Bob Bromley

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. It sounds like he is acting on this. I’m glad to hear that. I hope it works. When there’s a wishy-washy line of authority, you often get a wishy-washy result. It sounds like there’s some firming up happening if it’s actually explicitly stated in revue standards for deputy ministers and so on. I appreciate that. It sounds like a reasonable compromise to try out.

I’d ask that the Minister keep us apprised on that and maybe the Premier to report if that has to be implemented, if there is – I forget the Minister’s term for pay and benefits – action that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few quick comments here. I want to start off by adding my voice to the congratulations to the Minister and all his staff for the Canada’s Top 100 Employers Award. That’s really great.

So, briefly, I have similar concerns to what the Minister has heard on whistleblower, and I’m looking forward to that legislation being brought forward. Succession planning, I’m very interested in that. I’m finding myself sort of in that category here. What’s been done to date we’ve been talking about since the 16th Assembly. How do we change the statistics would be good to know.

We’ve...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Glad to hear it. On the second part there, I was asking about the planned funding cuts rather than the people that were the decision of the board that they were finessed into. We partner governments and boards rely heavily on the Environmental Review Board for essential information and advice, and the federal government is kicking the legs out from under it. The Commissioner of the Environment said the same thing even before these cuts.

My question is, as I asked in my statement: How long will devolution negotiations muzzle our voice and our willingness to stick up for...

Of course, the reason I’m asking these questions – I appreciate the Premier’s response there – is that the public is not hearing about this. It’s the people, our people who are being affected by these decisions which are only affecting the Northwest Territories. We’re talking about boards within the Northwest Territories. I think we very much have a role here. We have the prospect of seven new mines, the fibre optic link, the Mackenzie Valley Highway extension, and possibly hydro development in the offing.

The government has complained past reviews were too slow. We haven’t hesitated to speak...

These measures threaten our ability to protect our northern environment. They gut the board that this government will rely upon for our management advice following full devolution. All this without a public word of protest or concern from territorial leaders.

How long will devolution negotiations muzzle this government, and what on earth is it going to take before the government finally speaks up on behalf of the citizens and their land? I will have questions for the Premier.

Thanks again for that information. I guess I would at least ask that the Minister check in with Justice and Health and Social Services, and make sure they’re up and running right away.

There’s been a great concern about WSCC rates. Again, I don’t have the terminology; the Minister will know what I’m talking about. There are significant increases for our businesses and that’s a big concern. I’m wondering, what can we do about that. What is the Minister doing about that?

I have collected some information. I realize WSCC has spent a lot of money on legal fees and so on. I know with the Giant thing...

On the workplace safety aspect, I know we’ve got the new policy. The Minister mentioned we’ve got occupational health and safety committees popping up all over the place. I missed whether we heard is it a requirement. Is it every department must have one, every division must have one? I’m wondering what the requirement is there and what the monitoring is revealing in terms of getting those established. Do they all need to be established within a year, and are we 50 percent there? What’s our status on that front? Thank you.

Nothing further. I don’t seem to know what employees’ experiences and issues are, but the Minister can probably find that out fairly easily and then focus on those areas. But nothing further. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to follow up a little bit here. MLAs, of course, are fearless when it comes to telling people how to do their jobs.

I’m just wondering, in terms of recruitment, it’s often a tough experience for somebody going into a community where the culture might be quite different for them, and they don’t know anybody and so on. It’s obviously challenging. What do we do in terms of helping them with housing, helping get their kids enrolled, maybe checking in with them one month after they get there and another three months later to see what their issues are in the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I could bring this up I suppose under Human Resource Strategy and Policy, but really I’m talking about direction here when I’m talking about the safety practices of the government and the barrier that I referred to in my general comments. I think the department is doing what it can, largely in response to the safety issues and the fines, but really what’s happening is this department provides policy to the other departments and then it’s a matter of trusting them to implement it. That’s not happening. That’s been pointed out by this Minister. He has no control over...