Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just with court services, I know that I think it’s almost been over a year, maybe more, that court services to the communities increased the cycle, I think from four weeks to six weeks. It is impacting people in the courts. I know that a couple of court cases have been thrown out because justice was just taking too long. Based on those cases and based on the length of people going to trial, it really impacts them because a lot of people are on probation, et cetera, even for a year before they get to trial. So I’d just like to know if the department is reviewing...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m not prepared to do a statement today. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Just for clarification, we’re on 8-11?

---Interjection

The Minister somewhat clearly described the process of equivalencies, but my issue is that I have three files in my constituency where people have been screened out. They do have the years of experience, some certification. More specifically, it was an accounting clerk position, an entry-level position in our government yet they wanted three years of business management and a bunch of experience. No wonder people are frustrated with trying to get a job within our government.

Can the Minister explain why entry-level jobs have such a high qualification? I know that when somebody gets into a job...

Mr. Speaker, I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement on Aboriginals and Northerners getting employment with our government. More specifically, constituents are contacting me. They’re telling me that a lot of the entry-level positions, they seem to be overqualified as well as they’re being screened out because they’re not being credited for their years of service. I understand, and perhaps the Minister of Human Resources can answer the question, when they have years of service it kind of qualifies for education equivalency. Maybe the Minister can explain that to me.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Regretfully, I can’t support this motion on the addition to our budget. We all heard on this side of the House how we’ll be faced with up to a $30 million reduction in our budget and we have to work hard after we pass this budget to do it.

I’m concerned because these reductions are coming and we want to add more money to the budget. I would like to say that sometimes the MLAs’ jobs are not about what we’re getting or what we’re adding, it’s what we hang on to. That exercise is coming, Mr. Chair.

For example, the reduction of half a position, point five of a...

Thank you very much. I think the deputy minister clarified that when there’s a net change. I can appreciate that answer.

Just referencing my Member’s statement about how difficult it is for somebody new trying to get into a system, I know that a lot of these are largely professional, but we’ve still got accounting clerks, front desk personnel, et cetera. I’m also presuming that there are just as many vacancies in this department on average as anybody else, so can the Minister designate a task team and look at those entry-level positions, because I’m concerned, once again, about over-qualifying...

Thank you very much. Just with still a bit of position growth here and with the Stanton Territorial Health Authority and the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, I’m presuming all these are Yellowknife jobs. There’s an increase of 24 positions. Can the Minister explain what those are.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess another issue that’s directly related to this is that we have 570 job vacancies in our government, 21 of them in Fort Simpson alone, but it appears that there are three or four of them advertised. Those impacted employees who are going through the shared services reorganization certainly have first priority at those. The Aboriginals and Northerners in my communities want to apply on jobs but they’re limited. There are 21 positions in Simpson.

What are the Minister and this government doing about getting those jobs out in the public system and getting...

The Minister touched on it briefly. It’s still not clear. Is it three years of experience is equivalent to some type of education level or programming or degree? Perhaps the Minister can answer that.