Bob McLeod

We have been in discussions on a number of occasions with Mr. Neil McCrank, who is reviewing the regulatory process on behalf of the federal government. We’ve also had discussions with Minister Prentice and his point man on oil and gas for the Northwest Territories, Mr. David Hudson.

We recognized early on that the writing of the report of the panel could be facing delays, because there was only a four-month window for the report to be written. We expected that the April report would likely be pushed back, and that has come to pass.

But the main issue was how do you try to speed up a panel that...

We did review the terms of reference and we did have input. For those areas that are under the Government of the Northwest Territories’ responsibilities, we specifically dealt with those as well.

That concern has been raised by many people, so we’re reviewing the whole reservation system. We’ve already made a commitment that we weren’t changing anything this summer, so we’ll look at changing it as part of our overall consultations, unless we can find a better approach quickly.

I did write to the Member, as the chair of the Economic Development Committee, advising him of what we were looking at. So I was pleased with his response and suggestions.

As I’ve committed publicly and I’ve committed to the committee, we will be undergoing full consultation with the campers, the aboriginal governments, and all of the public before we make any changes.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize Donna Pick and Gayla Wick, Yellowknife South constituents.

Mr. Speaker, HR’s role is not different. It’s just that we may take a different approach with some of the larger departments and some of the larger boards in how we approach the staffing for boards and agencies.

As the Member indicates, having been born and raised in the Northwest Territories, I do know that producing your own food is certainly one way of reducing the costs. At one time every family that lived in the community had their own garden plot, and this is something the department has attempted to encourage. We do have a program where we assist communities to develop their own gardens and to start growing their own food, and we assist them to do so.

Employees that are seasonal-indeterminate obtain benefits on the same basis as any other indeterminate employee.

I know that seasonal workers are very important to the communities. Just to be very clear, maybe the Member could clarify what types of positions he is talking about. Is he talking about firefighters? Is he talking about highway workers?

It’s difficult to determine, because we have to take into consideration the individual needs or preferences of potentially affected employees.

We have set in place.... Through the Staff Retention policy, we make all the competitions that are coming forward available and known to the potentially affected employees.

We have received at least 50 résumés. The remainder, I assume, are waiting to see what transpires through the budget process. Our expectation is that potentially affected employees will probably have a better option. We are certainly encouraging our managers of the different...