Caroline Wawzonek

I wouldn't want the Minister of Justice to get angry with me if I'm now interpreting the collective agreement. That was not my intention, but certainly, simply to just point out again that more than three days of leave with pay will be approved by the employer, and that approval cannot be unreasonably denied. If it's a simple reminder of what the collective agreement says, and if that's not being applied, firstly, I would ask Members to bring that to my attention if it's not being applied, and there is no harm in reminding our own staff and our own supervisors what is in the agreement, so I am...

That's not a new request, and I certainly want to begin by acknowledging my own awareness of the depth of the problem and the challenge. I've spoken to it at the Ministers' meetings that I've attended already thus far. I do know that the federal government has a strategy and they're in the midst of developing an action plan, and I expect that it would be prudent for us to at least see what progress there is made at a federal level to ensure that, if there is funding associated with whatever might be happening at that level, we can ensure that the identified departmental lead can then try to...

There is no shortage of resources put together often by the GNWT. The challenge that I acknowledge exists is that there are so many different resources put together by different agencies in different departments of the GNWT. Yes, again, I am prepared to commit that we do a better job of organizing them. I don't know what that package might look like or what the source will be, but I hear the Member's point, and, again, that is not an unreasonable request.

I understand that the Member has some concerns, perhaps arising from specific incidents. I am not sure. If that is the case, I want Members in this House to bring specific concerns to me. I have had specific concerns brought forward. We've actioned them. We take them back to the department. We run investigations. You make enquiries. Individuals who don't receive positions have appeal rights in some cases. I would encourage those who have access to such appeal rights to exercise them. Appeals are done by independent individuals, not Members of the GNWT. Indeed, very often workplace...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am very confident in the skills and abilities and dedication of the staff in the human resources department. These individuals work hard. They are working hard to be developing a representative workforce. That doesn't mean that that work happens over a day, and it doesn't mean that we have a representative workforce right now. Not to take away for a moment from the hard work that happens within that department. I do have every confidence that they are working toward that goal. That goal, however, as was already noted, has been noted more than once in this House, is...

The Department of Human Resources is constantly working to ensure that it is doing the best it can to be a representative workforce. To that end, as I've said before in this House in the last month, there are a variety of programs. They are continuously making efforts to be responsive as new ideas arise to be innovative. For instance, developing the building capacity in Indigenous governments program that is being worked on right now is one where it's helping to build capacity in communities with secondments between the GNWT and Indigenous governments.

There's a constant effort to find new and...

The Affirmative Action Policy is one that has different classifications depending on the types of jobs to which someone is applying. A P1 individual, for example, is someone who is Indigenous Aboriginal to the territory or someone who is Aboriginal and spent more than half their life in the Northwest Territories. There are also the P2 classifications. Depending, for a management position, there are 1A and 1B classifications. They are quite rigorous. They are clearly stated and, indeed, if someone meets one of those classifications and passes the requirements for a position, they are hired even...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No. Support for victims of crime directly would be either through victim services or through, perhaps, the emergency victims of crime fund, and I think I may have the fund slightly wrong. This line item is not for that purpose. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I'm not trying to be obstructive. I guess I just sign off on it, the same as I sign off on the rest of the budget that is before committee right now. I am here to defend it. I'm here to provide explanations of it, and I'm prepared to receive any comments or concerns that the Member has about the numbers that are before the committee right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

There have actually not been very many stock outages since January of 2019, though there was indeed some delay recently. I am told that the resupply did come in last Friday and that it is something that we are continuously monitoring. Staff from the Department of Finance are involved in ensuring that the supply is regular and, indeed, I believe met with one of the repliers just last week. It is certainly our hope that, as we continue that relationship, that there should be hopefully fewer challenges for those seeking to avail themselves.