Bob McLeod

I think the pent-up demand is still there. It just became a question of cash-flowing the money. We rolled out the program on January 7, and as the applications have been rolling in, we realized that, as part of the cash-flowing, we weren’t going to have enough applications to flow the whole $2.5 million in this fiscal year. To ensure that all the money goes for tourism operators, we put forward a request to re-profile it. And that’s why we’re bringing it forward here as part of the supplementary appropriation.

The overall effect is that we’re still going to have $5.6 million over four years...

Mr. Speaker, I guess I would like to point out to the Members that we have been a bit proactive in this area. We have identified a special liaison person to deal with persons with disabilities.

I would have to look at the Affirmative Action Policy. I don’t know whether that’s the best way to improve the representation of persons with disabilities in the government workforce. We’re still working on our strategic plan.

In the past, governments have been presented with a draft employment equity strategy, which I think is more suited to dealing with these types of situations. As we go forward, I...

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...

I too am looking forward to the Arctic Winter Games. We’re looking forward to having the most successful games on record. I understand that the Arctic Winter Games Host Society have reached their quota for volunteers and have shut off their requests for assistance.

I think I should point out that we have followed the policies of the government, and any employees who require time off have not been denied. We haven’t denied any reasonable requests. I think that as a government…. And we also have a commitment from our senior managers that we want to make the Arctic Winter Games a success.

We have...

I guess the best recognition is the performance pay that employees receive. If they perform well, they receive performance pay. I think the Member is looking for “dollars for ideas” type of programs. We don’t have that, but we do have formal employee recognition programs that are provided on a regular basis.

Mr. Speaker, we certainly recognize that human resources are our biggest asset, and we always try to get the input of individual staff and employees, because we find that they’re the ones that work with the programs and services that we deliver. Generally they come up with some of the best ideas that we have.

We have developed, as a government, a communications strategy and approach for dealing with our budgeting process. We have requested our deputy ministers to send information to their managers, and all managers are familiar with the process.

I would suggest to employees that have any...

My understanding I that at one time, we did have such a registry of employees in the Northwest Territories. I would commit to finding out what happened to that registry. We may still have one. It only makes sense to do so.

In the oil and gas industry, there was a process whereby you expanded your area of coverage, so if you couldn't find people locally, you would go to the next level, which would be within the region, and then you would go to the Northwest Territories — sort of in concentric circles of employment. I would think that would be something that we would espouse.

I know that some of...

The issue of migrant workers has been a troublesome one for our government for some time. First of all, we have to recognize that we live in a democracy, so people are free to move and live wherever they want, as provided for under the Constitution of Canada.

We have been attempting to address the issues through the negotiation of socio-economic agreements with the mining industry companies, specifically diamond mines, through the negotiation of a socio-economic agreement with the Mackenzie Valley pipeline proponents.

Now, it’s more difficult in the oil and gas sector, because that’s a...