Daryl Dolynny

At the sake of not repeating all the findings of the recent GNWT guilty case by our territorial Judge Malakoe, can the Minister inform the House, is pleading guilty the new cost of doing things these days, or in other words, is the GNWT’s inaction deemed as an acceptable accounting loss? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I raised the seriousness of our definite lack of safety culture and a clear failure of our Occupational Health and Safety Policy. Recently the Territorial Court, under presiding Judge Malakoe, drew public attention to the GNWT’s offending behavior and levied significant fines under the Safety Act. Considering these facts alone raised concern of our own responsibilities as deputy heads and government as a whole for the people we injure and to the overall safety of our public service, my questions today are for the Minister of Human Resources.

On November 28...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With WSCC safe advantage penalties well over three-quarters of a million dollars with claims growth mounting through the roof, the GNWT announced, a year ago, a promise, a promise of a new culture of safety with a renewed comprehensive Occupational Health and Safety Training Program for all GNWT employees.

Sadly, this was too good to be true. We must ask ourselves, what has changed in the past year to our culture of safety? Did we adhere to the safety promise? Did we in fact provide the required leadership and management for this higher obligation of safety? Were we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the deputy minister responding, but from that response I have a hard time figuring out exactly where these planes will be located. We heard Fort Smith at the Fire Centre. We’ve heard maybe Yellowknife. We’ve heard many other bases throughout the Northwest Territories. There was some mention that this would possibly go to an operator base, whether or not it would be RFP’d or not I didn’t quite hear that and that there would be an operations and maintenance contract associated with that, again not knowing if this would be an RFP type scenario. So I might want...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of questions I have with respect to the air tanker fleet again. Because it is on this page, I want to ask a little bit more specific in detail how does the department plan to amortize this equipment when it indeed comes into our fleet. I know this year, I think there’s a smaller amount that’s going into the capital budget, and I know at the end I think the Minister did throw a number around of $30 million. How will that $30 million be amortized on our books as we deal with public accounts?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too rise today here. I’d like to thank our mover of the motion, Mr. Bromley, and Mrs. Groenewegen for seconding it.

You know, the Avens concern is nothing new to this House and I’m glad today we’re having a chance to finally discuss its importance. The crux of it is, the motion is very detailed but the motion raises the important issue of critical and a crisis that is pending. That crisis is that many of us in this room are reaching that critical age, some sooner than others, so I am hoping that this resonates loud and clear for those that are closer to that threshold...

Thank you. The Minister and I both know they have more pending GNWT safety lawsuits before the courts, and I know asking him questions on them will just entice a response of no comment, so I won’t ask him. But I will ask him this: Why, Mr. Minister, why, why didn’t you just implement a proper safety program and why is there so much pushback and resistance from upper management? Thank you.

Thank you. The Minister is, indeed, right; it is a very complex issue and, interestingly enough, for a workforce of over 5,000 employees, the GNWT does not have a safety department, no apparent safety program, no safety manual, no training and no contractor management system.

Can the Minister inform the House by what tools or divine intervention, how does the GNWT support our Occupational Health and Safety Policy, our so-called safety program and, of course, our missing contractor management system? Thank you.

Which brings me back to my original question today: With a working industry of over 5,000 employees, the GNWT, led by our senior management, appears to consider safety as an optional program with little or no regard for respecting or obeying our own laws.

The reality is, the GNWT should pay very careful attention to the courts, as the law applies as equally to deputy heads as it applies to the GNWT as a whole. With a number more cases pending in the courts, I fear these lessons of ignorance will become a more transparent reminder of each potential guilty verdict.

Mr. Speaker, being irresponsible...

Thank you. So, again, I appreciate the Minister mentioning a letter. I wish I could have, but unfortunately, I’m under the convention I’m not allowed to talk about correspondence that committee receives. So I’m glad that this letter has now been mentioned by the Minister.

The letter in question did give some reassurance and I’ll underline that word that Conair would work with any northern contractor, but again, what safeguards do northern contractors have or any specific caveat that would reassure business owners here that Conair will work in conjunction with northern providers to provide the...