Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress.

---Carried

As far as ITI is considered, it’s long been discussed at the ITI offices with the economic development officer and the various positions in there. It should be located in downtown Hay River anyway, not out five miles south of town on a river lot.

There are some advantages to ENR being located there, with the helicopter pad and so on, but ITI can easily be moved downtown and co-located with other ITI offices that are downtown. I know the Minister can’t answer for ITI, but has any discussion taken place with these other departments about moving? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For a long time we’ve been waiting for a new hospital in Hay River and it finally seems like maybe this is going to actually be a reality. One of the first steps is to identify a suitable location for the hospital. Where it is currently located is fraught with all kinds of problems. It’s in a fairly densely populated residential area, and there are issues with the hospital. It is old and there are issues. So I think the game plan is to go with a new hospital, but now to find a location for a new hospital.

Where the current hospital sits, there are geotechnical issues. It...

Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you. I don’t understand that answer, Mr. Speaker. If somebody is off on medical leave, is the Minister saying it could be indefinite? Like they could continue to receive full pay and be off on medical or stress leave indefinitely, or is there a time period at which some other type of disability-type pay would kick in? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there is no such thing as stress leave, then. In fact, if a person is on stress leave, it just falls under the category of medical leave and they would then, I assume, be required to produce some kind of confirmation from a physician that they are entitled to be off. So just to understand, there is no differentiation between medical leave and stress leave? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a little known fact to some people may be that October is Clergy Appreciation Month. Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of being raised in a home where I went to church all my life. I must say I love church. My father was a deacon in a church and back in those days we even had church on Sunday nights. When the rest of my siblings wanted to stay home and watch The Wonderful World of Disney, I wanted to go to church with my dad, and I certainly remember and value those precious times that I had with my dad and that constitutes a lot of my memories of him.

Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The wish of the committee today is to deal with the infrastructure budget for the departments of Transportation and Public Works. Thank you.

I’d like to ask what is the length of time an employee can be off on medical or stress leave with full paid benefits. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the public service, for the Department of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod. Mr. Speaker, we live in stressful times and we certainly know and believe that employees are entitled to all the benefits and all the leaves that are encompassed in their employment contracts. Mr. Speaker, we hear that at any given time in the public service, 10 percent of positions are not filled. They are vacant and people must be off the job in various other types of leave as well: education leave, stress leave and maternity leave and all...