Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to bring this up again to the Minister of Human Resources here on the last day of Assembly, because the answers to these questions are so important and so serious to a constituent of mine in Hay River who's going to be wanting to hear the answer. One of the grounds of discrimination covered by the NWT Human Rights Act is family. Family status includes the status of being related to someone who requires your care. An employer's duty to accommodate includes accommodating, including family obligations. Family obligations could include requesting altered...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The duty to accommodate, a guide to employers, actually extends beyond accommodating that employee who may have a condition or a disability. People cannot be discriminated against on the basis of family status and if the employee of the GNWT has an obligation to provide care to a family member that might preclude them, for example, from working a night shift in an institution or in a workplace, then by extension that duty to accommodate goes to that employee in their obligation to their family member. That is what I’d like to determine, if this government adheres to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today, for the last time, are for the Minister of Human Resources, Minister Dent. At the rate the Members are leaving the Chamber, I might get you all to myself for one hour. Anyway, duty to accommodate. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I raised a very important subject. Under the Human Rights Commission there is provision for the duty to accommodate. I want to know how does that right, how does that translate into any policy, procedure or actions on the part of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to use my Member’s statement to draw attention to a potential gap in the guidelines for applying the duty to accommodate for employees of our public service. The human rights legislation is quite clear that the employer has the duty to accommodate when an employee has an obligation to care for a family member with a disability unless it can be proven that this accommodation causes undue hardship to the employer.

Managers in our public service should have reflective policies that allow them to make these accommodations within a clearly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister concur that public servants of the GNWT should not have to take issues such as this to the Human Rights Commission to get a satisfactory solution; that as a leader and a role model in employing people in the public service in the Northwest Territories that this government should be setting that high standard and that it should directly comply with the human rights legislation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that the policy of the Human Resources department of the GNWT has to go far enough so that it does accommodate the member of the family that that employee has an obligation to care for. It sounds like there is a lot of discretionary latitude in that policy that the Minister is referring to. That can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. I would like to ask the Minister if he feels that supervisors and managers are adequately orientated to this particular policy and that they are equipped with the tools that they need to make a decision to accommodate an...

Clause 10.

Good afternoon, Members. I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? We have three items before us today. Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. To the motion. Next I have Mr. Villeneuve.

Clause 8.