Tom Beaulieu

Mr. Speaker, the Provincial/Territorial Infrastructure Fund request was for $415 million and that was the initial $600 million ask from the GNWT to the federal government. The portion that the Member speaks of where Highway No. 7 would sit was a $415 million request and we didn’t, obviously, get all of that since the entire ask to us was $258 million, so we’re discussing this between ourselves as departments, and also our infrastructure Minister McLeod has been leading some meetings to determine the split between the communities and the highways. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government, on the Building Canada Fund, has provided us an indication that they will approve $258 million for the NWT for both transportation and community infrastructure. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A lot of the Members are indicating that this was already dealt with. Obviously, it’s not already dealt with; that’s why it’s back here. I think everybody knows that we have to go through three readings in order to make a decision on these things.

I like what Member Bisaro had to say about the consideration of what the Electoral Boundaries Commission had to say on culture and language. That’s what my whole point is, that that was not considered. I think what should have happened is that should have been a paramount issue. You should not eliminate a language, one of our...

I don’t know that we’re putting any Northerners at risk. What we’re doing here is we’re trying to fill the jobs. I’ve explained in the House that there are various categories. Of the 1,150 positions effective October 31, 2013, they are in various categories. I could read off all of the various categories, but one of the categories that the Members were interested in was the 571 positions that we’re actively trying to recruit. For other reasons, some vacancies are there. Some are difficult to recruit, so they are filled with a casual. There are all kinds of other reasons. Some are empty...

There are no freezes in hiring. The government continues to hire. We continue to work with the department. The Department of Health and Social Services has a strategic health Human Resource Strategy that they are working on. That portion of the recruitment team was moved from Human Resources back to Health because they are the experts themselves in filling health human resource positions. That is not something that we are doing across the board. There are no freezes by any of the departments right across government. We’re continuing to pursue to fill vacant positions.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, there is another fund. I believe its $4 billion. It’s projects of national significance and we are taking a portion of our ask and looking at it again, and we will be presenting the work that’s going to be needed to build new infrastructure and the project would be the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We’re going to be presenting that to the federal government before the end of this month. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it’s split between the community governments and transportation infrastructure. We have not determined that, but the $258 million has to be leveraged and they are what we refer to as 75 cent dollars so the GNWT will have to come back to the House to get our corresponding share, which would be 25 percent. It is over 10 years, so approximately $25.8 million per year from the federal government to the GNWT. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in early January 2014, the construction of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway was officially started.

This is an important first step to realizing the long-term goal of an all-weather road through the Mackenzie Valley. This is the largest and one of the most challenging infrastructure developments ever undertaken by the Government of the Northwest Territories. It is a strategic infrastructure investment that will strengthen and diversify our economy and is a priority of the 17th Legislative Assembly.

The project will improve the quality of life for community residents by providing...

Thank you. It’s difficult for me to speak on this. For me it’s a hypothetical case. If the Member has an actual case where an individual has 20 years’ directly related experience and was not allowed to apply for the job that they were doing, I would be glad to hear about the specifics from the Member and we’ll then contact the department and find out what the issue is. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I couldn’t possibly know how often that occurs in the government. I indicated in the House previously, we have anywhere from 1,600 to 1,700 staffing actions per year going back I don’t know how many years. How am I able to determine how often this occurs in the government? I would perhaps do a long research and then we would probably be able to come up with this number, but it would mean tracking everybody that qualified up against the individuals that got hired in order to determine that number. Thank you.