Bob McLeod

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories presently has 4,753 full-time indeterminate employees and 1,051 casual employees. At this moment, we have 118 potentially affected employees. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a former builder, supporter and fierce advocate of our tourism industry in the Northwest Territories.

Jim Peterson passed away on April 15 of this year, just weeks before his beloved lodge on Point Lake opened for its 22nd season.

Jim first came to the Northwest Territories in 1979 with the Canadian Armed Forces and established northern roots that were, thankfully, never uplifted.

In 1986 he became an active participant in the NWT tourism industry with the establishment of Point Lake Lodge north of Yellowknife. A seasoned outdoorsman and outfitter, he...

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure if the Member is talking about workfare or something where people who are on income support should be put to work. But there have been a number of different programs over the years, and I guess we’d have to check to see whether they’re still in existence. I recall IRAP, for example, where you would get money to do projects, but you could only hire people that were on income assistance to do the work. But certainly I think that any program where we can help people acquire new skills, I’d be supportive. I’d certainly be willing to look at it.

We are in the process of negotiating an agrifood agreement with the federal government. Once that is concluded, then we will be able to communicate what we’ve been successful in negotiating to the communities. Production of food is certainly something we want to encourage and to see continuing to grow.

Originally I grew up in Fort Providence, and I know that a number of people have been trained to work on marine operations. So I'm sure similar arrangements for training opportunities could be made available in the Member's constituency. I know the department has identified $100,000 that they're making available for marine training. Perhaps we can work together so that this individual could take advantage of that.

As I talked about earlier, we do have the Staff Retention Program. The Department of Human Resources will work very closely with the department responsible for marine operations to work with the affected employee with the objective of retaining him and finding him a similar position somewhere in the Northwest Territories.

We’ve had the opportunity to meet with the 118 potentially affected employees. Through the Staff Retention policy there are a number of options. One is education assistance, separation assistance or severance priority.

With regard to early retirement or potential retirement, that is, I guess, a decision that would have to be requested by the potentially affected employee. We’re prepared to look into that, and we're waiting for direction from the Members as well.