Tom Beaulieu

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I made a Member's statement on suggestions on the Affirmative Action Policy of the GNWT. I would like to ask the Minister of Human Resources questions. I would like to ask the Minister if Human Resources have the staff to ensure that the departments are serious about applying the Affirmative Action Policy? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm getting down to what my question would be, here. So certain items which are considered infrastructure deficit by the government would not include other things that larger communities already have, like paved streets. So therefore, if those don't count as infrastructure deficits, then they don't appear anywhere as a need, therefore there is high potential for this reallocation of infrastructure funding to be taken away from smaller communities and given to larger communities.

I've looked at a document previously which shows that, that things like not everyone has...

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. The current situation is filled with uncertainty and confusion. The hiring department, the Department of Human Resources and, of course, most importantly, applicants trying to get into the GNWT, whether they have priority status or not, are all unhappy.

So, Mr. Speaker, as you can see, in order to achieve a public service that represents a population it serves, all it would take is some effort. Today, I will have questions for the Minister of Human Resources on his thoughts on how the government plans to move forward with this policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when this funding was last allocated, small community federal funding, where did it go? Did it go to all communities, project-specific? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Staying with the community learning centres, there is also one contemplated in the capital needs assessment at 2020-2021 for Fort Resolution. They have a very old building used as a community learning centre. So I would like to well, no, make more comments before I ask the Minister a question.

In approximately 2009 or 2010, there was money set aside in the capital plan to leverage federal dollars to build community learning centres. I know that the Member from Mackenzie Delta and myself were able to take advantage of the federal funding and were able to get one new...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to go back to the things that are not in the capital plan but not anticipated to be in the capital plan. At this point, I'm just trying to get a schedule for it. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister if they are looking at the 20-year needs assessment, which is, I guess, the first step to developing a five-year capital plan. In the 20-year needs assessment, in 2018-2019, it indicates that the Detah School is scheduled for replacement. I'm wondering if I can get the Minister to give me a capital update on that Detah School? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering if the Minister could give me a little more detail on the timing of what he had spoke about. Maybe the timing as to when we can expect to see this being contemplated through the Capital Planning Process or if it's already been contemplated through the Capital Planning Process. I don't know. So just a little more detail on the timing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to continue consideration of Tabled Document 143-18(2), Capital Estimates 2017-2018. We would like to consider the Departments of Justice, Education, Culture and Employment, and Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, many of the job and employment opportunities I speak of would be projects at the community level, various projects that the community could carry out as part of employment. I'd like to ask the Minister if it would be possible for the Minister to work with his department to direct the client service officers to work with the communities to look at all possibilities of employment in small communities.

Marci Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Education questions on my Member’s statement. I would like to ask the Minister if he is willing to review the Income Support Program in small communities, Employment Support Program, to look at the feasibility of transferring budgets to make the Small Communities Employment Support Program more substantial. Thank you.