Glen Abernethy

I mentioned health authorities. The two highest claims areas in the Government of the Northwest Territories are the Stanton Territorial Health Authority and the Fort Smith Health Authority, followed closely by Justice. I indicated authorities and I should have said both.

With respect to claims, the claims change regularly. Every department is different. Some departments are higher; some departments are lower. By way of example, in 2011, HR had $3,400 in claims. So far, third quarter of this calendar year, 2012, they have $86. We do have a wide range of different fees per employment area.

With...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today is Mark Aitken, the acting assistant deputy minister with the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the record, the Safe Advantage program is a program administered by the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission. The program is actually a fairly new program. It’s only been in place for, I think, five years.

The first couple of years were assessment years where they actually monitored what organizations were doing in order to set up the standards for the averaging to see who was above their average and below their average. The first couple of years there were no costs or penalties to anybody.

The GNWT has received some significant penalties in this area under...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here today to talk to you about Bill 2, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2012.

The purpose of Bill 2 is to amend various statutes of the Northwest Territories for which minor changes are proposed, or errors or inconsistencies have been identified.

Each amendment included in the bill had to meet the following criteria:

It must not be controversial;

It must not involve the spending of public funds;

It must not prejudicially affect rights;

It must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence.

Departments responsible for the...

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to proceed with second reading of Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act.

---Consent granted

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to proceed with second reading of Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2 be read for the first time.

Thank you. Just for clarity, the vast portion of claims where there are claims cost or salary, the Government of the Northwest Territories from 2009 to 2012 has had about a 6 percent increase in salary. So even if our claims stayed the number, our costs would go up.

We are working with individual departments. The Department of HR, as I indicated, is working on Occupational Health and Safety programming that can be implemented by the departments. The individual departments have some responsibility in that area and we continue to work with them.

By way of example, the Department of Justice is one...

Mr. Speaker, the health and social services system represents approximately one-third of the GNWT public service. So it’s not that surprising that we have a proportionately high number of claims in that area. Front-line workers are in high-risk business, operating 24/7, and front-line staff may incur physical injury when they are lifting or moving patients.

The Department of Human Resources is a shared service provider and we provide support, guidance and advice to assist departments in improving their health and safety practices within all departments, boards and agencies. However, individual...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today are Gary MacDougall, the director of legal registries; and Kelly McLaughlin. What is your title?