Steve Norn

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In line with my Member's statement, I worked with the Minister responsible for ECE, Minister Archie, and ENR Minister Thompson, and I want to thank them for all the information they gave me. So far, I am going back to the Taltson. From my understanding then, BC is denying responsibility, and that is fine. I was given a lot of raw data, and it could be interpreted a lot of different ways. My question now is for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Can he give us an update on what, if any, preliminary findings are on the cause of the high water levels? Marsi...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I would like to say welcome back to all of my colleagues, and happy belated new year's to my constituents and everybody else listening right now. I really hope that we have a meaningful and productive sitting this session.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to lead up with an event that frightened me and many of my constituents recently. This is the report of flooding in the Taltson River and Slave River areas. Just to lead this out, there was a phrase that my great-grandmother told me, and I want to have that in our thoughts when I say this. She told me that [English...

Marsi cho, Madam Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Finance after my Member's statement today on affirmative action. My first question for the Minister is: will the Minister provide statistics on the number of direct appointments to the public service that have been made per year over the last five years? Marsi cho, Madam Speaker.

Marsi cho, Madam Speaker. Again, we can always make compromises and I think this was a good example in the last couple days how all 18 of us worked together and looked for solutions to find ways to pick away at our mandate items. We have some lofty goals, and we're doing this through a pandemic. I'm really happy that we earmarked some allocation of funds for housing and for MACA. I'm very glad to work with our colleagues. It was good to see that chemistry happen and make those things happen. I'm very happy for that.

In terms of the appropriation act as a whole, again, it's one of those things...

My apologies for interrupting, Madam Speaker. Thank you for the response. We could get that particular breakdown in writing, that would be much appreciated. My last question, and again I want to speak a little bit to this a little more. This direct appointment process, it's been criticized in the past, has been had before. There has been some political patronage there. There is no transparency or accountability, either. I think there should be more checks and balances there. There are other ways that this could be handled rather than running it through Cabinet solely.

Again, it would be nice to...

Thank you for those stats. It's really important we have the public understand a little bit more about the direct appointment process. It leads more to my next line of questioning. I would like to find out how many people find their way into the public service permanently by starting out in a casual position and getting direct appointment into an indeterminate position. Will the Minister provide a breakdown of how many of the direct appointments were for people appointed into an indeterminate position from a casual one?

Marsi cho, Madam Speaker. I'll be continuing on with talking about the Affirmative Action Policy from yesterday. Many of the problems that I see with the Affirmative Action Policy have already been stated in this House at length over the years, including this week. However, I still see a few glaring gaps in the hiring processes in the GNWT. It often impedes with the chances of Indigenous candidates from successful job competitions. That's why this policy was created in the first place, to help even a playing field for underrepresented people to be hired by the GNWT. As a Member for Tu Nedhe...

Marsi cho, Mr. Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Okay. Thank you for that from the Minister. Will the Minister also provide a breakdown of how many of the direct appointments were Indigenous, P1 status?

Marsi cho, Madam Speaker. I will not say too much beyond what some of my colleagues have already spoken about this motion. I will say, when this news first came up, the news reports in China last year about this terrible virus, COVID-19, I thought, "I hope it doesn't come this way." All of a sudden, you start hearing that kind of trickle starting to come through and the terrible sickness and illness. Again, every day, I was thinking, "I just hope it does not come this way," and sure enough, it did. It did make its way here. We started to hear businesses closed, businesses that had kept open...