Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 21, 2013, then Minister of Human Resources made a statement in this House that the Government of the Northwest Territories signed a memorandum of understanding agreement with the Union of Northern Workers. The agreement outlined procedures for employees to safely disclose allegations of wrongdoings within the government, known as the Safe Disclosure of Information, and the MOU was to take effect April 1, 2013.
Some of these highlights included providing employees with access to an independent mechanism for them to confidentially report situations where the employee in good faith believes that there has been a misuse of public funds, an illegal act, gross mismanagement or a substantial and specific danger to health and safety or to the environment. Also, it talks about providing employees, who in good faith make such a report, protection from reprisal by the employer ensuring that the interim provisions are not preventing an employee from accessing or fulfilling any obligations under any existing legislation, policy, process or collective agreement provisions, which provide a mechanism to address the employee concerns. There are other provisions to this agreement that have taken place and they just went through the first year of this agreement.
Our GNWT employees are our most valuable resource and the majority of them do work on the front lines. They’ve seen firsthand the operations of government departments and also the work that goes on within these departments. We want to encourage them to let us know what’s happening, both good and otherwise, who in good faith believe a wrongdoing has occurred and can bring those allegations forward freely in a confidential and safe manner.
The agreement also states that employees should never, ever fear reprisal from their employer by doing this and I support them in doing so. That’s why we went ahead and supported this agreement when we were discussing it in the 17th Assembly.
Finally, the Minister stated in his statement that there will be a safe disclosure coordinator as well as a safe disclosure panel and that they would report annually. I look forward to reading this report, but in the meantime I will have questions later today for the Minister of Human Resources to get an update on how this project has gone this past year since its inception on April 1, 2013. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
