Wendy Bisaro

Thanks, Madam Chair. This report had one motion, but it had a number of recommended actions. I just wanted to mention a couple of the recommended actions and some of the discussion that happened at committee in the development of this report on this bill.

First of all, there was quite a bit of interest, and I want to compliment the Department of Justice for the consultation process that they went through. They did get quite a bit of interest from stakeholders, quite a number of submissions, and they considered all of the issues that were brought forward by the stakeholders who made submissions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the mover and the seconder for bringing this motion forward. I am in support of this motion, and I just have a few brief comments.

We have a very high incidence of domestic violence in our territory, unfortunately, and that’s been pointed out already. The thing that I struggle with, that I have difficulty with is that we can’t seem to find a solution. It’s a very complicated issue, but we continue to work to try to make things better, to try to reduce the incidents of domestic violence in our territory.

One of the organizations that are doing good work and...

I would ask the Minister to look into this a little further. I think he ought to check with managers of every department and find out. There are, from what I understand, a number of people who work from home and their home is not in the NWT.

I’d like to ask the Minister, if he says that he’s looking into this and he thinks people should be working here, if we do have employees who live outside the NWT, I find it very hard to understand how that fits in with our policy of 2,000 people in the NWT in the next five years. How does it fit in that we allow this to happen?

I couldn’t quite hear the Minister at the end but I thought he said that he was going to encompass in the HR Manual all the policies, all the various policies that we have, the one for voluntary separation, the one for affected employees. I can’t remember the names, but there are two or three other ones.

Is that what the Minister said, that he is going to encompass all policies in the HR Manual, and if that’s the case, when will that be done?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to speak about how we, the GNWT, treat some of our employees. I think we generally do a good job, but certainly I and all Members, I expect, have had constituents who have not been treated well by government.

To explain, here’s an example. I use the government’s actions with staff whose job it is to be decentralized. There are two issues here. One is how we advise our employees about the decentralization of their job. It’s done respectfully, but well before the job will actually change location. Staff are notified more than a year in advance of the...

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya.

A number of other matters were raised by stakeholders. First, a community advocate asked the committee to ensure that amendments align with human rights legislation. Specifically, he sought to ensure that Aurora College students have the right to receive a copy of their tenancy agreement. Some students have been denied this request in the past, which prevented them from voting. He further recommended ensuring that landlords do not have the right to enter student premises without notice or a police warrant. The committee noted that the act exempts...

To the Minister: I have to express my surprise and my huge concern that the Minister is not aware that this stretch of road needs upgrading. It’s not an access road; this is a GNWT highway, a territorial highway. Albeit, it’s in the city of Yellowknife, but at the moment it’s a territorial highway, and if the Minister doesn’t know that it needs upgrading, it’s no surprise that we haven’t had any success.

To the Minister: he’s going to have this meeting. At this meeting is the Minister willing to commit to provide funds to get the repair work done that’s needed on this road? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on the questions asked by my colleague Mr. Bromley, and I have some questions for the Minister of Transportation with regards to the piece of road between Niven Gate and 49th near downtown.

You know, the Minister explained how difficult this problem is, how complicated it is. I have a very simple solution for the Minister. The city and the GNWT have been talking about this stretch of road for many years. So, my first comment to the Minister is that there’s a simple solution to this very complex problem: fix the road, which is what needs to be done...

I have to assume that there is no strategy; the Minister has not referenced it at all. I appreciate the work that Education, Culture and Employment has done in regards to languages, and I also, like the Minister, think Aboriginal languages and the preservation and advancement of Aboriginal languages is extremely important, and we are starting to work in that direction. But the Official Languages Act is a law, a piece of legislation, and the regulations that follow it require representation on our languages boards. It specifically asks for specific representation.

I’d like to ask the Minister...