Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just going back to the WSCC claims, as I have indicated, we are putting stuff in now; we are trying to address the problem. Some of the stuff is going to take a bit of time to work through. As with any new program, there is bound to be some growing pains, but we have already seen a decrease in 2012. We know there is probably going to be a penalty coming from that. We just expect it to be much smaller, which shows that we have started to make progress. More progress is needed. More diligence is needed. We continue to work closely with the departments so they implement...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We’ve seen huge progress in this area already, and I think creating awareness in the individual departments has helped an awful lot. I have had discussions with the Premier on this and we have discussed this with Cabinet; Cabinet is aware. The deputy minister has been discussing this at the deputy heads’ meetings on a regular basis. I think the deputies are taking responsibility and accountability for this issue, and I think we have already started to see some positive results.

As I indicated earlier when I was talking to Mr. Bromley, the Premier has indicated that this...

I hear you on the scoring frustration. I believe we’ve already had conversations on this and I understand the frustration that some of your constituents are having, and not just your constituents, but others across the Northwest Territories, and the barriers that our system may be actually putting in place unknowingly, which I’m going to go back to my comments on the Aboriginal Employees Advisory Committee. We’re really looking forward to some suggestions they have on the process. I mean what barriers we may be unknowingly be putting in and how we can improve those. So we look forward to their...

Madam Chair, we have occupational health and safety coordinators in a number of departments, boards and agencies. I can get that number for the Member.

As far as tools and resources that the Department of Human Resources has in place or is preparing to assist in the workplace, we have the Occupational Health and Safety Policy, which is a GNWT policy that departments, boards and agencies are going to have to utilize. We have some incident reporting procedures, which is basically GNWT incident reporting procedures. We have occupational health and safety orientation for workers. We have...

I have provided that information to committee once before and I actually listed off the list of tools that we have developed and/or are working on, but I’m happy to provide it in writing to the Member and committee if they so choose or desire.

He said yes.

As a Regular Member, and as a citizen, and as an employee who used to be in the public service, I have been a supporter of whistleblower legislation for a long time. I have been trying to push it forward. This House has supported that initiative. We agreed to move forward with the Union of Northern Workers, who was a good partner. We worked hand in hand on the Safe Disclosure Policy that we have in place and it is going to form the background of the legislation. We want to implement the safe disclosure April 1st. I have to bring it to committee first for their review, but that’s...

I’ll commit to providing committee, on a regular basis, our stats on workplace safety claims that we are paying or the WSCC is paying on our behalf. I can assure the Member that the Ministers take this seriously, the Premier takes this seriously, we’ve had conversations. We don’t like paying $600,000 when we’d rather use that money for programs and services in the Northwest Territories. This is something that with some diligence I think we can overcome. It’s going to take some work, there’s no doubt there, but I think we’re all committed to having these results.

Obviously, we don’t want to see any late submissions. That’s not our desire. We’d obviously like to save the $56,000. There are some challenges that we face and there are times when late submissions do occur. Sometimes there are time delays when an incident occurred and when the employee reported the occurrence to the supervisor. But as soon as the supervisor becomes aware, you get them to submit a form. There have been delays between when an incident occurred and when an employee sought medical attention. They may not have thought they were injured or that they needed attention. Then the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to thank the Member for congratulating the department on being the top 100 employer. I do have to say that HR can’t take the credit for that by itself. This is an accolade given to the Government of the Northwest Territories and it takes everybody, Cabinet, Regular Members, staff and all the departments. We’re very proud of this recognition and we think it’s fantastic.

The Member is right; we do have an out-migration from the Government of the Northwest Territories. We do run about 360 to 400 jobs on a regular basis that we’re trying to actively fill. I take the...

Madam Chair, we do do it. We provide that information on a regular basis to the departments so they can make informed decisions and apply the policies that they are responsible for applying on a regular basis. With respect to incident reporting, the GNWT has an incident reporting procedure that is used by all departments, boards and agencies. We are making sure that they are educated and informed so that they can utilize it appropriately. We provide advice and guidance, and we will continue to provide advice and guidance. The departments are responsible for the application of those policies...