Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have a motion to move. I move that the schedule to Bill 20 be amended to

(a)

increase by $311,000 the supplementary appropriation amount set out in part 1 item 10, "Transportation", by

(i) striking out "$1,069,000" and substituting "$1,380,000" in the column entitled "operations excluding amortization", and

(ii) striking out "$1,069,000" and substituting "$1,380,000" in the column entitled "supplementary appropriation by item";

(b) increase by $311,000 the amount set out in part 1 as the "total supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures"...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 21, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 3, 2004-2005. This bill requests authority for additional appropriations of $16.813 million for operations and expenditures.

Major items included in this request for operations expenditures are:

1.

A total of $11.1 million for the Department of Health and Social Services, including:

$4 million for the additional costs incurred for the provision of hospital services for NWT residents in hospitals outside of the NWT;

$2 million for the Dogrib Community Services Board's accumulated deficit and increased...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there could be further financial implications as we go forward. It again all depends on the final outcomes of the processes in place. So there is that that we could be coming forward for further requests in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has come forward with that. We know that it is for putting a plan together. I am not aware of the actual detail of where in the community this site is being looked at. Maybe the Minister has that background information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is an area whether it comes to the ferry service provided at river crossings, as well as winter roads. One of the things that the department is tasked to do is to operate as efficiently as possible. We find that setting the date is one of the better ways of doing that. There is always pressure to extend the season, if, for example, in the fall we have an unusually warm fall, there is a request from the trucking industry to keep those in operation for longer so that they can get the last loads up, as well with the winter road season. If we have a cooler spring...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is no committee in place. What we did is once we came up with a plan and decided to put it in action, we started off with the corporate human resource service portion we had within Executive, moved it over to FMBS, and from there involved all of the staff who were involved with the delivery of corporate human resource services and started expanding out from there, putting a plan together and involving them. We met with just about every individual that is involved with human resource services and got some input into how things would flow, as well as...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe I’ll have the Minister of Health and Social Services make that response in this area. As I explained earlier, the increased actual usage of what services are provided out of territory and some of those increases in the claims that were processed. For further detail, Mr. Miltenberger can give that detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The process, as it works, allows for all UNW and excluded employees to appeal, so there could be further appeals. Again, the initial job evaluation methodology that was used when the GNWT went to the Hay job evaluation process that we entered into, came up with a rating. Pay was adjusted on that basis and as a result of that there was a grievance filed on behalf of 42 nurses that triggered this going into action and the re-evaluation of the positions. Again, it is open to employees that feel that they are not getting a fair shake, they can grieve it and if...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This has come around as a result of extending the highway season for two more weeks, plus the activity on the winter road up the Mackenzie Valley has added a lot of extra maintenance that needs to be done on that area. The increased traffic as well as the extending of the season has caused the department to come in for this request. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not willing to stop the process where we are now. We have started on this course. We’ve reviewed the information that has been provided. We have looked at the plans and we are proceeding down that road. We have, as I stated, 140 affected employees. Of that, 50 of them are aboriginal people who have had input into the work that is going on. Through this change, there are going to be some people who are not happy with the results of the changes and how things are proceeding. But at this point, I have no plans of stopping the process to get a...