Bob McLeod

The Department of Human Resources and the home department of these 118 potentially affected employees, which is less than 2 per cent of the whole Government of the Northwest Territories’ workforce.... We work very closely with the potentially affected employees under our Staff Retention policy. And I emphasize “staff retention,” because it is our objective to keep as many of these potentially affected employees on the workforce.

Departmental HR staff and departmental management meet with those potentially affected employees that request a meeting. We work with them to make sure they understand...

I am pleased to recognize the family of Jim Peterson: his wife, Margaret Peterson; his daughter Amanda, Jim’s son Chad and also close friends Jack Levesque, Sandy Osborne and Don Santos. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, what the Member raises is certainly an objective that we’ve been working to achieve, and we are talking about our own people in our own communities. As the budget indicated yesterday, there are a number of strategic initiative committees. I think the Managing This Land Strategic Initiative will be looking at the whole area of agriculture, and we would look at identifying dollars that are available for investment with agriculture. If the committee comes out that it’s a priority — and I certainly think it is — then we’ll be doing more in this area.

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...

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.