Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the process, as laid out, is with our policies that are in place. Each applicant would be put through that. They would be followed. If the rules are followed, then there is no ground for appealing if that is the basis of the concern. So as we go forward from here, as we have stated, to clarify where we are going and to make this a more transparent process, going with the independent staffing appeals officers, it is our goal to limit the concern that people are not being given a fair opportunity for the jobs that are in place. As we have it, the rules are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the three positions will not all be located in Yellowknife. One of them will be in the north and one will be in the south part of the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have with me today the director of legislation, Mark Aitken; to my immediate right is Mr. Lew Voytilla, secretary to FMB; and, to my immediate left is Ms. Lynn Elkin, assistant deputy minister of corporate human resources. Thank you.

I am pleased to introduce Bill 21, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act. The staffing appeals process provides for public accountability of staffing within the GNWT public service. The proposed legislative amendments to the Public Service Act will enhance this accountability by enabling revisions to the staffing review and appeals regulations to strengthen the staffing appeals process by making it more independent and transparent.

The proposed changes to the Public Service Act include an appointment mechanism for staffing review officers as well as a more extensive regulation-making...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d have to take exception with the Member stating that we have employees out there who are not committed to the policies that we have in place. If there are examples of that, if there’s proof of that besides accusations of employees not following the rules, then definitely bring them forward to me and I will work to address them. We have a policy in place. We need to follow those policies. We know there are some problems with the one management program that we have in place. In fact, we’re trying to, as we go forward, incorporate it into the work around...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to present the Department of Public Works and Services' main estimates for the fiscal year 2005-06.

The main estimates propose a department operations and maintenance budget for 2005-06 of $44.3 million and an infrastructure investment plan of $7.8 million. This is a .08 percent decrease over the 2004-2005 Main Estimates.

Public Works and Services provides necessary technical and professional support to other departments as they work to achieve government objectives by delivering direct services to our residents. The resources of Public Works and Services...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The percentage in 2003 from our own stats of aboriginal employees would be in the area of 32 percent, an average between all communities. The affirmative action policy is still something that we use on every position out there and it’s a consideration on any options we have to do hiring throughout the government. The affirmative action policy is in place and is used for positions that are advertised. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, what we do in a number of cases or in the past, again, we haven’t got into privatization initiatives for a number of years now, but what was done in the past when a community or business would request that this be done and there was support for it, an agreement would be put in place. There would be a timeline established as well for the final transactions to happen and the company would take over full operations. I believe in the case of Tuktoyaktuk it was a five-year agreement that was in place, but after year four there was an agreement to proceed with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t have the information available to me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the land claim agreements, there is a requirement that we, as a government, would undertake certain activities. They would be listed out in the agreements and in this case, with both the Sahtu and the Gwich’in, the money would flow from DIAND for us to perform work for the organization. So that’s how that one works. Thank you.