Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to supporting parents and caregivers in their efforts to nurture children’s development from birth. A better start in learning leads to greater success in life. With that in mind, I would like to share with you some recent changes to the Early Childhood Program.

Our Early Childhood Program provides contribution funding for both the start-up and operation of licensed day homes and childcare facilities. As of April 1, 2007, our government has increased the amount of those contributions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had the process reviewed by the BIP office at ITI. I’ve had the process reviewed by the Department of Justice and by Public Works. The advice that we have received is that we should continue with awarding the contract, or the contract should stand as awarded. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It isn’t possible for us to offer jobs at a lesser salary; we have the requirements for equal pay for work of equal value and we can’t try and get around that without it impacting on our public service. So we could always look at and examine different ways of doing it, but it would appear, from the raw numbers, that the private sector has become more attractive to the summer students. In 2003, 1,600 students registered for summer jobs. The government hired 343 that year, the same as it did last year when we had only 700 registered. This year, to date, we’ve only...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are constantly in communication with departments to advise them that we have summer students available and looking for work and encouraging them to hire students where available. The government, through HR, provides support through some programs to help departments take on students. There are 90 students supported through the Progressive Experience Program, and for health students the Relevant Experience Program doesn’t have a set limit to it. It’s up to the students to apply who are interested in the health care field. But we’ll certainly canvas departments to see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know if we have run into a situation like that. I don’t know what the exact protocol would be, but you can be assured that we would consider it to be a serious event and one that we would follow up on. But at this point, we have never been advised. In the past, I have heard rumours like the one that the Member has talked about. Every time we tried to follow up on it, we have never been able to find that it actually happened.

At this point, we don’t actually believe that it has happened. If it is found to be otherwise, there will be a very serious review of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have said, the structure of the Department of Human Resources will be just as recommended by the Hackett report very shortly. That would mean that there will be the number of managers that were recommended as well as the staffing levels.

It takes some time to move. When the department was created, we had 188 people that came in from various departments. Trying to move those positions into the exact right position for each employee and to fit into the organization has been somewhat challenging. It has required retraining, staff moves and it takes some time to go...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member asked how many new positions were new. All the new positions are new. Of the positions advertised, two are new. The rest are existing positions. I think, Mr. Speaker, it is important to remember that the amalgamation of the Department of Human Resources was staffed with 188 people. Over the course of the year and a bit that has happened since then, the staffing component has dropped. So these are not additional positions. These are positions that have been outlined in the Hackett report and recommended for inclusion. We expect that, from 188, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 14, Employment Standards Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill replaces the Labour Standards Act, the Employment Agencies Act and the Wages Recovery Act with a single statute.

The bill applies to all employers and employees, subject to certain exceptions, and restricts the circumstances in which persons 16 years of age or younger may be employed.

The bill fixes the standard and the maximum hours of work in a day and in a week, subject to certain exceptions, and provides entitlements to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve said, the process was reviewed by three agencies of government and we have been advised that we really have no other recourse than to ensure that, while the contract is being delivered, we are vigilant in ensuring that the terms offered by the current contractor are lived up to. Thank you.