Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The program that we’re designing is actually designed with the intent of helping new employees, as well as some existing employees, understand the cultures and reality of working in the Northwest Territories. It was designed in participation with a number of different Aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories. As far as having it presented at something like the hand games, it’s not really designed for that. It’s designed for employees to help them understand the different cultures and the realities in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you. Obviously we’re committed to try and get the lowest prices for fuel in the 16 communities that we provide fuel to and we’re always looking for ways to decrease the cost. As far as subsidy on transportation, I’m not sure that that would actually lower the cost, because the GNWT would still have that cost on them, but I’m interested to have a further conversation with the Member and possibly with committee to get their thoughts on this. But we’re always looking for ways to control the cost of fuel in our 16 communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we do fuel hauls into the different communities depending on their location. In the summertime we provide fuel by barge to some of the communities in the High Arctic. In some communities, we bring it in by ice road. Prices are reviewed every time we bring new fuel into the community.

Once again, it is a full cost-recovery program based on the cost of the fuel that we purchase and have provided to the communities. Mahsi.

We, obviously, want a public service that represents the population that we serve, and as such, we have put in a number of these programs to help us attain that. I’m interested in what the Member has to say and I’d be happy to sit down and have a conversation with the Member to see what we can do, and discuss it further with committee as well.

I’ve had an opportunity to travel to a lot of the communities in the Northwest Territories with the Member, as well, and had an opportunity to participate in the hand games, which I thoroughly lost. I do understand the value of these types of activities and initiatives but, once again, this program is really designed to help the individual employees who happen to be in Yellowknife or other communities where maybe the hand games aren’t taking place.

As a government, we do encourage our employees who live in smaller communities to engage and become part of the communities and I would hope to see...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. In support of this government’s vision of an environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories, the Department of Public Works and Services recently installed four more biomass heating systems in Fort Providence, Yellowknife, Behchoko and Fort Simpson.

In November Public Works and Services installed a new wood pellet boiler at the Combined Services Building at the Yellowknife Airport. This is the fifth such system the department has installed in Yellowknife, and it is expected to save the GNWT approximately 256,000 litres of fuel oil a year for an...

I have a number of people I would like to recognize. First I would like to recognize Charlene Doolittle, who is the new executive director of legal aid. Charlene is the first Aboriginal woman to hold the position and lives here in Yellowknife.

I would also like to recognize our court workers who are really the heart and soul of the Aboriginal Court Worker Program. They are Val Watsyk from Yellowknife, Sally Card from Yellowknife, Daphne Lafferty from Fort Good Hope, Maureen Maurice from Hay River, Pat Waugh from Fort Simpson, Sheila Nasogaluak from Inuvik, Shari Olsen from Fort Smith and Rose...

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the success of legal aid’s Aboriginal Court Work Program. This program has existed for over 30 years, and the court workers were brought into the public service over a decade ago. Our nine court workers are present in the visitors gallery today.

This program ensures that Aboriginal people charged with criminal offences receive timely and accurate information at the earliest possible stage of the criminal justice process. Our court workers also help residents with family law and other legal matters, and help residents navigate the legal aid system. They...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to complicate things, when we move forward with the union on what was often referred to as whistleblower legislation or whistleblower policy, through discussions with the UNW and how we were moving forward, it’s changed its name. It’s now a Safe Disclosure Policy. It will be safe disclosure legislation. When I’m referring to Safe Disclosure Policy and legislation, it’s really the evolution of the whistleblower discussions that we’ve been having.

As I’ve indicated, I’m really excited to bring this good work that the union and department have done in collaboration...

As I’ve said before, we’ve had this discussion in Cabinet and I have discussed this with the Premier. This is going to be part of the performance measurement system for senior managers and it’s discussed on a regular basis at the deputy head level. Each of the deputy ministers are accountable, and they are accepting that accountability and making the appropriate progress within the departments.