David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask a question on the active position summary. Looking at last year at 184 and then this year there’s 191, that’s an increase of seven. Obviously, or the total actually is an increase of nine positions. Given the fact that ECE is transferring their responsibility for social housing back to the Housing Corporation -- and I’ve said this before -- I think there has to obviously be some sensitivity to the staff that were hired four years ago. I believe it was 11 or 12 staff and it might have gotten even up to 14 staff that were hired to deliver that Social...

I hope the Minister can understand the frustration of this individual when having been in the corrections field for 17 years. He watches individuals who are new to the position, who’ve been there for less than a year, who are non-priority, non-aboriginal get direct appointed into positions. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would be willing to share -- and he talked about it a little bit -- the Succession Planning Initiative at North Slave Correctional Centre. I know we have 36 percent aboriginal employees on the floor at that facility, but what is the percentage in senior management?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Justice and I guess I’ll give the Minister of Human Resources a heads up too. We are here for another four weeks, so I’ll have ample opportunity to ask him some questions on advancement of aboriginal people in senior management positions in this government. For today, I’m going to ask the question to Minister Lafferty. It gets back to my Member’s statement. I would like to ask the Minister if he could explain to me how a 17-year tenured aboriginal employee with corrections, with good performance appraisals, is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a question for the Minister. Some of the numbers on the people we have in care in southern placements and some of the numbers that I have seen are quite alarming. They have gone from 27 in 2004-2005 to 56 now. I think some of them have been repatriated back to the Northwest Territories at the Hay River facility, but I was just wondering if the Minister can comment on what efforts the department is making to try to get those individuals that are in southern care back into the Northwest Territories so they can be closer to their families. So if we are spending in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, going through the contract book, I’d just like to ask the Premier: do former bureaucrats, deputy ministers, have any preferential treatment when it comes to being given sole-source contracts by this government? Thank you.

When you do go to a sole-source way of acquiring goods and services, like I said in my statement, the transparency and accountability take a back seat to hiring whoever you want. I think the people in the Northwest Territories deserve a better way of doing things. I know there are times when sole-sourcing is required. But, for example, in the Department of Executive there is a communications firm, and I won’t mention any names. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone to that one outlet. Why wasn’t that put out to RFP? There are many communications companies here in the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome the chiefs that are with us, Mr. Tsetta, Mr. Sangris, and Mr. Erasmus, that are up in the gallery.

As well, Mr. Bromley talked about some youth we have here with us today. We have some special visitors from K’alemi Dene School and I’d like to just go through their names, if I could. Crystal Sangris, Shelby Betsina, Ernest Sangris, Clayton Sangris, Kristen Sangris, Maverick Betsina, Kyra Sangris, Justina Johnson-Black, Walter Johnson-Black, Jeremy Joe Frankie, Brent Betsina, Kevin Betsina, Carla Frankie, Elijah Grandjambe, Adrian Sangris...

My fear, and I’ve said this before, is many of our senior managers are becoming or actually spending most of their time as contract administrators. The work is being consistently farmed out to consultants. How do we or can we get some of this work done by our departmental staff? The trend of spending on consultants and sole-sourcing contracts can easily be reviewed on an annual basis.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.

In addition to that, the government has done some work on an office space requirement. It was done by the program review office. Given what you’re spending on leasing office space in this new place… I know the Department of Health has some floors downtown in the Centre Square Mall as well. How is the department involved in any discussions, government-wide, to be a part of the new office building that the government’s proposing be built here in Yellowknife and have any of those discussions taken place? I do believe that there’s some land at Stanton, and I’ve talked about this before. If you...

I guess I am not supposed to say where I saw those numbers, but I saw them yesterday in a committee meeting. It was 27, I believe, in 2004-2005 and there was 56 this past year. That number of 56 has fallen somewhat; to, I believe, 49, as five or six of those individuals have been placed in the Hay River assisted living facility. So the numbers, I know the Minister says they are not going up, just the costs, but if we have gone from 27 to 49 in a span of five years, that is a pretty big increase and I think we need to realize that if there are any of these individuals that we can bring back to...