Glen Abernethy

I do, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On my right I have Sylvia Haener, who is the deputy minister of the Department of Justice. On my left I have Kim Schofield, who is the director of finance of the Department of Justice.

Mr. Speaker, the government is committed to being an inclusive workplace open to all Northerners. A diverse workplace improves our ability to serve the public.

Today I would like to provide Members with highlights from the recent Inclusive Public Service Survey, conducted by the NWT Bureau of Statistics on behalf of the Department of Human Resources. It was developed in consultation with the GNWT Advisory Committee on Employability. The survey was conducted in the first half of this year, and asked all GNWT employees to share their perspectives on a wide range of workplace diversity topics. The...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The completion date is April 2015, and we expect to start moving people in shortly thereafter. The project is gone out for RFP, a contractor has been selected and the contract has been awarded. Total contract construction costs, including all design and tenant improvements, is $25.143 million, which works out to about a square foot cost of about $378.66 per square foot. Keeping in mind that this does include tenant improvements and specific stuff for whichever departments happen to be going in there. If you take out the tenant improvements, the total cost is around $20...

Madam Chair, as a Regular Member I had an opportunity to travel to Ulukhaktok. When we were in Ulukhaktok, we met with the school. They had a significant number of computers that were actually old government computers from Yellowknife. They got there through the Computers for Schools program. There are a number of ways that different groups make requests to the department on a fairly regular basis. When we have stock, we are happy to work with them to dispose of it. We have also had situations where MLAs have come to us indicating that there are some needs in a community. Can we use old...

I’ve heard a lot of individuals stating that certain businesses are committed and then I’ve heard that those businesses aren’t committed. The city has asked us for a commitment and we have not committed in any way, shape, or form to this project.

What we are willing to do, and what we have indicated to them that we’re willing to do, is once a comprehensive business plan is provided which outlines the costs, we will assess it to see if there are savings to the government, what the costs to government would be, and if those costs are reasonable, we would absolutely approach the House for more...

Yes please, Madam Chair.

Some of it is recycled, they auction some off, but for the actual specific details I’ll go to the deputy on what we do with the specific items.

Absolutely. The Member is the chair of EDI, which is the committee that we would be going through. He will absolutely, without question, as I indicated before, get the information, as will all Members.

Once again, I share the Member’s concerns with respect to liability. We certainly as a government don’t want to take on additional liability for this purpose. I believe there are individuals who would be interested in this opportunity and I’m sure we can find a reasonable solution with the cooperation of everybody involved.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to report that the Government of the Northwest Territories hired 308 students this past summer. This was an increase of 9 percent from 2011, when 286 students were hired. Of the 308 students hired, 54.6 percent were indigenous Aboriginals.

The summer student employment is an investment in our future and our youth. Through this program, northern students gain valuable work experience to complement their formal education and test drive the GNWT as a future employer.

At the end of the summer, we asked the students about their experiences. The feedback we received...