Glen Abernethy

We, obviously, want a public service that represents the population that we serve, and as such, we have put in a number of these programs to help us attain that. I’m interested in what the Member has to say and I’d be happy to sit down and have a conversation with the Member to see what we can do, and discuss it further with committee as well.

I’ve had an opportunity to travel to a lot of the communities in the Northwest Territories with the Member, as well, and had an opportunity to participate in the hand games, which I thoroughly lost. I do understand the value of these types of activities and initiatives but, once again, this program is really designed to help the individual employees who happen to be in Yellowknife or other communities where maybe the hand games aren’t taking place.

As a government, we do encourage our employees who live in smaller communities to engage and become part of the communities and I would hope to see...

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to announce that the Government of the Northwest Territories has been chosen as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2013. This recognition, by the Globe and Mail and Mediacorp Canada Incorporated, follows our recent recognition as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 2013.

Each year the editorial team at Canada's Top 100 Employers identifies organizations that exemplify exceptional inclusiveness and diversity practices. The editors highlighted a number of features of our working environment. We have a wide variety of inclusiveness training on topics like...

Thank you. I’m not sure I understand the question completely. The fuel in the tanks in the community was set on a fixed price in the community and we don’t bring more fuel in for most of these communities other than once a year. So there is no variation of price. The price in the tank is what we paid for it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The petroleum products division works on a cost-recovery calculation. We don’t actually make profit on the fuel; we intend to actually cover the total cost. The price is determined by the product cost when we purchase it in the South, transportation costs to get it to whichever the 16 communities we provide fuel in, a sales commission that’s provided to a local vendor who adds that. Those commissions are determined based on an RFP process where they submit their potential costs, some O and M expenses, some taxes and a little bit of evaporation loss. It’s a complete cost...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. In support of this government’s vision of an environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories, the Department of Public Works and Services recently installed four more biomass heating systems in Fort Providence, Yellowknife, Behchoko and Fort Simpson.

In November Public Works and Services installed a new wood pellet boiler at the Combined Services Building at the Yellowknife Airport. This is the fifth such system the department has installed in Yellowknife, and it is expected to save the GNWT approximately 256,000 litres of fuel oil a year for an...

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the success of legal aid’s Aboriginal Court Work Program. This program has existed for over 30 years, and the court workers were brought into the public service over a decade ago. Our nine court workers are present in the visitors gallery today.

This program ensures that Aboriginal people charged with criminal offences receive timely and accurate information at the earliest possible stage of the criminal justice process. Our court workers also help residents with family law and other legal matters, and help residents navigate the legal aid system. They...

I have a number of people I would like to recognize. First I would like to recognize Charlene Doolittle, who is the new executive director of legal aid. Charlene is the first Aboriginal woman to hold the position and lives here in Yellowknife.

I would also like to recognize our court workers who are really the heart and soul of the Aboriginal Court Worker Program. They are Val Watsyk from Yellowknife, Sally Card from Yellowknife, Daphne Lafferty from Fort Good Hope, Maureen Maurice from Hay River, Pat Waugh from Fort Simpson, Sheila Nasogaluak from Inuvik, Shari Olsen from Fort Smith and Rose...

A couple of things. We’ve put together some Aboriginal cultural awareness training programs that are available to new staff as they come into the GNWT. Also – and I’ve talked about this every opportunity I’ve had to get outside of Yellowknife and into the regional settings – we have a program where we’re willing to facilitate secondments either way with Aboriginal community governments. Where individuals who are working in the Aboriginal community government could come on to the GNWT, give them an opportunity to have some cross-training and learn a little bit more about different areas, but we...

We provide a framework and they do their risk assessment on the exposure as they move forward.