Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's certainly good news to hear that we passed this year and that there were no fines because, of course, as we want to set a good example as one of the main employers in the Northwest Territories and particularly as a public government. I presume that there's some sort of report that will come through this evaluation. Can the Minister commit to provide that report to the House? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. When can we expect to see the amendments to the Public Service Act come forward? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. I do appreciate the Minister's commitment on that and I look forward to sitting in on the committee work on that particular issue. I do note, though, that we have a number of other income support systems in place where payments are made to families and individuals. I'm wondering if the Minister could commit to review whether we should be incorporating indexing into all of those programs as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his response and the efforts that his department is making, although I don't believe that an annual increase in income assistance necessarily should have been linked to things that were happening with other governments and sorting out things at our end. I'd like to ask the Minister if he is prepared to look into the issue of indexing income assistance payments to cost of living.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. All of the above makes me wonder why income assistance recipients are left out of annual increases to meet the valid need of paying higher costs to stay fed, clothed, and sheltered. In the absence of a guaranteed annual income, levels of support provided by income assistance cannot lift people out of poverty. I will have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister explain? There's a loss of two jobs. What were those two positions and are they currently filled or what? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate the explanation. I'm all for efficiency, but I don’t want that at the expense of fairness. It's my understanding is that the grounds and who can actually file an appeal are very, very limited which I think can lead to issues of credibility of our hiring process. What is the department doing in terms of the fairness of staffing appeals to ensure that we can maintain credibility and confidence in our staffing processes? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I think it's good that the report will be provided to committee, but I guess I'm hoping that the Minister will commit to table the document in the House. I think we want to show that we're leading by example, so I'd ask if he could table the report in the House. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. We'll look forward to that in 2018. I had one other matter I wanted to pursue. It's the Safe Advantage program, which I think is run through our Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission. I think, overall, GNWT has had some problems with our compliance and ratings and have had to pay a number of fines in the past as a result of, I guess, our not very good performance. What kind of assurance can the Minister provide? Or tell us what's happening in terms of the Safe Advantage program. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think this is the right section. I'm just wondering if our witnesses can tell us what's happening with safe disclosure legislation, which is also known as whistleblower protection. Thanks, Mr. Chair.