I continually hear departments in this government talking about providing quality customer service to clients of the G.N.W.T. This includes both internal and external clients. I believe that the vast majority of employees within the G.N.W.T. strive to deliver high quality and timely services to their respective clients. Unfortunately, sometimes this doesn’t happen. Often when an employee fails to provide high quality and timely service to a client, it has less to do with the employee’s willingness or desire to help; rather, it is due to strict or rigid guidelines or operational procedures put...

Moving along to page 21, Health and Social Services, Health Services Programs, not previously authorized: $2,729,000. Mr. Ramsay.

Income Security, not previously authorized: $552,000. Agreed?

Income Security, $552,000 approved.

The bill as a whole.

Bill 2 as a whole approved.

We’re still on page 20, Municipal and Community Affairs, Regional Operations, not previously authorized: $3,172,000.

Municipal and Community Affairs, Capital Investment Expenditures, Regional Operations, $3,172,000 approved.

Advanced Education and Careers, not previously authorized: $194,000. Mr. Ramsay.

Now, Committee, I ask you to turn to the bill. We will stand down the Preamble and look at clause 1, page 1.

Clauses 1 through 7 inclusive approved.

Mr. Speaker, the 2008 Arctic Winter Games are rapidly approaching. We have roughly three weeks before athletes begin to descend upon Yellowknife and the N.W.T. By all accounts these games are going to be huge and will be good for the city of Yellowknife and the N.W.T. as a whole.

To make these games a success, it’s going to take a significant amount of time and effort from all parties: the Arctic Winter Games staff, the city of Yellowknife, the G.N.W.T., the many sponsors and, most importantly, the volunteers. In fact, to run the games approximately 2,500 volunteers will be required.

To ensure...

In 1998, when the Games were last here, we had similar policies in place and the government’s decision at that time was, “Let the staff have the two hours.” I'm wondering why, several years later, we now look at the same or very similar policies and we're rigidly applying them. We are not seeing the value in having our staff work on the Games. We are not seeing the value in giving them the time they need without taking credit away from them. We're saying, “Yeah, do it, it’s great, but you have to use your own time,” whereas in the past, we've stood up for employees and given them the time they...

Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Human Resources and are related to the Arctic Winter Games and the volunteers, G.N.W.T. staff in particular.

The question is very specific to a two-hour block — two hours maximum per day — where individuals would be allowed to volunteer without penalty against their lieu time or annual leave. So where operational requirements permit and where a G.N.W.T. staff is registered as a volunteer and is either scheduled from a 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. shift or a 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. shift, the government has said no. Basically, if you need that two hours at the...