Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, having answered the question about the training required for income support workers, I think it's also important to say that the expectation is that the workers will take a case management approach. In other words, they're supposed to work with other resources in the community; for instance, the social worker with Health and Social Services who may make available some counselling services. The social worker may have access to psychological assistance if that's necessary, or other tools that may be available. We don’t have the comprehensive program we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to commit to work with my colleague on this issue. It may interest the honourable Member to know that as recently as yesterday, the staff of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services were meeting to discuss healthy living and active living activities. They have agreed that we will work together a bit more formally to try to pull together a plan, so that we can work within existing budgets to stimulate community-level activities particularly aimed at focusing on youth in the communities across the North. I would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish I could make that promise, but as Minister I'm not allowed to provide any direction directly to the Legal Services Board because it is an independent body. The limits are the appointment and revocation of appointments of the members of that board. That's the only action that the Minister can provide, other than providing funding. I can tell you that we have not cut our funding to legal aid at all in the recent past. As I said, we have tried to increase the staff lawyer component to deal with the backlog. I've talked to the federal Minister of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't answer that question directly without in fact appearing to release information that I said I couldn't. Therefore, I will say that any time we hear concerns about morale among employees, it is an issue that we want to address. The Member has raised the issue with me. I listened carefully to Ms. Lee's statement yesterday, and I think that as early as tomorrow FMB will likely deal with that situation. I hope that overall we will be able to deal with any issues of staff morale that we may have within the department, but we can't confirm that it's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories does not record stress leave. Sick leave is provided to employees, but there is no requirement for employees to disclose the reasons for their absence. This would be an unreasonable invasion of the employee's privacy. This is well established through labour relations law and it's not permitted under the collective agreement. So I can't answer the Member's question. FMBS has advised us that we're not able to collect that information, much less disclose it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Education, Culture and Employment has been advised by Justice that the IBAs are private contracts and we do not have access to them, so we are unable at this point to determine the answer to whether or not they are compensation or cash payments as a gift or whatever, income. I am prepared again to review the entire income support program, and would be happy to discuss that with the Standing Committee on Social Programs. But I am reluctant to make any one-off changes. I would like to take the opportunity to spend some time, work with the committee to...

Do I hear Scrooge? Mr. Speaker, one way to indicate to Members…The way the program works is kind of like a glass of water. Everybody needs this much water in their glass. If you start with half a glass, then the program will top it up, but all of the water in the glass is counted. So as you have resources, no matter where they come from, they are counted as part of what you bring to the table. The income support program is offered as a…

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I'm not entirely familiar with the educational requirements for those positions. I suspect that they may not have specific training requirements to begin with. I know that in the past we have approached community organizations, bands and so on, to offer the program, because it has been seen largely as a fairly simple project to fill in the blanks on a form to determine whether or not income support is available. So I suspect that there may be more training that's required, but I can't answer the question in terms of specific training that's required.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that I could provide that information. I will check with the Legal Services Board and see how much statistical data they can provide to us and how quickly, and we'll endeavor to distribute that to all Members of the Assembly as soon as I can get it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the first week of February, the Northwest Territories will reach a milestone. Since 1964, we have been certifying and recognizing our apprentices in their chosen fields.

During the past 40 years, our territory's buildings, roads and communities have been built through the efforts of certified tradespeople. Ever since 1968, when Colin Adjun from Kugluktuk received top tradesperson status in his course as a heavy equipment operator in Fort Smith, there has been no stopping northern residents from distinguishing themselves as electricians, plumbers, cooks, welders and...