Tom Beaulieu

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.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Minister of Transportation’s Report for the Legislative Assembly for 2013 on Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, 1990.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, to achieve the vision and goals of the 17th Legislative Assembly and the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have, and require, employees who see challenges as opportunities, employees who value lifelong learning and employees who are engaged in becoming strong, capable leaders. To support employee learning, I am pleased to advise the Department of Human Resources has three new learning and development initiatives planned for 2014-15.

The first initiative is a Learning and Development Policy. This policy highlights that learning and development opportunities should be...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I wish to recognize two Pages from Tu Nedhe, Fort Resolution: Clair Rymer-Lafferty and also Samantha King. They are travelling with their chaperone, Margaret Edjericon. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A lot of the Members are indicating that this was already dealt with. Obviously, it’s not already dealt with; that’s why it’s back here. I think everybody knows that we have to go through three readings in order to make a decision on these things.

I like what Member Bisaro had to say about the consideration of what the Electoral Boundaries Commission had to say on culture and language. That’s what my whole point is, that that was not considered. I think what should have happened is that should have been a paramount issue. You should not eliminate a language, one of our...

I don’t know that we’re putting any Northerners at risk. What we’re doing here is we’re trying to fill the jobs. I’ve explained in the House that there are various categories. Of the 1,150 positions effective October 31, 2013, they are in various categories. I could read off all of the various categories, but one of the categories that the Members were interested in was the 571 positions that we’re actively trying to recruit. For other reasons, some vacancies are there. Some are difficult to recruit, so they are filled with a casual. There are all kinds of other reasons. Some are empty...

There are no freezes in hiring. The government continues to hire. We continue to work with the department. The Department of Health and Social Services has a strategic health Human Resource Strategy that they are working on. That portion of the recruitment team was moved from Human Resources back to Health because they are the experts themselves in filling health human resource positions. That is not something that we are doing across the board. There are no freezes by any of the departments right across government. We’re continuing to pursue to fill vacant positions.