David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions again today are for the Honourable Floyd Roland, Minister responsible for the public service in the Northwest Territories. I guess I'll start off by just saying numbers do not lie. If you looked around the country and his Human Resources department went out and did a comparison of rates of persons with disabilities that are employed in various public services across this country, the Northwest Territories would rank absolutely at the bottom of that list, Mr. Speaker, and I think that is an absolute shame. I'd like to ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been obvious that the affirmative action policy has needed a replacement for years. This is nothing new. When will we have this new employment equity policy that the Minister speaks of and when will the disparity be addressed? I will certainly have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do take issue with what the Minister is saying because the affirmative action policy and direct appointments fly right in the face of what the Minister just said, because appointments are made and this government has made many of them that really don't have much merit. You can go and talk to a lot of different people and they'll tell you the exact same thing. The Minister said yesterday in the House that affirmative action didn't come into play with direct appointments. I beg to differ. They're trying to get the numbers up in one category and...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the fact that now I have armed with some real numbers and statistics, I guess yesterday was a different story the Minister gave me, was the fact that in the Northwest Territories maybe people don't self identify disabilities. But in fact, in other jurisdictions across this country the self-identification process is at play. So I believe it's a fair comparison to compare the amount of disabled persons working for the Northwest Territories government with other jurisdictions; absolutely a fair comparison. I'd like to ask the Minister, aside...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Braden. The committee was pleased to see the November 2005 “Connecting Canada Coast to Coast to Coast” proposal by the Government of the Northwest Territories to the Government of Canada and continues to affirm its support for construction of an all-weather road between Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik.

The committee is frustrated with the government’s consistent refusal to act on our recommendations for additional drug and alcohol treatment facilities. With the recent release of the Chalmers report, the government appears to have dug in its heels even further in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I am going to continue on with the message I had yesterday for the Minister responsible for the public service, Mr. Roland, and the Minister responsible for Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Miltenberger.

I listened very closely to Minister Roland yesterday attempting to answer questions that I posed to him about the lack of representation in our public service for persons with disabilities. The Minister just did not seem to believe that his government was doing anything wrong when it came to hiring persons with disabilities, even though his own departments of FMBS...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to discuss the issue of disability awareness. I listened quite closely to Minister Miltenberger’s statement yesterday on the occasion of Disability Awareness Week. The theme, Mr. Speaker, this year is Living, Working and Educating Together - Include People with Disabilities.

Mr. Speaker I want to start by acknowledging the good work of organizations like the NWT Council of Persons with Disabilities and EmployABILITY who provide such valuable services to many of our residents.

Noticeably absent from the Minister’s statement yesterday was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let’s just talk about this government then. Let’s talk about this government and its practice of direct appointments to people under the affirmative action policy. It doesn’t include very many disabled persons that I’m aware of; maybe one, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if indeed he can provide any targets or any type of scenario that would see an increase to the number of disabled persons -- and I’ve got a couple of constituents, Mr. Speaker, that have faced nothing but barriers when it comes to employment with the Government of the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for Human Resources, the Honourable Floyd Roland, and I do hope that the rest of Cabinet is paying close attention to the questions that I have today. Two numbers to keep in mind, Mr. Minister, as I outlined in my Member’s statement earlier, 13 percent of our population suffers from a disability of some kind and only .4 percent of our current workforce is comprised of persons with disabilities. Mr. Minister, this only confirms that any existing measures to increase these numbers are woefully inadequate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.