Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are addressed to the Minister for Human Resources. I’d like to follow up on some of the conversation that has been happening in the House and during the budget and during questions and statements in the last little while. I’m going to ask him some questions about jobs.

The Minister has advised us that some 15 to 20 percent of GNWT jobs are empty at any one time. So that is as of October of 2013, it was about 571 jobs that were apparently vacant. I’ve spoken before about the difficulty that I see people are going to encounter because they can...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning has reviewed Bill 3, Surface Rights Board Act.

The Surface Rights Board Act mirrors federal legislation, pursuant to the Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement. The act provides for a Surface Rights Board to resolve disputes relating to terms and conditions of access to lands and waters, chiefly for commercial purposes. This includes disputes over compensation for access.

The act covers Gwich’in, Sahtu and Tlicho lands and waters as well as Inuvialuit lands and other lands in the NWT.

Alternatives...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning has reviewed Bill 1, Reindeer Act.

Pursuant to the Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement, Bill 1 mirrors the Government of Canada’s Northwest Territories Reindeer Regulations as provided for in the Northwest Territories Act.

This act applies to all matters respecting reindeer that were previously governed by the federal Northwest Territories Act and Northwest Territories Reindeer Regulations.

Following the clause-by-clause review, a motion was carried to report Bill 1 to the Assembly as ready for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank Mr. Yakeleya for his remarks and thank the Minister, as well, for sounding very positive. I really look forward to working with the Minister to get this done.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS every 26 minutes a Canadian suffers a sudden cardiac arrest;

AND WHEREAS more Canadians die each year from cardiac arrest than from car accidents, diabetes, breast and prostate cancers combined;

AND WHEREAS each minute that passes decreases the chance of survival from cardiac arrest by nearly 10 percent;

AND WHEREAS almost 80 percent of all cardiac arrests in Canada occur in homes and in public places;

AND WHEREAS a defibrillator can dramatically improve cardiac arrest survival rates by more than 50 percent;

AND WHEREAS automated external defibrillators can be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, I can appreciate they were filled by casuals, but were they advertised in PeopleSoft as vacancies? They should be. If it’s a casual position and not permanent, if there’s not a permanent person in there, it should be advertised.

The Minister mentioned, in one of his answers earlier, that jobs are not necessarily advertised as vacant because they can be in various stages. They could be in the advertising stage, the interview stage or offer pending stage. It seems to me that we should have all of our jobs posted and if there is a stage, it’s in a certain...

Thanks to the Minister. Four weeks seems like an inordinately long time to go from when you know that you need a body to when it is posted. I appreciate that that’s bureaucracy and my concern is bureaucracy moves awfully slowly.

It’s fairly common knowledge, I think, and I don’t think it’s something that the government really wants to admit, but I think it’s out there that there are jobs that are not posted because they’re being held back for a particular person and I’d like to ask the Minister what he knows about this practice. Certainly I feel, and I think many of the residents of the NWT...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tomorrow is the 103rd International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is annually held on March 8th to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history and across nations. It’s also known as the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

On this day we all need to spread the message of women’s empowerment to our families, friends and men in our lives. It’s a day that connects women around the world and celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. It’s a day to celebrate the women in our lives and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Madam Chair. Committee would like to consider Committee Report 2-17(5).