Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Members can appreciate, this is a very complex issue with many employees scattered across the North doing many things, and many other people working for the GNWT that are not necessarily employees, but contractors, even down to people who are doing the custodial work in our buildings and so on. So, as I indicated, a complex issue.

The Department of Human Resources is working with all of the departments to strike occupational health and safety committees in the regions and in headquarters and are having regular meetings, trying to put as many safety programs on as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I’d like to recognize a couple of constituents of mine in the gallery, Paul Bushey and his son Davis.

Mr. Speaker, the safety of Northerners is a goal shared by Members of this Assembly and the Department of Transportation as we strive to build safe communities and a safe transportation system, in all modes, for the benefit of our residents.

Mr. Speaker, Parachute Canada is a national organization dedicated to preventing injuries and saving lives. Parachute has declared this week to be National Teen Driver Safety Week. Although young people only make up 13 percent of licenced drivers nationally, they account for 24 percent of road fatalities. Additionally, 40 percent of speeding drivers in...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made another statement on the students in the gallery today for Students Against Impaired and Distracted Driving. In the gallery today we have Colton Rieger-Steed, Mitchell Rankin, Ryan Kendall, Dylan Pye, Denika Anderson, Shania Tymchatyn. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The deferred maintenance budget of $5 million is in the capital and we also have $3 million in O and M in deferred maintenance, as the Members are aware. The infrastructure deficit is impacted a bit by deferred maintenance. Deferred maintenance essentially is on infrastructure that is already in place; however, it prevents that from becoming infrastructure deficit by us doing midlife work. Also, when there is time for items that have been deferred, that is the program for deferred, then we then do the work on the building. So we have been able to reduce our deferred...

Mr. Chair, I do.

I do not believe that these were direct appointments. Usually we fill direct appointments for a few reasons, one being that it’s a development opportunity for a person that has a priority 1 status in the government. We also offer those types of development opportunities to individuals that have priority 2 status in the Northwest Territories.

When we direct appoint somebody that has a priority 3 status, which I would assume all of these five people have, then it would be a position that we were unable to fill. Perhaps a scenario could be that the job was advertised two or three times without...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the costs with me, but we collected approximately 700 resumes and were able to hire five people. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I will have the deputy minister respond to the standards.

Thank you. I didn’t indicate that we weren’t advertising the majority of them. We are advertising the majority of the jobs. There are some jobs that do go through other methods. That’s true that people are able to secure positions that are not necessarily at the advertisement stage. Sometimes an individual could be getting a position through transfer assignment. Sometimes the department, after a couple of attempts and failure to fill the position do go to a casual position and fill with a casual position. Sometimes there is a contractor filling the position. So they are at various stages, but...