Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is exactly what I said and that’s what I thought. Mr. Chairman, being a government, then any department carries that kind of a vacancy that would lead me to believe there is a little bit of manoeuvrability within the Justice budget. In fact, the 49 vacancies would, even if some of them are in the process of being staffed, if you go with the industry standard for vacancy, there is still lots of room in the Justice budget to accommodate the $267,000 for the remand centre in Hay River so that we could keep that operational until such time as we have a chance to look...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just as a side note then, I just want to make a comment here and I hope the UNW is listening. I hope that they're taking note of how this department treats casuals and term employees, because I think certainly they could not operate their facilities without casual employees and I think it's a rather abysmal oversight for the Minister to not even be aware whether or not they have been consulted about changes that are coming in such a short time, in three weeks from now, and can't speak to that definitively.

Mr. Chairman, can I just move on to the issue of the assertion...

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Total activity $1.542 million.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, 70 reductions planned. I have recited in this House numerous times and I don’t need to do it again today. Prior to the reinstatement of the court registry, Hay River was scheduled for 43.5 positions reduced in one community. Out of the 70 government-wide, Hay River was going to have 43.5, until we pulled seven back from the brink. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Finance Minister what kind of reasoning, with regard to fairness and not causing hardship in our community, is applied when these kinds of things are considered. Was it something even discussed...

Well, for the sake of this argument, Mr. Chairman, let’s just say it’s $60,000 that’s the average for the vacant positions, times 50 vacant positions system-wide right now that’s about $3 million a year. So would the Minister concur that his department is being funded an extra $3 million right now for positions for which there are no people? Thank you.

Well, that is concerning to me because there are many casual employees who derive at least some or all of their source of income from working there, and the Minister says they might have been included in meetings when the impending changes were discussed between management and staff. It doesn't seem like the Minister actually knows. Doesn't the Minister think that it might be appropriate to have that discussion with casual employees, so that he knows for sure that they are fully aware of what changes are coming and how it might impact them? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Page 6-8, infrastructure acquisition plan, courts, tangible capital assets, total tangible capital assets, $1.542 million, total activity, $1.542 million. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. As I said, the Premier has publicly stated that we are not broke and our fiscal situation has improved, so let’s keep the justice services close to the people they serve and let’s affirm our government’s support for the regions and say no to the centralization of programs and services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d just like the Minister to throw a ballpark at it. Something like you did in Hay River when you came up with $76,000 per position that you were cutting at 5.5 times $76,000. Would $76,000 be kind of an average type paid position within the Justice system? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. I spoke earlier today in the sitting of the Legislature about how I feel about the way casual and term employees are treated by the government. Some of these people have been there for quite a long time, particularly in Dene K'onia, not so much for the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre. Even there, though, there are some very long-serving casual employees. How would casual employees then plan their lives, livelihood and their incomes around this fact that they might just be called in less? What kind of consultation, counselling or planning has taken place with our casual...