Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I talked about some of the problems that have been raised to me by constituents with respect to the way these position reductions were gone about. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for Human Resources: can he assure the House today that none of the potentially affected employees were singled out for some reason other than budget reductions on the part of this government?

Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about the process surrounding the potential job reductions in our public service. I want to restate the disbelief on the part of my constituents who got notices and then approached me, having to be told I had no idea their jobs were potentially affected — people who had worked, many of them, for the GNWT for over 20 years. It was bewildering to have to tell them I did not know their jobs were impacted.

The normal process for any job loss in a Member’s riding would be a letter from the relevant Minister giving the name, job title and reasons why the position was...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize that I haven’t been here the whole time, so forgive me if this question has already been asked. What’s the status of the new whistleblower legislation that could be in the works or contemplated, with the idea that whistleblower legislation might allow people in the public service to report areas that could be interpreted as wastefulness or practices that are not conducive to value for money? I’d like to ask the Minister: what is the status of whistleblower legislation in our government?

It is also my pleasure today to welcome the grades 5 and 6 students from École Boréale to the Legislative Assembly. I’d like to recognize my constituency assistant and thank her and your assistant, Mr. Speaker, for their help in planning this event today. I’d also like to recognize the teachers of these students: Kim Ivanko and Patrick Poisson. I’d also like to recognize the students — and give us a big wave — Mason Bruneau, Paige Kruger, Andrew Payeur and Andrea Walker.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At headquarters are 120 indeterminate full-time positions. I’d like to ask the Minister if the core business of the Department of Human Resources could be managed with less than 120 people in headquarters. What process was undertaken by his department to determine whether more positions at headquarters could be reduced, or were they just responding to targets that were given to them externally?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is the wish of the committee today to begin with the Department of Human Resources for the Main Estimates for 2008–2009.

Just so I understand: if an employee was coming up for retirement and wanted to take the two-day pre-retirement course and there was a fee of $400, the territorial government might or might not pay for that, depending on the approval of the manager of that employee. Is that correct?

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I talked about the fact that I get calls from constituents on a fairly consistent basis talking about their frustration with getting information on retirement options and support for planning their retirement and then acquiring the pension benefits that are due to them. There are certainly examples of private- and public-sector industry standards in this area. I want to make sure that our public service is entitled to, and is receiving, that same level of service that anyone else would expect.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources...

Today I want to talk about the support, or lack thereof, for members of our public service by our Department of Human Resources. In recent months I’ve continued to hear from my constituents about their frustration in securing the most basic information, such as records of employment, information needed to initiate retirement benefits, and the list goes on. This is peculiar to me given the millions of dollars that we’ve invested in the best and most current communications in HR management software. It’s also peculiar given the 125 positions at headquarters in the Department of Human Resources.

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