Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. That particular area I need to look into with my department and I’ll definitely get back to the Members on the outcome of that. Mahsi.

Mahsi. When there is a staff shortage due to maybe illness or vacation and whatnot, we do have individuals covering those bases as well. Again, we try to avoid those delays. There are different unique circumstances that we’re faced with. I need to look into further to the clientele that the Member is referring to. If it’s not the documentation that’s due to the lateness, then we need to find out exactly what happened within the staffing area at that time and we need to avoid that. We need to be proactive and having those resources, client service officers in those communities, not only...

Mr. Speaker, yes, definitely we are open to those ideas. We will be sharing that with the standing committee and also Caucus. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for that particular question, because it has been addressed to my attention as the Minister responsible for the income security framework how the clients are treated by income security officers, client service officers. Due to that fact, we’ve initiated training for client services officers. I believe that’s coming up either this month or early next month on how to professionally deal with the clientele. We are very serious about our satisfaction of how we service those individuals, the clients, and we’ll make every effort to deal with that...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Since this is a direction to the federal government, the Cabinet will have a free vote on this particular motion. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. We’ll do what we can to expedite the process. As I stated, there hasn’t been a committed individual to take on the broadcasting as we have done in the past, but we are focused in those areas, and with reshuffle of the Executive communication area now, we need to identify an individual that can take on the task again. So we are committing to that.

With respect to the five Aboriginal languages, we need to work with CKLB on what could be delivered in that time frame and also in that area. We have done so, successfully, in the past. Obviously, we want to reach out to our communities too. So...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. CKLB, the Aboriginal broadcasting, is very important to this GNWT, more specifically when we have to reach out to the most isolated communities. There have been other partners as well. There is ECE and also federal contribution towards this. We feel that we need to invest in this area.

With respect to advertising and also the air time, we have contributed approximately $3,400 a month towards broadcasting. We did continue to do so until March. Unfortunately, due to the reorganization and the Executive communications staffing vacancies, it was discontinued. But we are in the...

Mr. Speaker, we are fully aware, especially in those small, isolated communities, that there is not much of an economy in the community, whether it would be a wage economy or business contracts. Those are areas that we have regional representatives, also client service officers focusing on the productive choices. The Labour Market Agreement that we have in place is for those individuals that do not qualify for EI and that require training in specific areas, as well as the Small Community Employment Program that we initiated onto the communities. Those are just some of the program areas that...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be absent from the House for today and tomorrow to attend the National Aboriginal Women’s Summit F/P/T in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. Within the Executive department, the communication and services, there is a proposal that has been submitted, along with others that are out there with various programs. With respect to this particular proposal submission, it is being reviewed by the department. Again, what the Member is referring to will be taken into consideration and I will be speaking to the Premier, as well, upon his return, to see if we can expedite this process. Once we identify the individual as the interim, what can we do. So those are questions that we need to address with our Executive department. Mahsi.