Tom Beaulieu

Yes, Mr. Speaker, there is another fund. I believe its $4 billion. It’s projects of national significance and we are taking a portion of our ask and looking at it again, and we will be presenting the work that’s going to be needed to build new infrastructure and the project would be the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We’re going to be presenting that to the federal government before the end of this month. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it’s split between the community governments and transportation infrastructure. We have not determined that, but the $258 million has to be leveraged and they are what we refer to as 75 cent dollars so the GNWT will have to come back to the House to get our corresponding share, which would be 25 percent. It is over 10 years, so approximately $25.8 million per year from the federal government to the GNWT. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in early January 2014, the construction of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway was officially started.

This is an important first step to realizing the long-term goal of an all-weather road through the Mackenzie Valley. This is the largest and one of the most challenging infrastructure developments ever undertaken by the Government of the Northwest Territories. It is a strategic infrastructure investment that will strengthen and diversify our economy and is a priority of the 17th Legislative Assembly.

The project will improve the quality of life for community residents by providing...

Mahsi cho, Madam Chair. [Translation] We, the elected leaders here sitting in here, the people that I represent, the real people that I represent, the way they’re looking at us. The need to do electoral boundary seats that they’re going to put in there can’t be done that way. The people here, the real people, there used to be a lot of people before and we used to reside all over the place, here in Yellowknife, also some people lived in Hay River, some of our people lived in Fort Smith, and we were separated all over the place. Some of us lived around the great lake. There wasn’t much work, so...

If the Member is referring to a website from Health and Social Services then that’s, as I indicated, a separate strategy. That doesn’t mean that the other 13 departments across the GNWT have suspended recruiting. We are continuing to recruit staff using the same strategies that we have in place to continue to recruit. What the Member refuses to hear is that in the last 12 months… In a 12-month period we have about 1,600 to 1,700 staffing actions, so if we’re suspending things, then how do we manage to achieve 1,700 staffing actions?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Human Resources continues to work with all of the departments in pursuit of filling all of the vacancies that can be filled. We are in the stage of running through various competitions. I had indicated in the House several times that at one point when this question was asked, of the 571 vacant positions that we were actively trying to fill, we had filled 165 of them. Of course, since that time there have been more vacancies since there’s a turnover of about 10 percent, so there are new people coming in and people leaving this government all the time.

Mr. Speaker, the Provincial/Territorial Infrastructure Fund request was for $415 million and that was the initial $600 million ask from the GNWT to the federal government. The portion that the Member speaks of where Highway No. 7 would sit was a $415 million request and we didn’t, obviously, get all of that since the entire ask to us was $258 million, so we’re discussing this between ourselves as departments, and also our infrastructure Minister McLeod has been leading some meetings to determine the split between the communities and the highways. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government, on the Building Canada Fund, has provided us an indication that they will approve $258 million for the NWT for both transportation and community infrastructure. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, I’m looking at case-by-case would be the way to resolve this issue. People have not come to me, individuals have not come to me and said that they had been working jobs, have 20-plus years’ related experience and then were not eligible to apply. I’ve had situations recently exactly as the Member spoke, an individual that said that they had 20 years’ experience, but they didn’t have a Grade 12 education that was a requirement. I encourage the person to apply for a job at any event. So, I don’t know that is an issue. I haven’t specifically heard that is an issue until today. If...

Mr. Speaker, related experience does matter. Minimum qualifications, as far as education goes, and related experience matter. It’s written in most job descriptions, if not all job descriptions, that we receive from the department. If an individual has directly related experience in the job they’re applying for, it has a significant impact on whether or not the individual gets hired. If a person has directly related experience, education that may not be directly related, but many years of directly related experience as the Member is talking about today, we will not screen that individual out...