Statements in Debates
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just curious. I've heard a lot of stories from corrections officers who are Indigenous and maybe not feeling necessarily supported in their role, and I know that there's a difference between the North Slave Correctional Institute and the South Slave, as far as Indigenous representation of employees. I've also heard concerns around positions not going out for competition and being internally hired, people's friends, all of the similar stories we hear often when people come to us with complaints about the GNWT and the hiring practices. Can the Minister speak of it to...
Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe the Minister can comment, then, on outreach to the YWCA to sort of feel this one out. I feel like this could potentially be an area where it won't be noticed until it's already being incurred by them. I'm not sure how far ahead they are at times in being able to come and say, "We see this as an uptick." They have a new ED; she's great. No comment there. Just curious to know what the department is doing to be proactive to reach out to all of their NGOs and the groups that they liaise with regarding the potential increase for domestic violence and intimate violence...
I think that's great. I am really glad to hear it's more of a prevention issue versus a reaction to things that are happening. Just through corrections, people have heard about that recruitment and the increase of southern gangs. Why I know is just that they are coming from the region in which I grew up. I just maybe have been more alive to it. I would just like to speak to the contribution to the YWCA of Yellowknife, the $105,000. Could the Minister confirm that that is the money that is used for the EPOs, or is that another line item? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just further to that, then, with the way that COVID is impacting our rental community at the moment, there is a lot of fear I'm hearing from constituents about making their rents, and the rent reliefs were really needed and helpful. However, I'm just wondering if we anticipate that we're going to actually see an increase again in the demands and services of the rental office, and I'm wondering if it is perhaps going to be underfunded for the upcoming year, given the COVID implications that we're seeing? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have anything prepared, and I am the last person who is going to stand up here and tell everyone else in this room what racism means to them. I do commit to being an ally and to educating myself and to always trying to check my own privilege when I can. I look to all my colleagues to help me do so and commit to continuing to do so. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the line items here that I really hear a lot about is the rental office. It's one where I do probably need to learn a little more on its operations and such. $238,000 is not very much money. I do know that a lot of our more vulnerable constituents do interact and need help at the rental office, and we often end up, as MLAs, kind of being that go-between or a navigator in helping them figure that out. My question is: could the Minister speak to whether or not that is actually adequately funded? Perhaps we need to be looking at expanding the rental office so it's...
I did not have the luxury of listening to the Minister's statement ahead of making my questions. Some of it might get a bit repetitive, but that never hurts, to repeat ourselves if we want to be heard. Often as MLAs, we hear of direct-appointment hires or non-hires for that matter, that seem to directly contradict the GNWT's own Affirmative Action Policy. Will a fairness review of direct-appointment hires be implemented as part of the new Affirmative Action Policy to oversee the ministerial appointments? What sort of corrections or sanctions will be built into the policy for individuals who do...
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at the biology casework line item. It's a $183,000 item. Just from looking at the page before, it appears this would be the cost-sharing agreement with Public Safety Canada for our part of the DNA work, et cetera, for our legal services. Could the Minister speak to whether or not we have any backlog in DNA testing, that type of work? I may be watching a little bit too much Law & Order SVU, but I'm just curious to know: is that ever an issue for us in the North, where our case work, our biological work, doesn't get processed in time, and does that impact...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of human resources or Finance. What is the GNWT doing to eliminate systemic racism in its hiring practices? Will the Minister commit to setting numerical targets for the hiring of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour within the GNWT at senior levels of management, not just in entry-level positions? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just looking at the court workers line item and noting that we do have the actuals for 2019-2020. We are at $894,000 but have gone up now in the last two years to $1.24 million on page 286. Maybe could the Minister speak to what that increase reflects, and is that just more positions within the court and maybe where those positions lie? Thank you.