Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue has always been one of finding adequate funds to be able to develop our programs. We're not in a situation where we have ever had excess funds that we could throw around. Over the course of this government, we have been trying to get, for instance, the pupil/teacher ratio back to where it was back in 1984. An important thing like education, this government has been struggling to be able to get back to the standards that we had 10, 15 years ago before we had substantial cuts in our funding by the federal government. So it's been a challenge for us to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure where the Member is getting his advice that the program is at fault. What I said was the manner in which the program was modified in the first place is what has caused this problem. Eight of 10 Canadian provinces use this. Another province is moving to PeopleSoft. One of the other territories uses this program, as well. So it is the program that is most widely used in Canada in terms of dealing with pay and benefits. The program itself is not the issue. The manner in which the program was changed previously and now trying to move to a non-modified...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since we discovered the issue, we went past the contractor that we had hired to implement the software. So we did buy the software from Oracle PeopleSoft. We actually hired another company to do the installation because Oracle PeopleSoft doesn’t usually do installations with the program. Their responsibility was to ensure that the proper tables and interfaces were in so that the program would work in our system and that we could migrate the information from the old version of the software to the new version. Since we ran into the problems, we are unable to get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be moved into Committee of the Whole for tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That work is being done with the direction of the president of the Housing Corporation and the deputy minister of the department, and then the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation and myself meet with them in order to ensure that we are dealing with issues. So either Minister or both Ministers would be pleased to meet with committee to report on what we are hearing and how those issues are being resolved.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek consent to deal with second reading of Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are only two authorities in the Northwest Territories that continue to complain about the approach we are taking. Almost all of the housing authorities across the Northwest Territories are working together with staff from Education, Culture and Employment. Particularly with the new change in the Income Support Program, what we are hoping to do is to have a case management approach which brings people together from the Housing Corporation, Health and Social Services, Justice, if necessary, and Education, Culture and Employment to ensure we are delivering the...

I seek unanimous consent to proceed with first reading of Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the next period of time, I can commit to the Member and the residents of Gameti that this government will explore all options. If there is any way possible that we can meet the community’s desire and still get the construction done or the materials in over this year’s winter road, we will work to achieve that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, not every employee has to enter their time. Positive time reporters and shift workers are the ones who would most often take advantage of the opportunity to do that. If they are not doing it, then it has to be done manually by somebody. If there is an issue around it, that process could be handled at the hospital. But what we find is that most people want to enter their own time to make sure that it is being done accurately. Obviously, when you have somebody else do it, there is a chance that there is a mistake. Thank you.