Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister responsible for the FMBS, the Honourable Floyd Roland, with regard to the affirmative action policy that the new human resource amalgamation is planning on eliminating, I guess, out of the new human resource plan. I just wanted to ask the Minister a question about the establishment of the Affirmative Action Advisory Committee when the affirmative action policy was put into place in the early ‘90s. I just want to ask the Minister, if this committee still exists, what input into this new human resource organization is this Affirmative Action...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I’m not sure if we went through page 2-30 on the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. Are we not providing any funding to that organization anymore? Is it sunset? Is there a different department that’s going to be providing them with any NWT government funding? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a question on the $50,000 increase in contract services for the executive offices. Maybe just give me some clarification on what that entails.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess my concern is if a P1 appeals to a review officer and the review officer doesn’t…It is clearly stated that they are not in a position to authorize the appointment of any individuals to any positions, but I am just curious. If you have a P1 that is qualified in his eyes, and he applies to the staffing review officer to review his lack of an appointment to the position because of…If they followed all the rules and did the process according to what is stipulated in the competition and whatnot, how much consideration would…because the final decision rests in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to applaud the Minister of Finance for embarking on this amendment, because I think that it is long overdue and it is something that the public will definitely embrace and probably use the staffing appeal officers quite regularly, I guess. Like my friend was saying, it might lessen the amount of phone calls that we are receiving every day with regard to employment opportunities in the government.

In his briefing here, there are three positions for staffing review officers that are going to be considered, based on their experience with the workload and...

…people in management positions. With this upcoming MAP, one…

I want to ask the Minister, when people are applying for this MAP, how can he be sure that they are going to get a fair assessment and a fair hearing and a fair interview with the people that are carrying out the program? Thank you.

I just want to ask the Minister what reassurances can he give aboriginal government employees that their experience, and in some cases lack of education, is not going to be the only determining factor in their advancement in management positions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess just with respect to the committee that hasn’t been in operation for some time, I guess, that could be one of the reasons leading up to the demise of the whole affirmative action policy in the government. I think it’s because this committee hasn’t been established, it hasn’t had any input, it hasn’t had any feedback, and it was set up as a monitoring system for the affirmative action policy and that hasn’t happened and it hasn’t panned out to what people have expected it to pan out to be. I guess the new name the Minister was referring to with the new...

Thank you. Just a quick question on the Aboriginal Achievement Awards. It doesn’t look like there are any estimates for 2005-06. Maybe the Premier could just make some clarification on that one.