WHEREAS considerable public expense and effort has been invested in creating a public private partnership with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation to complete the project;

AND WHEREAS the projected cost of the bridge has escalated from $60 million to $150 million within four years;

AND WHEREAS substantial public funds, as well as toll fees, will be required for 35 years to pay for the project;

AND WHEREAS the government has not disclosed business and economic impact models for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the incidents that I’ve pointed to today such as the security breach that happened last winter, the recent module failing, all of the concerns of the employees, the client concerns, those hundreds of people who didn’t receive a paycheque after July 3rd when the system crashed, I’d like to ask the Minister is there going to be any disciplinary action taken on staff at Human Resources for causing us these problems, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Bill 7, Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act, and Committee Report 4-15(6) and would like to report progress with one motion being adopted and that Committee Report 4-15(6) is concluded and that Bill 7 has been recommitted to the Standing Committee on Social Programs for further review. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I’d like to get at is we are spending all this money in the area of PeopleSoft and it’s because the program itself was cut up over the years or bastardized, if I could. I want to find out who is responsible for making these decisions where that program that we’ve spent millions of dollars gets cut up to suit our needs of the day and it doesn’t look long term on what the future needs of the Government of the Northwest Territories are and we end up having to pay more money. I’d like to ask the Minister who is responsible for making decisions in regard to PeopleSoft...

Thank you. Committee Report 4-15(6) is concluded and Bill 7 will be recommitted to the Social Programs committee. Mahsi. At this time, I would like to ask what is the wish of the committee.