Bob McLeod

If the Member wants us to go back to take the same position as we did in 1996, that would mean we’d have to look at the funding. We provided considerably less funding in 1996.

I just want to advise the Member that we have 33 communities in the Northwest Territories. I think we have to take a fair approach. Other communities in the Northwest Territories won’t benefit from reviewing this. We’ve followed leave policy, and we’ve expanded it to include head coaches and first responders. I think the government has been very fair in this regard.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to correct the Member. We haven’t cut back on the tourism product diversification program. All we’re doing is re-profiling the money so we can cash-flow it better. We’re still working on the same levels that were approved previously. I think there’s a whole number of different areas that have potential.

I should point out that we keep track of our tourism numbers very closely, and while our overall tourism numbers continue to increase, what we are finding is starting to get disturbing. The numbers for the rubber-tire tourists and so on have been starting to decline...

My expectation is that after the Arctic Winter Games have concluded, we would review the policy to see how appropriate that policy still is.

We’re talking about the Arctic Winter Games. We’re not talking about the Olympic Games or the Canada Winter Games, as have been previously referred to. The government of the Northwest Territories is following a policy that has been in place for 40-some years. We think we’ve been more than generous with our leave policy for participants in the Arctic Winter Games.

I understood that we had a registry at one time. I’d have to go back and check to see whether it’s still in existence. I’ll be working very closely with my colleague the Minister of Education on this.

We are trying to work closely with those communities the Member referred to. As some of you may recall, in an effort to increase the attractiveness of communities like Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith, in the past we have made the Down Payment Assistance Program available, whereby we assisted first-time home buyers to buy houses. That was with the intention of attracting mine workers.

We’ve also been involved with marketing programs. I think we’ve helped the communities put information advertising their communities at the various mine sites.

Mr. Speaker, in keeping with my commitment to provide regular updates to Members of the House on Human Resources matters, I’m pleased to speak today about a couple of areas where we have made progress in and about services in place as we move forward.

Since the summer of 2006, we have been implementing e-tools to improve the quality and accuracy of pay and information for employees and managers. In December 2007 Aurora College and the divisional education employees started using the self-service Human Resources information system. All government employees of the Northwest Territories are now on...

Based on the applications that we received and the amounts requested from the different programs that were being accessed, we have calculated how much money would flow out this fiscal year. We are anticipating that all the $2.5 million that we had originally budgeted for this fiscal year will be spent, but it’s a cash-flow issue.

Of the applications received, we calculate that $318,000 will be paid out this fiscal year. That's why we're asking to re-profile the remainder, so we can spend it next fiscal year.

I would have to look at that. I think it is an issue of reporting. I don’t think I said I ruled out the question of looking at having persons with disabilities listed as P1s or something. That is something we’d be prepared to look at.

Mr. Speaker, I guess there’s a number of reasons for that. I certainly concur with the Member that we need to do a better job to improve our employment of persons with disabilities. I guess the large part of the problem — and she’s already alluded to it — is self-identification. I do know that we have employees who are not self-identified, but that doesn’t make the situation any better, as the Member says.

I think that what we need to do is to work very closely with the groups that work with persons with disabilities and work with individuals to improve the situation. I think the Affirmative...