Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, am strongly in favour of the funding staying in the department for this function.

In the little bit of interaction we’ve had with the Elders’ Justice Committee in Fort Resolution, it was positive for the whole community. They’re playing a positive role. It would be good to see the money remain there. Although I’m not sure that it’s exactly affecting that particular group, I’m sure it will be affecting other groups across the North.

The elders still talk about attending court and seeing first-hand and having a role in how justice is dealt with in a community. I think...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m kind of waiting for the right spots in the budget to come up, in order to ask some questions, but I think the questions have been fairly general, so I’ll go through my list here.

First, I’d like to talk a bit about the self-service system that’s in place with the GNWT. I feel like the self-service is an exercise of frustrating employees. I wanted to know if the department has done anything to evaluate the feasibility of going back to the simple system that was in place previous to the self-service system, or if they’ve looked at other options that are more economical...

Does the department have, as a standard, an assessment of the skills of the unemployed people in the smaller communities — or unemployed people, period, I suppose?

Mahsi. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke of the unemployment and employment picture in Tu Nedhe communities. I’d like to follow up with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

The employment section of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in Yellowknife has career development officers who work closely with Income Support officers as a part of the Income Support Program. How does the department plan to reconcile the problem as far as career development in small communities where there are no career development officers?

I don’t have much time left, so I’ll be more, I guess, to the point with this question. Human resource planning: is there an across-the-board standard the department provides to other departments — including such things as an affirmative action plan or policy inside the human resource plan, any sort of cross-cultural training that may be required for southern recruits and so on — like you said, from the time they start their career until their career is over?

That’s good. That’s, I guess, some career-pathing. I guess my question is: does Human Resources have a standard or a framework that each...

Thank you, Minister. I think the self-service system is more than just pay. I think that’s the only time I’ve heard anything positive said about it: that it’s easy and it’s timely for shift workers to get their pay. There are all kinds of other problems with the system that can’t pick up a person who works through a holiday without that person having to enter into the system and so on.

Also, within the management of the GNWT, unless you have another backup system — a pack of paper system, which is what we had already before we spent all this money on this system — you really can’t keep track of...

Can the Minister provide this Member with a plan on what happens with the Income Support program and the clients in the Income Support Program in the area of career and employment development?

What tools do the career development officers have? I know the Minister’s responding as to what they do, but what tools do they have at their disposal for dealing with industry replacing Income Support clients and jobs with industry and industry-related employers?

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke about the impact the diamond mines have in my Tu Nedhe riding. One of the positive impacts is increased employment for Tu Nedhe residents. Though there are some opportunities for the diamond mines when you look the big picture, the community is very marginal.

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that a good majority of the residents who wish to remain and work in their communities are faced with bleak employment opportunities. I know that employment activity in the communities is a function of natural market and...

Mr. Chair, I have another line. First of all, just before I close off on the human resource planning, I think it’s essential that all departments that develop human resource plans are operating with the same system. If one department has a comprehensive section in how affirmative action is applied and how they apply affirmative action, then all departments should do it. If one department has a requirement to cross-culturally train their employees who come from the south, who are hired from the south, then every department should have it. Okay? That’s enough said on human resource planning.

Some...