Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve heard a lot in the House about GNWT jobs and vacancies. But something not often spoken about that is a huge drain on our resources, both human and financial, is absenteeism.

According to the NWT 2013 Public Service Annual Report, the work absence rate for the GNWT public service was 12.3 days per employee. This is a decrease from 2012, when it was 13.2 days, and 2011, when it was 14.7 days. I guess it’s a good thing that that number is going down, but this statistic means that every NWT employee was absent from work one day every month of the year. That’s a lot of...

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I guess I would say, it would be nice if committee didn’t always have to request a document, but if a document is being publicly posted, it would be nice if the Minister advised committee that it was there so we could go and look at it.

I know that this is the beginning of these regional language plans with Aboriginal governments so it’s fairly new, but I’d like to know from the Minister, apart from these monitoring, evaluation and accountability reports or plans or whatever it’s called, a framework, how is the Minister going to assess success of the...

Maybe I got lost in the numbers there, but I don’t think I heard the Minister tell me how much of the $15 million is going to the Aboriginal governments for their regional language plans.

This is public money. It’s coming from taxpayers. It’s coming from the GNWT. So I feel that the Legislative Assembly has to be accountable for this money that is going to Aboriginal governments and that we need to be accountable for all the money that we distribute.

So, I’d like to know from the Minister, is there a system in place between the GNWT, his department and Aboriginal governments to account for both...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The office of the Auditor General of Canada released another excellent report yesterday. It’s their usual quality of work and I thank them for it. The first line of the Auditor General’s press release pretty much says it all: “The Department of Justice has not met its key responsibilities for the rehabilitation, safety and security of inmates within the correctional system.”

As the office of the Auditor General consistently does, their auditors look at NWT policies, procedures and mandates for correctional services and facilities, along with generally accepted nationally...

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister and the DM for that information. I want to reiterate that I think, from my understanding of what’s going on with education authorities at the moment, the percentage funding is not the way to go. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment that there’s not going to be a reduction in inclusive schooling funding, but I think there needs to be a serious look at changing the method that we fund in order to make sure that magnet schools and magnet communities, such as Yellowknife and Hay River, and Inuvik as well, that they get the funding needed to provide...

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to Mr. Heide for that. Can I get an estimate of time? Are we talking days or weeks or months? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We would like to consider Tabled Document 188-17(5), Department of Education.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’d like to deal with Bill 46 and, following that, Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, the Department of Education.

Thanks to the Minister. So, I’d like to know from the Minister, then, I presume monitoring and evaluation and accountability will produce a report. I think he mentioned a report at the end of his answer there. So, these reports presumably would go to the department. I’d like to know if the reports will also go to committee and to the public so that the Members and the public will know how their taxpayer money is being used. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to follow up on his statement from today about Aboriginal language programs and progress. The Minister mentioned it his statement that the GNWT invests $15 million each year to support and promote Aboriginal languages. One of those is to build the capacity of Aboriginal governments to implement their five-year regional language plans. I support that change. It is a change in the approach from the department. It’s an investment in language and it’s one that’s needed, so I...