Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if it is alright, I can go into the detail now or we can do it later on; but if it is raised now, work has been done on this initiative through the Department of ITI looking at a number of factors, the goals of it or working with the business community, looking at emerging business in the Northwest Territories as well as the tourism side of the equation in trying to grow that side of the economy here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the area that we have direct focus on, aboriginal youth prevention or suicide prevention, is the National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy, and that has a number of focussed areas and projects that are aimed at certain areas. That's one, supporting youth and that's increasing resiliency as well as reducing the risk, and then supporting communities at risk, and that's prevention plans, skills training, leadership development, as well as crises response and knowledge development. So there's areas we're focussing on through that initiative right...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I believe Minister Bell can give a bit more information.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, FMBS has gone out to do a review of the situation. Again, just for the record, I have to state that the PeopleSoft system itself, which is used by a majority of other jurisdictions in very similar circumstances through government and companies, the system itself isn’t the problem. It is the fact that a decision was made when we first, as the GNWT, took on this new program and decided to customize it to fit our processes, not use the program as it was initially designed. The fact that the government-of-the-day used it in limited versions and customized...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact the department can. I think we can say we are very involved in this situation through our Alcohol and Drug Addiction Program and community wellness initiative working with mental health workers as well. We have put more money on the table to hire new physicians for our communities so that people can get help directly in their own communities, and that's an initiative that's underway and continues to proceed. Mr. Speaker, it is sad in a sense that anybody would consider suicide as an alternative or a way out of a situation they may find...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the department has been doing more work in this area and solidifying the plans. I believe Minister Bell may have some information he may be able to share.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The PeopleSoft program does have a long history with the Government of the Northwest Territories as we had to renew our past system of payroll and dealing with employees. PeopleSoft originally came into the government, as the Member stated, back in ’97 or ’98 and the government-of-the-day was looking to replace an older system. What we found in the day was the fact that as the program was brought in, the government did not take the program in the form it was delivered. In fact, I guess the proper terminology is it would be customized to fit the existing government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in our process, there would be a bit of a difference between through the Government of the Northwest Territories workforce and the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority workforce, because both would, if there are, and I'd have to check to see if in fact there are some differences, but because there are negotiations through their negotiation processes, there may be some differences, but I'm not aware of any and I will look into that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, yes, the training is becoming a more and more important part of the whole program itself. The program that was designed had a training component that could be used, but with the way it was implemented was not a usual function of the platform that we finally put in place. Version 8.9 does have that feature available and we will be using that and working with all departments as has been occurring recently. Thank you.

Yes, Madam Chair.