R.J. Simpson

I’ll now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Testart.

I’m sorry for misspeaking; I guess it was the Premier who gave that encouragement. The numbers I quoted do include the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. The Minister was saying that the departments tell them what skills they need and they try to have some meaningful work these summer students. Does the department do any work with the other departments to help create meaningful work, to develop some sort of plan so that say, the Department of Transportation, can create a meaningful position to hire a summer student?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Human Resources. Earlier today he said that we must ensure our youth get the education experience they need to become the NWT’s next generation of leaders. My questions are on the summer student hiring. I brought this up earlier during the main estimates. I didn’t quite have all the numbers in front of me, but I have the numbers now. Hay River regional centre, our population is about 50 per cent higher than that of Fort Smith; yet Smith hires about 50 per cent more summer students, 43 in Smith compared to 29 in Hay River...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to commemorate the grand opening of the Hay River Regional Health Centre which happened this past June 11th. I have to thank the well over 100 people who showed up on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to attend the event and christen the new $59 million facility. It’s a beautiful, spacious, bright building and it bodes well for our communities’ future wellness. It’s one of the very first things you see as you drive into town and it makes a great first impression. The public administrator Mike Maher and CEO Erin Griffiths were excellent hosts and put...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the answers. Nothing further right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. it’s a little more complicated than just figuring outthan what that one number, that one big number. Are there other issues, seniority, any of these other kind of things that need to be worked out along with the final number? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to go back to the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. You said since 2005 it’s been costing about a million a year, some years a million and a half to top up the pension fund? We’re looking at already about $11 million. I understand to bring them into the single authority 15 years ago would have cost maybe a couple million. Now, I have heard estimates, $20 million, $30 million. Does the department have a plan to actually bring the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority under the single umbrella and when do they foresee that happening and...

Does committee agree?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know I’ve brought this up a couple of times, and it’s because people in town bring it up to me; they want their children to get these jobs and stay in the North and be encouraged to come back to the North. It’s something that I’ll be bringing up again and I’ll be looking forward to working with I guess the Ministers of all the departments, since they’re responsible for the hiring, to try and up those numbers in Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister’s been doing a great job of keeping us updated, weekly updates as to how many summer students have been hired, where they’ve been hired. I know that there was an article on CBC the other day that said his department does encourage other departments to hire summer students, and they try to encourage departments to exceed last year’s hiring. I was wondering with these stats and with this encouragement that they give, do they do anything with those statistics? Do they look at areas there there’s deficiencies in places like Hay River where we have a low percentage of hires? Do they...