Charles Dent

Thank you, Madam Chair. There will have to be a broad consultative process before the act is brought into force. It will include the trade organizations, employers' organizations, and there will be an opportunity for the public to comment as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since that time, the Housing Corporation and Education, Culture and Employment senior staff have gotten together to ensure that there is a working group that deals with issues and complaints. The Minister of the Housing Corporation and myself meet regularly to review whether there are issues. We are confident that we have moved the process along so that there are far fewer issues, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, August 17, I will move that Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in the answer to the first question, there’s a difference of $2,000 a square metre between the project the Member just mentioned and the cost we’re being asked for the school in Gameti. We, at this point, are struggling with that difference and can’t understand why we’re being faced with that, and that’s one of the reasons we want to go back and ask Public Works to work with the architects to look at a redesign. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There will be no changes. The doctors should see no changes from what they were seeing before July 3rd and how the system operates. In fact, all employees should see the same system as what we had in place pretty well before July 3rd. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the original budget for this project, Education, Culture and Employment had $2.8 million. In order to complete the project on the prices received, we would have had to seek an extra $3.8 million; so more than the actual cost in the budget. As Members in this House will know, it’s a challenge at any time to find additional money for projects and that project was, unfortunately, one of those ones that we couldn’t find the extra money for in this year’s plan. The problem we’re really facing, though, is that this project is coming in, Mr. Speaker, more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d be pleased to ensure that we do that kind of report and I will share that with the Members opposite. I’d also be pleased to ensure a regular report through the life of this Assembly to Members on progress in implementing the new system. I can tell you that the one piece of advice I will give the new government is don’t customize software.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in early July, the Department of Human Resources implemented an upgrade to the Government of the Northwest Territories’ human resources information system. The older version of this system, also referred to as PeopleSoft, required upgrading as support for this version is no longer available.

While the upgrade has provided some benefits, the upgrade did not go as smoothly as had been anticipated. I recently sent a letter to all MLAs explaining the issues with the upgrade; however, on behalf of the Department of Human Resources, I would like to apologize to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not confident that we have that system in place today, but I am confident that, with the assistance of the software manufacturer, who now has a representative here in Yellowknife working with us, that we will get to that very quickly.

As I said, we managed to get the last pay out without any significant issue and I am confident that that demonstrates that we are on the road to getting there. Whether or not we will ever be able to implement the Absence Management module, I don’t know. We were hoping to, because it would improve the functionality of the system; but...

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...