Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, further to my Return to Written Question 11-16(2), I wish to table the following document, entitled Direct Appointments — Calendar Year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Document 42-16(2), Direct Appointments — Calendar Year, tabled.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize Mr. Fernand Denault.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled Government of the Northwest Territories 2007 Public Service Annual Report.

Document 33-16(2), Government of the Northwest Territories 2007 Public Service Annual Report, tabled.

Mr. Speaker, we are always interested in looking at ways to improve our level of services. Certainly we will look at the Alberta model and look at implementing it, if it will improve our level of service as indicated by the Member.

Mr. Speaker, with regard to staffing, we have some guidelines that we adhere to. With regard to grievances or arbitration, it depends on at what level the union submits their grievances.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to advise my colleagues that the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has entered into an agreement with Industry Canada that will provide prospective business owners and entrepreneurs in the Northwest Territories with an easy and convenient means to access the critical information they need to establish and run a business.

The initiative is called BizPaL. It is an online service that provides businesses with one-stop access to permit and licence information for all levels of Government in the Northwest Territories and across Canada. Future entrepreneurs need...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct that we do have a big issue with grievances and arbitrations. As of last week there are 233 outstanding arbitrations. As the Member knows, it takes two to tango. For over a year we’ve had difficulty in scheduling arbitrations with the Union of Northern Workers. The grievances have been filed at the highest level, so they go directly to arbitration. Arbitrations take some time to resolve.

We have had discussion with the union, and we’ve set up a very aggressive timetable or schedule to begin to address these outstanding arbitrations.

Mr. Speaker, I know the Member has the best interests of the government at heart. Competitions generally take about eight weeks. The competitions are controlled by the managers of the various departments. The things that can delay competitions could be a number of factors. They can include managers not being available, candidates not being available, having a person in an interview being unsuccessful so you have to re-book the file. There could also be appeals. But generally the rule of thumb is that competitions would be about eight weeks.

I’m pleased to recognize Tyler Heal, who is a third-generation Yellowknife resident and a resident of Yellowknife South.

Tyler was awarded the 2007 Heritage Award from the Yellowknife Heritage Society in recognition of his contribution to the preservation of the history and heritage of Yellowknife.

His book The Times Behind the Signs was recently launched, giving details and stories behind Yellowknife’s street names. All of the proceeds from the sale of this book are being donated to the N.W.T. Mining Heritage Society.

Please join me in congratulating this talented and intelligent young man on...

Mr. Speaker, as I tried to explain yesterday, we are not undertaking random searches of people’s offices. We have a backlog of work that has been carried over from previous departments, and we’ve been working very hard to eliminate this backlog. Because of the fact that we have very limited resources, we have to work on weekends. We have a backlog team, whose only time they can work to reduce the backlog is on weekends. Not everybody works on weekends, so we have to be able to go into offices to get files that we need to clear up the backlog.