Alfred Moses

That’s definitely something that’s good to hear about. It’s a lot better update than the one we received during the winter session where there was just one individual in the program. Should an employee of the GNWT or somebody looking for a job would want to get into this type of program, how is the person able to access the department rather than the department recognizing these positions and just looking at filling them.

How can an individual approach the department, their manager or even the Department of Human Resources? What steps would an employee of the GNWT need to take to get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. Byrne Richards and all the work that he has done in the mental health and addictions field and his consideration for people with addictions. Welcome to the House.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with my colleagues here that this is a pretty big topic of discussion. I have to give points on both sides; there are a lot of pros and cons. I thank Mr. Bromley and Mr. Nadli for bringing the motion forward and speaking so well to it and speaking about making reference to the Elders Parliament and respecting our elders and our land.

When I think about this, these are discussions that we’ve had almost since we started hearing about possible fracturing going on in the Sahtu. If you think, in hindsight, if we had started doing these regulations that we’re going to...

Thank you. I’d just like to ask the Minister, under this Regional Recruitment Strategy, he mentions that managers look at filling positions.

Have any of these positions resulted in direct appointments from the managers or from the department position that didn’t go out for public contest? Have any of these positions been direct appointments?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the short sitting time we have here – we only have two weeks and we can only do so many Members’ statements and questions – one area that I wanted to focus on was human resources and some of the issues that have come up with human resources. I know I asked questions back in our winter session about the Regional Recruitment Strategy and how we were taking some of our employees and giving them 80 percent of their salary and 20 percent goes to training.

Can I ask the Minister of Human Resources what the progress is on that? Last I heard, there was one person that went...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge, appreciate and give a sincere thank you to the Inuvik fire department. The Inuvik fire department currently has 40 members, including the fire chief, the deputy fire chief and the dispatch. Only the fire chief and the deputy fire chief are career firefighters. All other members are volunteers, and in fact, this might be the biggest volunteer fire department in the Northwest Territories. Our longest serving volunteer firefighter has been doing their job for over 30 years, as well, so his commitment, his experience that he...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The department started developing the Child and Family Services Standards and Procedures Manual in 1998, and despite trying to complete this work, it has never ever been completed and has never kept pace with changes to the act or the best practices in child welfare. Just to note the absence of standardized procedures for all key responsibilities is a significant deficiency. It represents a great failure to support child protection workers and this likely affects morale, staff turnover and, ultimately, the well-being of children when our workers are not supported nor...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to, first of all, acknowledge and thank Ms. Bisaro for bringing this bill into the House so we can have a good debate on it today. I would also like to make a special recognition and acknowledgement of Mr. Ryan Leef who brought this private member’s bill forward that is now being debated before the House of Commons. I think what gives strength and credit and the need for this bill is the previous career that Mr. Leef had, and that was in law enforcement, and all the work he did in dealing with such individuals and seeing the need to have some type of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the last question, we’ve got a lot of these youth that have the summers off and they might be looking for summer jobs.

Would the Minister possibly work with our Minister of Human Resources to look at developing some type of summer employment program, especially for the gold medal winners, so we can promote them, get them right into the working system and possibly create some type of program? Is he willing to work with the Minister of Human Resources to develop some type of program where our Team NWT national winners would be able to possibly be a priority to get...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I always welcome good debate in the House, depending on whatever concern or issue is brought forth. But when you look at the description here, it is to provide funding for electronic tablets to new parents. We’ve had many discussions in this House on many issues and even in committee, and a lot of times what it boils down to, we always talk about the underlying issues of why we’re funding or why program services for certain things, and a lot of times it comes down to parenting skills. How do we get our parents better skilled in terms of providing the right type of...