Glen Abernethy

The Safe Advantage Program, there are two parts to this program. The first part of any penalty or any fine comes as a result of claims history and experience, and that’s based on a formula that the WSCC has put in place that looks at the government as a whole because they consider us one employer as opposed to many employers. But they run it through the formula and we are assessed based on the number of claims in the government. If we’re over a certain threshold, we get a fine. If we’re at the threshold, obviously we don’t blow it; obviously we don’t. In 2010 and 2011 we were fined for $243...

The Department of Human Resources and the Department of Health and Social Services will be discussing this particular issue next week, as a matter of fact, and how we want to work on this particular division to improve effectiveness. Once we have those discussions and figure out what we’re going to do, I’ll be happy to share that with the Member and the appropriate committee.

With respect to the health centre, absolutely it’s something we’ll look at as alternate sources of heating, such as pellets. Absolutely. The bottom line is we need to make sure that the cost savings are there and that there’s definitely payback. Right now without all the detail – and I want everybody to recognize that we don’t have all the detail – it looks like the transportation costs of pellets could be quite high. So we need to work with all the parties to find some solutions to some of the complications that will keep the costs high. Overall we agree with what the Member is saying, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that a number of amendments have been made to the Residential Tenancies Act over the last couple of years, but I can’t say exactly when and if any action was actually taken with respect to rental controls or whether that was actually considered by the government. I would say that rent controls, there are as many people that support them as oppose them and it is a double-edged sword. We would have to look at that very seriously if we were to look at it. At this point in time we don’t have any plans to review the Residential Tenancies Act.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the appropriate section. This is the section that that responsibility would fall under. The Department of Human Resources continues to lead the development of the GNWT Occupational Health and Safety Program. A work plan is currently being developed to improve health and safety practices within the GNWT workplace.

Ultimately every department is responsible for their own occupational health and safety plan or program. We provide guidance and advice on what works in other jurisdictions as well as what works well within some of the departments within the Government of...

We do have an ex-employee of the Department of Human Resources who is working in DAAIR on this file. He’s not our employee currently, though. He is on a transfer assignment, which makes him their employee right now.

We can wait for the division.

Mr. Chair, I look forward to working with the Member over the next three years as we try to develop training that is both appropriate and cost effective. The trick is that we do want to respect and appreciate the Aboriginal cultures, but we also have to do that in the fiscal realities that we’re faced with, which is one of the reasons we are starting the eRecruit. We figure we could get the greatest amount of access to GNWT employees in all communities – Yellowknife included – at all levels, anybody that has access to a computer, so that is a starting point.

I don’t want anybody to think that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not necessarily. We do a cost analysis on a case-by-case basis to see what the addition of these improvements will be. If the cost exceeds the benefit or the cost benefit of doing it, then we wouldn’t necessarily go up to that standard. We don’t build to 40 percent. We build to achieving the 25 percent, but we have been working to go beyond that and we have gotten higher. As an example, the school in Inuvik. But we had to do the cost analysis on it to show that the benefit over time would pay for those improvements, and that’s what it showed and that’s what we did.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The service-level agreements are a critical component and we do need to get those in place. Right now we’re working with Health and Social Services to set up some service-level agreements which we’re going to be piloting. We’re having those negotiations and discussions this week and hopefully we’ll have those in place soon. We wish to pilot through the 2012-2013 fiscal year and then assess, figure out what works and what doesn’t, fix the more appropriate, and start implementing them across the government over the following years.