Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. WCB is directly involved with this process. They go through their own process of taking this into account. In fact, the majority of information provided to us is as a result of WCB’s work they provided to us because they recognize the act in place and follow that process through. So they have developed it. They have taken it into account and put it into their doubtful accounts, but because of our act, the way it’s written, have provided us with that information. In a sense, it’s a final clearance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in checking into this and having the department contact the administration for the public service health care plan, we've not come up with any satisfactory responses in that area. We have notified them that we are not happy with the changes that were made and would prefer to have it as it was, and at this time we've been informed they're not willing to go back to it. It references the drug identification numbers, I believe, as a way of how they work it through their programs and have payments put out and established, and it's on that basis what we're...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, presently the way the Financial Administration Act is worded, it does identify that all write-offs have to flow through this process. It is something that we’ve recognized as an issue. In the re-workings of coming forward with a new FAA, that will be taken into account. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of working in a consensus-style government, yes, we are prepared. I believe we can have something to committee probably within the next month. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as I stated, we tried a number of avenues to collect the money that is due to ourselves in a number of areas. This initially came out of the Workers’ Compensation Board of NWT and Nunavut and the amount that was owed to them. The company itself reopened in 2001 and at the end of 2003 was forced to apply to the British Columbia Supreme Court for protection under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act. That was received in December of that year. So that’s what kicked this off. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we undertake a number of avenues of trying to collect funds from those who owe money to the Government of the Northwest Territories through a number of initiatives, but there are a number of factors that we do have to live by as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Some of these accounts or loans, grants that were put in place had attached to them guarantees and so on in place, or a business that was established would shut down and go out of business and all assets may have been sold, but not enough to repay the full debt.

At times, we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There's a number of factors that play a role here. Year by year it would fluctuate. With our stronger economy in the Northwest Territories, the job market being as robust as it is, more people employed and being able to meet their payment plans and so on has been good in that sense. So it would fluctuate from year to year. Yes, over the last number of years, the government has tightened up on its collection side to ensure that we clean up that section of area and government accounting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have revisited this policy. Looking at the direction different departments are in, we felt there needed to be some consistency taken into account here. We've made the necessary moves and made a couple of allowances for operational issues. So the whole fact of lieu time is something that we have. Just having 75 hours in place is to try and help the employee morale and allowing them to take extra time off, not just annual leave earned. So it is something we've tried to address, we've tried to be flexible, but at the same time we have to look at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, in fact, as we pulled human resources together and looked at the departments and how they were managing their lieu time activities, we found there was great inconsistency between departments of how it was banked, how much could be used, if it was refillable, how much could be carried over from calendar year to calendar year, and a decision was made, in working with the other departments, that we did need to bring some consistency back to this and establish the 75 hour amount per year. We also do recognize that, in fact, not all occupations are the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we can show on a number of fronts where we take very seriously the issues that employees face who work for us here in the Government of the Northwest Territories no matter what department. We have looked at this. We need to bring some consistency back. We have tried to be flexible where operational requirements are looked at, and feel that this is the avenue we need to work with for the time period and see how it works out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.