Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Chair. Although I know we don’t have interpreters anymore, I just want to speak a bit in my language to the elders. [English translation not provided.]

I just wanted to stress a point of how important it is even today as more and more people speak English and communicate in English, and English is a working language for us, we still need to work in our own languages as well. We still need to have representation in the House here that represents people of all Aboriginal languages across this great territory of ours.

We know that some of the languages have almost died because...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity.

I found this to be a very difficult topic, very difficult report to understand. We have the people from the Northwest Territories, the Aboriginal people that are impacted by decisions made in this House know where the boundaries should be drawn, individual communities. The 19 seats option, there’s something that Akaitcho Territorial Government passed a motion to support and that was to leave the status quo as is. They have difficulty understanding why, with the amount of MLAs, that they would have to take and essentially eliminate one seat...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will not be supporting this motion. I think that it’s important that this type of discussion, this type of decision being made by the people in this room, like with the discussion we had today, as you can see individuals are trying to protect nations or trying to protect the people that they represent. This would take it completely out of our hands and it will go to individuals who are not elected by the people who will be going out there as a commission making a final decision on how the electoral boundaries would look in the Northwest Territories.

I thought this last...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would support this motion. I think that the instructions were not clearly laid out. I think that it was assumed by this Legislature that when you selected three individuals that those three individuals would look at language and culture as being something that was very, very important and something that was paramount in the decisions, and in developing the electoral boundaries that culture and language would be something that this commission would automatically know that was essential, was paramount in our decision. However, it was not clearly laid out in the...

Thank you. The department and myself would be glad to review that bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Likely the law is stopping us from doing it, but I can check with the Department of Human Resources and if there are no privacy laws that we are breaking to print people’s individual salaries, then I can discuss that further with the Members across. Like, probably go to the committee as opposed to just saying that I’m going to table people’s salaries here in the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

I do not believe any of the departments would be closed to that idea. I think that if there’s a good performing individual in the system that sees there’s an advancement opportunity within their department or other departments and sees there’s going to be a competitive process or a job that has become vacant and they have shown interest in it, I believe that we would facilitate people that may be interested in the position, for a direct appointment by their own request. Thank you.

Direct appointments are used often when a competitive process will not give better results than somebody that we have in the system that is eligible for direct appointment. Also, Mr. Speaker, direct appointments can be used for the advancement of an Aboriginal candidate that would be qualified that would be a front runner for a competitive process. So then we’d skip through the competitive process and go to a direct appointment for advancement purposes. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as we prepare to commemorate Remembrance Day, I am pleased to confirm the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) is designating a section of Highway No. 1, from the Alberta border to Enterprise, as the NWT Highway of Heroes. This designation will serve as a reminder of the sacrifices made by northern soldiers, police officers, firefighters, emergency medical and rescue personnel, and other first responders who have died in the line of duty.

Recognizing our northern heroes demonstrates our government’s commitment to the Assembly’s vision of Believing in People and Building...

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General will audit the tolls and I can bring that information to the House. Thank you.