Tom Beaulieu

I don’t have the BIP evaluations here with me today; however, I have confidence that the individuals who are tendering and the procurement are doing appropriate BIP evaluation. I’m assuming after the BIP was applied that the company that got the job had the lowest number. Thank you.

It is likely that they have the plow trucks assembled here in the Northwest Territories. I guess my point is that the plow truck itself is not approved as an NWT-manufactured product. It’s not registered as an NWT-manufactured product. So when they build a plow truck, they go through a regular tender process and then they compete. Wherever it is considered to be northern, then they would get the Business Incentive Policy applied, which would benefit them and give them that advantage in that category, but not necessarily getting the job just outright as a northern manufacturer. Thank you.

We have a capital planning process and the capital planning process takes the department’s requests for new infrastructure through five different filters and then once the projects are categorized they will go through five more filters. At that point it is determined that we are going to move forward, that this was the project that was highest on the points, and then we move to a planning process. After the planning process is complete, actually the following year, we go to design detail. It is during the design detail that there is community consultation that will occur. There’s a schematic...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Minister of Transportation’s Report to the Legislative Assembly for 2014 on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, 1990.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, we are. We’ve also had face-to-face discussions during NWT Days with the federal Minister of Transportation, Minister responsible for Infrastructure, which it is under his bailiwick.

We’re at a point now where we are looking at the business case that we’ve produced. The federal government has asked us for a business case. We’re able to produce a business case. It’s 300 pages long so it takes a lot of work to present this business case to the federal government, and it’s done. We are now looking at that to ensure that all the information that’s required from the federal government is in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are on schedule, on budget and we expect to complete the highway the date indicated when we started the highway. Thank you.

There are individuals who would work for the GNWT who would have their jobs specifically in a down south location; however, employees who work for the GNWT who have their jobs here should be working here. I’ve only heard of one employee who was working at a distance, and that was an individual who was working in Alberta for the GNWT, and I was looking into that to see how that was possible and why that was happening. My preference, of course, and the preference of this government is that if the individuals are working for the GNWT, then they be located at their job sites in the NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The section on voluntary separation, the Staff Retention Policy and so on are in the Collective Agreement that we have with the UNW. The voluntary separation is also a policy that we’ve discussed with the UNW as per the Collective Agreement, and it’s in Section 27 of the Public Service Act. However, why they are not all consolidated, if they are not all consolidated in the HR Manual, I don’t have the answer for that at this time. But I will ensure that if there are policies that are scattered around in the act or in the agreement and not all in the Human Resources...

It is very difficult to speak in an open forum like this about individuals’ employment status. My best advice to the employee or to the Member, and the employee has gone to the Member for advice and support, is to actually discuss with the union the situation the employee is encountering. He is likely a union employee. In that case, then the union would provide the support necessary so that when he feels he is being treated unfairly, the union will represent that individual with the management of the department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Each case is quite specific. It would depend on whether or not the individual was management, excluded, union. In the case where an individual was unionized, then what we’d recommend to the employee, if there are issues that they’re not happy with if they’re to be charged and not feeling that they’re being treated fairly by the departments, is they have the option to deal with their union. Thank you.