Robert C. McLeod

I have a response to the Member's earlier questions. We actually have seven departments with completed plans. However, as I said before, we do expect all departments to have them. We will follow up on that and ensure that our departments are putting together their completed HR plans.

To the Member's second question, the affirmative action, we expect that to be incorporated into the HR plan for each department.

As I recall, some time ago we did have a list that I think we shared in Committee of the Whole, not this particular government, the past government, that actually had it broken down to the regions and to the different departments, the number of P1 candidates or P1 employees they had in their system. I can tell the Member that, of the 5,187 employees we have, 1,601, I believe, are affirmative action employees. I will look at the breakdown of numbers by community, and I will share the findings with committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we expect all departments to have the HR plans. I will confirm for the Member how many of them actually have the plans, and I will report back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, the light is on. I may as well. I get five minutes. I think the Minister of Lands pointed out before, we will have the discussion. We have heard the Member's concern, and we will have that discussion amongst our Cabinet colleagues to see if there is merit in that, first of all, if it will streamline things and make it more efficient. I mean, we will have to have that discussion, but we take the Member's point.

As I said before, we are early in the process, but an issue such as this, this is something that we would need to get a lot of input from committee and the public. As we go through the LPs and introduce an introduction of bills, the opportunity is going to be there for committee to take the bill on the road. We will ensure that we have a lot of good feedback and a good-quality product that we are able to present before the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have to state the obvious when we talk about diabetes and obesity amongst the Northwest Territories. It is one of the reasons that we have decided to explore this option. The second one is the constant harping from the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to my honourable friend from Yellowknife Centre. We are early in the process. We are just starting to put our plan together. As I said, we have already received some fantastic information from the Dieticians of Canada. I am sure we will be getting a lot more information. We will process a lot of this information. We will put a timeline together, and then we will work with committee on seeking their input on our timeline as we go forward.

I am sure the Minister of Health and Social Services would like that. One of the reasons that we have decided that we want to do it, we actually already have a letter of support from the Dieticians of Canada with their 6,000 members across the country. I think they have 15 in Northwest Territories. They have provided us with some excellent starting points for our discussions on a sugar tax. We don't know yet about the revenue. These are details we have to work out. As we go into the process, I would be more than pleased to sit down with committee and get their input. Then we will work to put...

Yes, there is a new timetable. In order for us to appropriately address the feedback received from the engagement consultation, we have had a bit of a process change and therefore a change in the timeline has been required. We are pursuing components of the regulation framework through the Land and Water Board process. As far as the timeline goes, we have an LP that we're working on and we're looking to have an EPA bill, an Environmental Protection Act bill, passed in the fall 2017 Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ENR, we've received 29 formal responses; 10 from the Aboriginal governments and 19 were from stakeholders. We are currently processing the feedback that we heard and, based on feedback received from the parties, we're conducting some additional legislative and legal analysis and technical research on select items in the framework. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.