Tom Beaulieu

Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

The departments use various methods to attract students. They’re on the website, they’re advertised by posters and so on. I indicated yesterday that that type of campaign for this coming summer was started in December 2013. The plan is to try to match the students as much as possible to their studies, so more of what the plan is, is to try to take the students and match them into the departments that they’re eventually hoping to study, and based only on that, not based on people hiring people that they know and so on.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

Thank you. I think that this type of policy is something that could be looked at and discussed. We do hire the summer students that come back. Summer students that are looking for full-time employment during the short time that they are out, and need to make enough money to be able to get through the next year in many cases. So when we hire students, it’s often in an attempt to give them a full-time job or seven-and-a-half or eight-hour-a-day job for the full duration of the time that they’re out of school, so the idea of splitting jobs may be something that can be discussed with some of the...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Summer Student Program is one of the programs used to provide experience to students so often they are rehired, the same summer student will be rehired in the department. So if there was a biology student that was hired by Environment and Natural Resources, there’s a good possibility that that individual would be hired after the first year, second year, third year, and we do have those stats. All of the databases in the GNWT, we track all of the students that apply and enter that into a database and all the individuals that were hired by the GNWT are also in the...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

As the Member indicated, the Harassment Free and Respectful Workplace Policy would be a good place to start. Also, I referred to some of the labour relations training that would be a requirement for managers. Once those requirements are set down for various managers in the GNWT, that will educate the managers in this area. That is another place where we can see some results for perhaps bullying and harassment together. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT across the board does have policies in the workplace against bullying, but I don’t have the information on the specific programs that are run, but there are programs that the GNWT looks at to prevent bullying in the workplace. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

Again, I don’t believe that the department does provide monetary support to the Students Against Drunk Driving or Mothers Against Drunk Driving. These organizations are funded by the general population through donations, but I could look into the situation and see what type of other supports the department can and does provide to both Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation is developing a High Risk Drivers Program, focusing on drivers that continue to engage in dangerous behaviours despite various interventions. We are now working with a couple of programs that are intended to put on more severity on individuals that are caught; for example, for repeat offenders of impaired driving and so on. We are looking at demerits, monetary penalties and suspensions and so on, and trying to address the issue. But just developing the High Risk Drivers Program is where we’re trying to focus in on this type of issue...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

The campaign last year and all the years past to try to attract students usually attracts around 700 students, and the target is to try to hire about 300 students. Again, because the summer students are hired based on the vacancy rate that is in the various departments, the departments determine how many students they can hire with that type of budget. We think it’s fairly broad. Like I indicated, we recognize that about 700 students usually register for employment, 700-plus every year, actually, and then around 300 are hired.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no policy for early hiring of students such as in March or February. The target group for the hire of summer students are the students that are finishing the courses down south. Usually these courses end, I think, at the end of April, and so the target for the summer students would be for May, June, July and August, so kind of a four-month program that runs during those four months, and that is the target group, and I think the majority of the students come in there. I’m not aware of students starting earlier than that.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 19)

Thank you. The Department of HR can start to communicate with the departments and discuss that with the departments, if we’re attempting to try to hire as many students as possible within the money that we have in our vacancies, so we can do that. HR, through the deputies, can contact all of the deputies to see if they’re able to maximize the amount of students that are coming in, not only in Yellowknife but in the small communities and the regional centres, because I recognize that that’s been an issue in the small communities as well. So, yes, I’d be more than willing to talk to the deputy...