Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my pleasure today to recognize the Pages that have come up this week to work for Hay River South. They are right here in the Chamber. They are Hailey Lyon and Trudy Hiebert. I would like to thank them for doing a great job in the service of the Assembly.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in response to a previous question, the Minister did say that he thought the duty to accommodate did not extend beyond the immediate employee of the government. By extension, this is a family obligation; this is a family member with a disability, not the employee themselves. If the existing policy does not include that provision by extension, will the Minister look at a means of revising our policy and legislation or manual that managers are guided by to ensure it does include this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to bring this up again to the Minister of Human Resources here on the last day of Assembly, because the answers to these questions are so important and so serious to a constituent of mine in Hay River who's going to be wanting to hear the answer. One of the grounds of discrimination covered by the NWT Human Rights Act is family. Family status includes the status of being related to someone who requires your care. An employer's duty to accommodate includes accommodating, including family obligations. Family obligations could include requesting altered...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The duty to accommodate, a guide to employers, actually extends beyond accommodating that employee who may have a condition or a disability. People cannot be discriminated against on the basis of family status and if the employee of the GNWT has an obligation to provide care to a family member that might preclude them, for example, from working a night shift in an institution or in a workplace, then by extension that duty to accommodate goes to that employee in their obligation to their family member. That is what I’d like to determine, if this government adheres to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today, for the last time, are for the Minister of Human Resources, Minister Dent. At the rate the Members are leaving the Chamber, I might get you all to myself for one hour. Anyway, duty to accommodate. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I raised a very important subject. Under the Human Rights Commission there is provision for the duty to accommodate. I want to know how does that right, how does that translate into any policy, procedure or actions on the part of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to use my Member’s statement to draw attention to a potential gap in the guidelines for applying the duty to accommodate for employees of our public service. The human rights legislation is quite clear that the employer has the duty to accommodate when an employee has an obligation to care for a family member with a disability unless it can be proven that this accommodation causes undue hardship to the employer.

Managers in our public service should have reflective policies that allow them to make these accommodations within a clearly...

Bill 7, Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act, interpretation, clause 1.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in his Member’s statement, Mr. Miltenberger said that water is life. That is true. Hay River gets its drinking water or potable water for our residents from Great Slave Lake. This has been the case for many years. There is a water intake line that goes into Great Slave Lake and brings water into Hay River.

Mr. Speaker, this spring, from May 16th to June 9th, there was a boil water order issued by the environmental health officer in Hay River. This is a big problem. This was during the time that we had about 1,000 or 1,100 extra people in town for the...

Thank you, Minister Bell. We will just wait for that motion to be circulated. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.

Minister Bell, for the record, could you please introduce your witnesses?