Glen Abernethy

Thank you. Once again, I appreciate the Minister’s response, but I come back to this example. The person was told that they weren’t getting the job after they passed and the references were good and they were told that Stanton would not accommodate this person’s disability. So we know it’s happening. Does the department have any recourse where a department clearly isn’t abiding by the rules? Does the department have any recourse or ability to make sure that departments do adhere to the policies and procedures of this government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for HR. As far as HR plans go, Brilliant North 20/20 is a pretty good document, in my opinion. It goes a long way to increasing the representation of persons living with disabilities in the GNWT public service. But as outlined in my example earlier today, clearly not all department boards and agencies are supporting the government direction on hiring persons with disabilities; in particular, accommodating those individuals. So I’m wondering if the Minister could tell me what he and his department are doing to ensure that...

That’s great. Maybe if the Minister can provide me with some data on how far those records go back, because I know there’s product from three, four, five, seven, eight, nine, 10 years. It would be great to go back and capture some of the stuff we’ve done, so if the Minister can provide me that, that would be great. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The first section here, NWT Arts Council, is $500,000. This is where we give money to groups that are obviously interested in producing some sort of project, whether it is music, whether it is writing or whatnot.

In this area, I know that over the years we have done a really fantastic job of putting some money into the hands of some of our artists throughout the Northwest Territories, but we haven’t always done a brilliant job of sort of collecting or recognizing what has been accomplished by these artists. For instance, we have had many CDs produced by many talented...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Minister can’t demonstrate this most recent and final round of public consultations had meaningful impact on the final draft and that no substantive changes are being considered as a result, I suggest that this act is not ready to be put before this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So we are talking about the Community Health Nurse Development Program that is delivered by the Department of Human Resources on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Services. The Minister has said that this program is fully subscribed and, quite frankly, I don’t understand that, because I asked questions in the House in October, I sent letters to the Minister and that program, from what I understand in responses provided to me by the Minister, one person enrolled, and that person might even have graduated by now, and they indicated that there probably isn’t going to be an intake for...

Then that’s what we’ll do. Alright, general comments, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lee.

Okay. We are moving on to page 8-32 and Health and Social Services, information item, community health programs, active positions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 2nd I made a Member’s statement outlining concerns I received about the most recent public consultation process that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been conducting on the proposed Wildlife Act.

There is concern that these consultations are not really being conducted to get input on the proposed changes but rather to inform the people on what the department is planning to put before this Legislature. Many participants have the feeling that their concerns about the content is being ignored and that only token or administrative changes...