Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had a couple of questions also on the nursing support services for the North Slave Correctional Centre but also for the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. There is a proposal to reduce funding for these functions by the amount of $109,000. I have heard now that for North Slave it will be the elimination of a vacant position at the North Slave Correctional Centre. What is proposed to be eliminated in terms of service or people in the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the wish of the committee today is to proceed with the Main Estimates for the Department of Justice.

Mr. Chairman, I’d like to move a motion that we report progress, please.

Just one further clarification. So these two positions will be coming up sometime this summer, but how long are the people who are affected employees…?How long does that priority staff retention policy apply to them? At what point does somebody say, “The date has come and gone. There were no positions, and therefore there are no more options for that”? When an affected employee has been notified, how long does that apply for?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I asked questions about the nursing positions before, which I understand has been dealt with by a motion — and I don’t want to ask you about the nursing positions — it precipitated a response from the deputy minister about the maintenance officer position at South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. The deputy minister indicated that position was the one that was targeted as an affected position. I’m looking at some follow-up to the information that was provided, and not for information related to the rest of the motion.

The maintenance position was the one that is...

I have a motion I’d like to move. We don’t have that information. It would be helpful to have that information in our deliberations here to help us make decisions. Since we don’t have that information, I’m going to make a motion.

I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to reinstate funding in the amount of…. We’re going to have to amend the motion here. Can I just get some clarification? Let me read the motion, and then I’ll find out if that needs to be changed.

I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate...

So the savings of eliminating a vacant position for a nurse at the North Slave Correctional Centre…. Will there still be a nurse at the North Slave Correctional Centre working Monday to Friday?

To my question, I am not clear. Is there any proposed change to the support at South Mackenzie Correctional Centre for nursing support?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I actually wanted to deal with a different topic on this particular page, and I have a motion to go with the issue that I wanted to discuss. So if there are other Members who still want to partake in a discussion on this matter, I’ll defer.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to talk about something that is a pet peeve of mine. I don’t know if anybody’s ever seen those pet peeve surveys, but this is a pet peeve of mine. I was reminded of it when Ms. Lee was giving her Member’s statement on cigarettes, on smoking.

Mr. Speaker, there’s only one thing that amazes me more than the fact that people smoke, and that is the number of smokers who throw their cigarette butts on the ground. Most people understand that littering is not a good thing. We teach our kids that they shouldn’t toss litter out the car window and they shouldn’t...