Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I have a question for the Minister of Finance. So within the past few months, many GNWT employees have received a letter from the public service pension centre about an opportunity to participate in an early retirement incentive program that was proposed in last year's federal budget. In the case of federal employees, the program is meant to help manage workforce reductions by encouraging federal workers to retire early voluntarily. So my first question is does this mean that the GNWT is also now encouraging its public servants to retire early in order to allow for workforce reductions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not encouraging but members of the GNWT's public service are members of the same pension plan. I believe all three territories are in the same situation. As such, when this change was made by the federal government, it impacts our employees as well. And we were given the opportunity to give employees this choice if they want to take it at no cost to us. It would be under the federal budgeting process. So it's really at this point that we're not taking this choice or opportunity away, that if people -- if this is passed finally at the federal level, that GNWT employees who wish to take this opportunity will have it available to them. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that clarification about workforce reductions. So does this mean that right now GNWT employees can go ahead and take advantage of the early retirement incentive program if they wish to retire early? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And no, not yet. So at this point in time we were still waiting for final approval from the federal government. I believe that the Department of Finance for the GNWT does have a follow-up scheduled in the next week or so to see where things are at on the federal system but also to get the details as to precisely how this would roll out and when. There's two different groups that would be potentially eligible, depending upon age and length of service. And so those exact details, again, we would need to get that from the federal government to then roll that out to our employees. And, you know, again, Mr. Speaker, at this point it's not a finalized program from them so it's certainly not a finalized program from us, but just wanted our staff to be aware they were going to get these letters from the federal government. We want them to know that we'll work with the federal government and more -- so it's really a more-to-come situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I guess my final question is, when can employees expect to know for sure, and how are they going to be informed? Are they going to wait to hear from the federal government directly? Are they going to hear through Bear Net? I hope it might be more than that because many might miss this important information. So when and how can employees expect to know for sure about this opportunity? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the federal system is at its decision point now which then means we have the opportunity to get that final confirmation and detail over here. It would still need to go through some review on our end just to make sure that we are aware of, you know, exactly for whom it would apply to. And because they are part of that pension plan, there will be letters that go out directly to all pension benefit members from the federal government. Just as we communicated initially when those letters went out the first time, there will be communications that go out from the GNWT as well. I take -- and I appreciate the point. It'll go to Bear Net, but we'll also make sure that -- some folks don't access Bear Net or don't have access and so we'll take that under consideration and make sure that everyone has access to information from our government as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
