Tom Beaulieu

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately I don’t have all of the cost breakdowns of all the types of advertising that we’re doing. Our initial intent was to do a couple of things. One was to contain the cost of advertising and also not spend a lot of money on advertising that was not being used. Like I indicated, only 3 percent of the ads that were in the paper were the reasons that individuals were applying. So this is what we’ve managed to do. We’ve managed to maintain the cost. We’re not increasing the cost of advertising across the board, but we are making some special provisions to make sure that we’re...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some of the positions would be advertised in the paper. There were a lot of issues coming from some of the smaller communities that indicated they were having difficulty with e-recruitment. We recognized that we have a system where we have indicated to individuals that we would be posting jobs in various places throughout the small communities and offices, municipal governments, with government service workers, with career development officers and so on. But even at that point, there were still some requests to advertise some of the jobs back in the paper, so we’ve made...

There are no planned amendments to that specific section of the Public Services Act, the section that indicates that the Collective Agreement will not deal directly or indirectly with any payments that relate to owner occupied rent space. Anything to do with the cost of housing is not a part of this agreement, so there is no plan to amend that. We are bringing the Public Services Act forward for a couple of minor amendments at this time. If committee wishes to expand upon the review of the Public Services Act, I am sure the department would be willing to have that discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a negotiated item, as the Member indicated. A negotiated item between the northern union workers and the Government of the Northwest Territories. It’s based on a methodology of comparing costs to Yellowknife. It’s based on transportation and the cost of living components. As we get the consumer price index and the cost of transportation, using the methodology predetermined between the union and the Government of the Northwest Territories, we set the northern living allowance.

Mr. Speaker, the sales commission is paid to individuals in the communities that sell the fuel, so we would be asking the individuals who are selling the fuel in the communities to do it for no fee if we were to eliminate the sales commission from the price structure of the fuel. Thank you.

Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I would like to have a recorded vote.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The fuel prices include the cost of the actual product being purchased, the transportation cost to get the product to the community, there’s a sales commission for the sales within the community and the O and M expenses, evaporation loss and taxes. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, we can look in the Human Resource Manual to review all of the provisions for individuals such as these two groups and other important volunteers that do work for the people of the Territories. Thank you.

As I indicated, it’s something that is negotiated. If the individuals, the members of the public service that are with firefighters and CASARA wish to be on that list, then that’s something that we would look at in discussions with the union the next time our negotiation mandates are developed. Thank you.

The only analysis that was done was to determine where people are getting their ads from in order to fill out their applications and apply for a specific job, and the answer was that only 3 percent was coming from the paper. So that is essentially the analysis. It was more that we looked at the cost of advertising. A lot of the cost was in print advertising in the paper for specific jobs, and only 3 percent of the people recruited had actually received their advertisement through the paper and applied because of what they saw in the paper. That was the analysis done.

Also, I am prepared to...