Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One flows from a modern treaty -- the settlement of a land claim -- and the other flows from something that is not part of a treaty, but is in fact a separate contractual arrangement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, when we have court awards of compensation, for instance, in the residential school settlements, those are clearly exempt from our income support or consideration as income under our income support policies. Our legal opinions from Justice indicate that IBAs are contractual arrangements and are, therefore, not treated the same as compensation and that is the position of the government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Report on the Staff Retention Policy, Year Ending March 31, 2007. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, May 14, 2007, I will move that Bill 14, Employment Standards Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t speak as to why this item would have been included in the sick leave policy, but I would say that it’s certainly something that an employer would be interested in knowing whether or not there are terms or conditions, or there are certain conditions, that the employer should be aware of in making sure whether or not there’s an accommodation required for an employee, or how long an employee might be expected to be off work, and whether or not there should be a plan put in place to ensure that when they return to work they are able to continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened, with interest, to the Member’s statement yesterday and I understand the concern that he’s expressed, particularly if there was some thought that a patient’s personal information could be included in a prognosis. Our policy allows the employer to get a prognosis from a doctor to get an indication of when an employee might be able to come back to work and whether or not they’re going to be able to resume work without some limitations. So quite clearly, under the policy of sick leave, Human Resources, or part of the human resource manual that deals with sick...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, we have issued a directive ensuring that all of the DECs and education councils have to deliver aboriginal language and culture according to the directive. We want to see the money spent where it is going to do the most good. We have the same commitment to aboriginal languages as we have to social studies to English to all of the other areas of the curriculum. We are investing in those areas.

Mr. Speaker, one of the other things we’ve done recently is make sure that this year we have a base-funded program to help the college deliver a program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; it is very important that we have good curricula in all of the regions so that aboriginal languages may be taught. What we were hoping to do is initially have something that worked like Dene Kede. Dene Kede was a framework that was developed and could be used all across the Northwest Territories. Each of the cultural groups filled in different parts of it to make sure that it was appropriate in their areas. We are finding that is not working as well as we had hoped with the curriculum that is being developed in the Gwich’in area, so we are now...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. At noon today, the Status of Women Council of the NWT just announced they have secured funding for a northern women in mining, oil and gas project that could have a significant impact on women’s involvement in industry across the North.

The northern women in mining, oil and gas is a $1.7 million pilot project that uses a holistic approach while training women to work in trades and industry. One goal of this project is to prove that providing supports to women in trades training will increase the number of women successfully completing the training and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t say whether they were consulted on this policy or not.