Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier today. At the outset I would like to clarify, I never in my statement indicated that I was against decentralization. I am against how we are implementing the policy, and I challenge Members to read Hansard tomorrow and tell me where I said that I am against the Decentralization Policy.

My first question to the Premier is to ask the Premier what criteria are used to determine a position to be decentralized.

Thanks to the Minister for that. Good to know. Does implementation enter into this section or is it in another section, and with devolution, has there been an increase in the activity for us in this department in and around implementation?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, and I’d like to initially thank the Minister for the MACA fall update which we received a little while ago. One of the pages in the update talks about municipal access to information and protection of privacy legislation, and this is a recommendation from the Information and Privacy Commissioner which has been stated for many years running. Those recommendations from the Information and Privacy Commissioner have been supported by the standing committee again for many years running. But...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. My first question has to do with the desire to draw people into our workforce. We have had, between the two trips to Ottawa, at least one career fair. There have been career fairs, I believe, held across the NWT.

I would like to know from the Minister whether or not there has been any analysis done of the effect to the impact or the effectiveness of career fairs, whether they’ve been held outside of the NWT or whether they’ve been held inside the NWT. Have they been successful and have you done some kind of an evaluation of these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to raise the idea of a seniors advocate. As seniors represent an increasing percentage of the NWT population, the initial mandate of a seniors advocate could focus on helping seniors who are seeking or receiving health care supports and services.

This is a fairly new concept. Not quite a year ago, the Government of British Columbia announced the appointment of Isobel Mackenzie as Canada’s very first seniors advocate. As the voice of seniors in BC, Ms. Mackenzie has the broad mandate to monitor and review system-wide issues affecting the well-being of seniors...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Have we gotten better or have we gotten worse?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we look at moving positions, decentralizing positions, is there any consideration given to whether or not that position is vacant or new? Is there any consideration given to the impact on an employee who was told that their job is moving?

If I heard the Minister correctly, a position has been identified by another department and the Department of HR then assists in recruiting for the position that has been decentralized to another community. That suggests to me that these are unfilled positions that are being transferred. Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of questions. The first one has to do with direct appointments and I think there was some discussion about direct appointments earlier. My understanding is that we have changed how we are using direct appointments recently. I would like to know from the Minister if he could explain what that change is and why. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I will say okay, fine, but I look at page 227 when we are looking at the whole department and again the whole department has gone up.

So if we have gone from ‘13-14, $19.5 million to $23.7 million in ‘14-15 and $24.3 million in ‘15-16 and presumably the 71 positions have been accounted for in this budget on page 227, the loss of them, and yet the budget still goes up. This is where I am having difficulty and I suspect my colleague is as well. Thank you.