Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to apologize. I didn't hear the end of the question there, but I will get the information in terms of the classes and subclasses for all Members in terms of work that WSCC does. As Members are aware, the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission does provide and promote workplace health and safety. I think that is foremost what we should be focussing on. I can get that information about what the Member just asked, and I will get that information for him, and the previous Member who asked the questions, and provide that information to all Members of the...

The employer base across the territory funds the system for anyone who needs treatment or care under our class 81. Changing the allocation of how that system works would obviously, for one thing, probably have a lot of administrative work that would need to go into that. If the Member is asking specifically on each department, some probably would go up. Some would probably go down.

As you know, we have employees who do different types of work, and it would really be based on each department. Some would probably go up; some would go down. That is why, with the GNWT being the sole employer, we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The mandate and the work that the WSCC does is to continue to promote workplace health and safety, as all Members know, and I think all Members can attest to and support the work that we do within WSCC. The increase in 2019 provisional rates, which is the rate used in deriving detailed employer rates, is attributed to the increased cost, as all Members would be aware, of the treatment and care of our injured workers, and we will continue to provide those services and work with our employees, as I mentioned, focusing on promoting workplace health and safety. The increase...

We do base it on criteria, and as I have said in this House and in meetings, moving material into certain parts of our territory, because some of them are remote, is a concern. Also, having contractors available to do the job is another concern. There are a lot of things to take into consideration. I will sit down and have a meeting with my staff to see how we can address this, and I am really glad the Member has brought this up and brought it to our attention. Obviously, we do want to have more seniors aging in place. It would be a benefit to them, the culture, traditions, and languages.

Movin...

I know that we have had a lot of successful applications with the seniors aging in place programs and whatever programs that they are able to apply for. I know that there are some cases that don't meet that criteria. For this Northern Housing Summit that we are going to have, we have invited the NWT Seniors' Society, NWT Disabilities Society, and we want to hear any other concerns that they might have had in that case. I can't speak to any case in particular, but I know that it has been a concern, and I think that those discussions we will have at the Northern Housing Summit and come out with...

As I mentioned earlier, we do have a governance council that oversees the conduct of business and management of the WSCC. I am not sure if the Member heard me say that in a response to a question earlier. I can inform this governance council, and I am sure they are listening, about having these discussions. I also mentioned that I am at an arm's length in terms of my role as Minister responsible for the WSCC, and we will let the governance council know about these concerns that the Member has and that some of the partners in industry have, that we have had a couple of Members bring up today.

We...

In response to the previous questions from another Member, we do pay about 88 cents per $100. As I mentioned, as an employer for the GNWT, one employer for all the departments, we are classified under a single industry code, that code being class 81. In the previous question that the Member asked, we will take a look into it, but as I mentioned, it would fluctuate if we decided to look at doing different departments. As the questions that were asked earlier, such departments as Infrastructure, Health and Social Services, Justice, when you compare it to our administrators and people who work in...

The Minister has an arm's-length role working with the WSCC. As I mentioned, and as he said in his recent comments, with each department, and he mentioned a couple in terms of Justice, Corrections, Health and Social Services, compared to, you know, administration, the costs would be up and down. My role, like I said, is at arm's length, but we also have a governance council that does oversee the conduct of business and management of the WSCC. That is my current role, at an arm's length, but also working with the governance council to make sure that workplace health and safety for our employees...

As the government, the GNWT has one employer for all of our workers and people who do work on our behalf. It is classified under a single industry code, that code being class 81. Being an employer, GNWT as one employer, we are just focusing on that class 81.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, municipal elections were held in nine hamlet communities in the Northwest Territories on December 10, 2018. There were 71 candidates in total vying for 46 available seats. I am pleased with the large number of candidates as this indicates there is keen interest in local government and that individuals want to serve as leaders and decision-makers for their communities.

I am also pleased to report that through the elections held on December 10th, our territory continues to benefit from near gender parity at the local government level with 21 female candidates...