Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. As of today, since the memorandum of understanding has been signed between the UNW and the GNWT, there have been no disclosures.

In the 20-year assessment as we assess all our assets and determine which one would be moved to a five-year capital plan, Moose Kerr School in Aklavik has been identified for a major renovation or a complete replacement in 2019 and we’ll make that decision as we get closer to that date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the information has been exchanged between officials of Public Works and the Department of Education. The assessment of Moose Kerr School did not identify any asbestos-containing materials. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, culture and language support our identity and help strengthen the common goals of NWT communities. I am pleased to announce that, through the work of the Department of Human Resources, the Government of the Northwest Territories is now able to offer certificates of recognition to our employees in each of the 11 official languages of the Northwest Territories. Certificates of recognition are presented to employees who have shown dedication and commitment to the public service and include both long service and retirement.

These employees have reached significant milestones in their...

Thank you. I’m more than prepared and willing to discuss this with the deputy minister of Human Resources to get some sort of a concrete plan on the student hires from all of the deputies. For this student hire, the monies to hire our students is paid out of the vacancy rate of the various departments and it would depend largely on whether or not the departments have some room to be able to hire. In addition to that, the Department of Human Resources is providing a Progressive Experience Program, which is $330 a week to the departments to hire students and we have about 80 places. That’s over...

I don’t have the breakdown between the small communities, the regional centres and Yellowknife. What I do have is, of the 271 students who were hired, we were applying the Affirmative Action Policy and 51.7 percent were indigenous Aboriginal students and 43.0 students were indigenous non-Aboriginal students and priority 1. Only 4.4 percent of the students hired by the GNWT last year were from outside of the NWT. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, if HR is going to be tabling a report on the memorandum of understanding on safe disclosure, I don’t know what date that is going to be done. However, we are moving to legislation. We expect to have a legislative proposal in front of the House in the sitting of October 2014, and that will give the Assembly about a year to work on completing that legislation. Thank you.

I don’t have the original schedule with me, but as I indicated, the department is working with two local companies that have the machinery under our direction. We are providing support for planning and design and any geotechnical engineering is being provided by another engineering company called TerraTek. With that, we’re hoping that the work will be on schedule, but I don’t have the exact dates with me. I don’t know if there’s been a slight adjustment or not here in the House.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Transportation staff had met with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada in Norman Wells on February 18th. We presented a water management plan that was deemed acceptable by the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, and with that the work order on the Four Mile Creek Bridge was lifted.

I would be pleased to provide that information on the dates. I know that once the bridge is complete there, that would become the permanent structure that will be used for that crossing on the winter road going into the future.