Floyd Roland

I am pleased to introduce Bill 21, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act. The staffing appeals process provides for public accountability of staffing within the GNWT public service. The proposed legislative amendments to the Public Service Act will enhance this accountability by enabling revisions to the staffing review and appeals regulations to strengthen the staffing appeals process by making it more independent and transparent.

The proposed changes to the Public Service Act include an appointment mechanism for staffing review officers as well as a more extensive regulation-making...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d have to take exception with the Member stating that we have employees out there who are not committed to the policies that we have in place. If there are examples of that, if there’s proof of that besides accusations of employees not following the rules, then definitely bring them forward to me and I will work to address them. We have a policy in place. We need to follow those policies. We know there are some problems with the one management program that we have in place. In fact, we’re trying to, as we go forward, incorporate it into the work around...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the affirmative action policy will not be eliminated. What we are doing is looking at its structure and incorporating it into the new organization and how we would carry on business as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Just to be clear and on the record, affirmative action is still an issue that we’re dealing with and looking at how we can carry it forward. If it has the same title or a different title, that’s something to be decided.

On the committee the Member spoke about, that has not been in operation for quite some time, so the work we’re...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we are laying this out, the process is we would put out a request for individuals who have interest in taking up those positions. They would not be allowed to be government personnel. So a government employee would not qualify for one of these positions. They will be contracted positions. Once they are selected and will have the experience to fit the criteria, they would be in there for a three-year term. The only reason they could be removed would be for not following the rules, not going in accordance to the act.

So the Minister-of-the-day cannot go...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as anybody who would apply on a government position would be aware, through the form to apply, they would make the selection if they were an aboriginal person in the Northwest Territories and therefore considered P1. So if they felt they weren’t considered a P1 or a P2 in the existing categories in place, then any policy we have could be appealed if they felt that it wasn’t adhered to. It is pretty straightforward on that section of it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the numbers that Mrs. Groenewegen has used do not include, in some cases, health boards in the calculation of those. For the overall reduction scenarios that we are facing and positions that we are moving from the public service through the reduction exercise are approximately 70.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, a lot of things over the years have changed within Public Works and Services since the days of government services. A lot of departments have taken more and more of the program end of operations and done those. We’ve also gone through a privatization initiative where a lot of the work we used to do is done by the private sector through contracts. As well as user pay/user say is another term that affected the department in a fairly significant way when departments were given the control of the dollars for their operational facilities and they would go out...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, affirmative action is something that this government takes seriously and we are working to continue to improve on what we are able to do at this point. That’s one of the reasons why the Human Resource Service Centre idea is one that we feel will bring some positive results. Right now, each department is doing their own thing with different interpretations on the same rules. If we pool these human resource service staff together, they will not only support each other in the work they do, but the interpretation will be the same amongst all service centres. At...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, for the detail on the pricing that we do come up with, I'll go to Mr. Aumond, but before we do, a number of factors that do come in, and one of the things is the renewal of the contract for whether it's a winter road delivery or barge system delivery, that would take part of it, as well as our own fees in the sense of government tax. But for the breakdown of developing the cost per litre of gasoline in a community, Mr. Aumond will give that detail.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, once a project is approved and put into the capital plan in the year it is approved, when contracts are let out there is room to involve community corporations in that phase, the construction phase. But the front end work we do with departments is based on the department’s requirement. If it’s Education, Culture and Employment about the size of a school, they would come to us with that preliminary information. If it’s Municipal and Community Affairs for a shop or something of that nature or RWED for an office, we would become involved in that place. Once...