Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, I’ve worked in a number of environments where cross-cultural training was provided across the board, and it was a requirement for not only front-line employees but all employees to take cross-cultural awareness training.

This is certainly an area that I think is important, certainly for people who are new to the North and new to the communities. We develop training programs, and we will make sure that this service continues to be provided.

Mr. Speaker, we had an opportunity to brief the standing committee with regard to human resources, and I am waiting for a letter from the committee that would indicate they’re supportive of the department taking such an approach. If we have that support, then we would go forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is certainly our intention. As has been mentioned, we do have 118 potentially affected employees, depending on whether the budget gets passed or not. There are a number of these employees that are approaching some significant milestones with regard to retirement. So this is an area that we’re looking at.

The Government of the Northwest Territories doesn’t specifically contribute to the operations of the Joint Review Panel. Where we spend money is in making sure that we have the people and the resources to develop the positions that are taken by the Government of the Northwest Territories in any interventions, also in reviewing the interventions of other groups and agencies that appear in front of the Joint Review Panel.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our previous Minister — I think it’s two governments ago — was at the forefront in advocating that we take a joint review panel approach. It was felt that going through regulatory review involving 13 boards and agencies would take too long, and as such, we advocated a joint review panel approach.

Certainly that is our intention, and we’ve been getting a lot of feedback from the campers. I’m also pleased that the Member supports the fact and the recognition that we need as many new sites as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, we had an election in October and this resulted in a change. As well, in the North Slave region we had a wholesale changeover of regional managers.

Mr. Speaker, boards and agencies generally operate on a different basis. I think that we would certainly request that the Health Minister direct boards and agencies to deal with cultural awareness, but the boards are independent and would have to make that kind of decision themselves.

It’s an area where it’s not as straightforward as just asking them to fulfill requirements with regard to cultural awareness. But that’s something that I’ll discuss with the Minister of Health.

Mr. Speaker, with the difficulty in attracting some of the frontline workers, it’s certainly something that we would like to see — that they have cross-cultural training. But unfortunately, the reality is that sometimes this cross-cultural training is not made available until after the fact. The ideal would be for frontline workers to receive cross-cultural training.

We are open to looking at all possible options and with the individuals that are potentially affected.