Rylund Johnson

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories, in consultation with the Information and Privacy Commissioner, by April 1, 2023, establish a governmentwide policy that ensures all employees receive appropriate training on the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. The policy should ensure that new employees receive training early on and all employees receive regular refreshers.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement I talked about transparency in infrastructure budgeting, and I want to use the Whati Transmission Line as an example.

The Whati Transmission Line has been debated for years in this House. It's clear that millions of dollars have been approved because it appears in the main estimates debates year after year. It's clear that millions of dollars have been spent because there's talk of geotechnical and reporting and a feasibility assessments being done. Some Members have oftrepeated that it would be cheaper to introduce three hydro projects as opposed to one...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories, in consultation with the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and by April 1, 2023, establish a governmentwide policy that ensures all employees receive appropriate training on the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. The policy should ensure that new employees receive training early on and all employees receive regular refreshers.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to let everyone know I will be voting against this infrastructure expenditure, Mr. Speaker. I think if you support building infrastructure in the Northwest Territories, then a supplementary appropriation which lapses $125 million is a very concerning sight. And I think if you believe that when the Assembly passes money and tells the GNWT to spend it and they don't, that's very concerning. And I know there's much debate about what exactly is being lapsed and will never come back versus what is being carried over and will probably make itself back on the...

In favour.

In favour.

For.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm very happy that the last Assembly in the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act put on an emphasis on proactive disclosure which requires every deputy minister to go look through past ATIPPs and look through their records and see what can be disclosed without an access request. A number of MLAs in this Assembly consistently ATIPPed the same documents and often they come back unredacted.

The scope of what is ATIPPable and what is public is widely disconnected. So to date, departments have not complied with the act and complied with proactive disclosure of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member bringing this motion forward. And I do think that much of this information exists, but the GNWT needs to make sure it is put together and there's some sort of coherent vision.

As often is repeated in this House, the NWT is in a labour shortage. We have more jobs than people. And the extent of that labour shortage is truly unique. This territory, if you take our GDP per capita, we have one of the highest in the world. No doubt, because we have three diamond mines, but we all know that those diamond mines operate with a large fly in/fly out...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I've had the honour of moving a number of motions in this Assembly to eliminate fax machines, and they each get a little more specific as the department tries to make progress in this area.

And I want to clarify, this is not just some vendetta against outdated technology. The Information and Privacy Commissioner has consistently raised that, still to this date, a number of health breaches are arising from the use of fax machines. So I think the preference here is to completely get rid of them and perhaps the new electronic medical records will assist in that. But if we...