Thank you. The Aboriginal Advisory Committee and the Employability Committee, have they had a chance to develop or, I should say, seek out responses from employees to ensure that the employer, which is obviously the Government of the Northwest Territories, is certainly meeting the needs of a diverse and sensitive culture that we’re trying to build in our government? Thank you.
Thank you. The Aboriginal Advisory Committee has representation from each of the regions and has been very beneficial to identify the challenges that we’ve been facing in hiring more Aboriginal people. One of the areas that was identified as a concern was hiring Aboriginal people in senior management, so we’ve identified three associate director positions that have been filled with Aboriginal people and we will be continuing in those areas.
As we go forward, recognizing that this is a problem that has been there for the longstanding and it will take awhile to turn things around, but we’re working very hard to increase the representation of Aboriginal people in the public service. Thank you.
It comes as no surprise of the Minister that I worry constantly about ensuring that there are fair opportunities for everyone in this regard, both Aboriginal and the disabilities community, and I’ve raised my concerns ensuring that the disabilities community certainly gets a good foothold.
With our government having, I believe, about a 0.5 percent representation, what type of awareness campaign, be it both seeking out further Aboriginal candidates for senior management positions or in the same type of gain for people with disabilities to ensure or reach out and show that this government wants to hire people who can bring something to the table to be part of our government and be productive members that we appreciate and respect? What types of things does this government work on? Thank you.
Thank you. Our government is undertaking a number of initiatives. First of all, we’ve hired an Aboriginal recruitment and retention specialist, as well as a diversity officer and a duty to accommodate officer within the Department of Human Resources. So those specialized positions will go a long ways to improving our hiring and promoting diversity.
As well, through the committee, we’ve looked around the country to see which jurisdictions had best practices, we’ve brought in people from the Yukon to give us some indication of what they undertook to have one of the best programs in the country. We recognize there is a tremendous need for sensitivity training for all of the departments, because the departments will be the ones that will be doing the hiring because we’ve delegated staffing authority to all of our departments. So we have to develop the culture and the environment so that the departments working with HR will hire people in these different areas. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I mentioned about a reflective public service, I certainly wouldn’t want to say that I didn’t think Gender Equity Policy and issues need to be representative in that particular vein. So it was remiss to mention it at the time.
Mr. Speaker, my last question is that I’m very well aware that the Department of Human Resources does an exit strategy and I know, from a bit of research, there was approximately 50 of them done in the last year. I’m just curious as to what are some of the fundamentals learned by the exit strategy and what is the government doing to encourage that people aren’t leaving for the wrong reasons where they’re not feeling culturally appreciated. Are there gender issues, are there maybe disability biases or whatnot? I want to make sure that we’re learning something and we’re doing something about it. Thank you.
Thank you. The Member is correct; we do do exit interviews, but it’s on a voluntary basis. So this past year 51 people that were leaving the public service undertook exit interviews and one of the questions that was posed to them, and we gave them three choices as to why they left the public service, and when we asked them if they were leaving because of our promoting diversity and inclusiveness, 68 percent said that they were dealt with fairly and inclusively. So that wasn’t the reason that they were leaving. With regard to gender, I think we still have a long ways to go, but 65 percent of our public service are women. In senior management, 40 percent are female. Things have improved significantly.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to the gallery and to the presence of a former Member of the House, a former Member for North Slave or Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty is in the House.
The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll make this question brief. I’ve raised in this House before issues about the road, the highway that’s operated by the GNWT Department of Transportation that runs south of Hay River to Enterprise, in the Minister’s riding. For the record, could the Minister please update us on what his department has done about the erosion taking place beside the highway so that people in Hay River and Enterprise who travel that highway and others don’t need to worry about falling over the cliff into the abyss?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did take note of the concerns raised by the Member regarding the erosion that’s taken place on Highway No. 2. We have put in some money in our budget to deal with the situation and we will be doing work on it this coming summer.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he could describe what the nature of that work would be.
No, I’m not an engineer so I couldn’t really tell the exact type of work that will be done. With discussion with my staff, they’ve indicated that we’d deal with the safety issue and we’d try to curb the erosion that’s happening there. As to what exactly is being planned, I’d have to commit to getting back with the details to the Member.
I would assume that little portion of the highway there would be rerouted or moved so that it’s not so close to the edge of the riverbank. When does the Minister anticipate... I mean, this is February, it’s almost spring. When would the tender be going out for this repair?
I don’t believe we’re planning to realign the highway at this point right now. My understanding, and I’d have to confirm that, is we’d be looking at types of guardrails and maybe some riprap or things of that nature that would curb the erosion and try to deal with the safety issue that’s happening there.
This has been an issue that’s been ongoing for quite a few years. My staff have informed me I think as far back as 20 years ago there was a concern in that area that there was erosion. It’s continuing to be a bigger concern, but right now to try to deal with it and prevent it from causing any harm to the travelling public would be our first and foremost concern. I can find the actual type of work and the time frame that it’s going to be done in. That it’s proposed for this coming summer is all I know at this point.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s unfortunate because I did think it was going to be a road realignment. That’s the word I was missing was “realignment.” Because there already is a guardrail there, actually. Here’s the edge of the road and here’s the drop-off to the riverbank. I mean, it’s impossible. What would you set any kind of... How could you shore that up? It’s like a sheer drop down of a hundred feet. I don’t know how you could possibly shore something like that up. I will ask the Minister if he will provide me with the details as soon as he has them on what the solution to this what I consider dangerous situation is and a tremendous liability to this government.
The Member has reinforced the fact that she’s very concerned about this erosion that’s happening on Highway No. 2. We’ve had our staff look at it. We’ve been monitoring the situation for quite a few years. We have other situations where there are sheer drop-offs. We have guardrails. We have guardrails on our bridges. At this point we want to ensure that it’s flagged. We will start looking at whether realignment is warranted.
I have not been informed by any of the experts that have looked at it that it’s needed right at this point, at this time, but it’s something that we will consider. We will provide the details of what we’re doing to remedy the situation to the Member and we can further discuss issues that she’s bringing forward.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Justice what the average cost is of housing an inmate at the North Slave Correctional Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am trying to find accurate information. I don’t have it at my fingertips right now but I will get back to the Member on that, the actual number that we have to date.
Some time ago I understood the number to be around $90,000 per inmate per year. I’m not too sure how much that has changed. The reason I ask this is I want to ask the Minister about the number of inmates at the North Slave Correctional Centre, the population there.
As I stated, those are the detailed information that I need to get back to the Member on. I don’t have the information with me right now, but I am making a commitment to get back to the Member on those numbers that have been requested.
I want to ask the Minister about the programs that they offer at the North Slave Correctional Centre or any other correctional facility in the Northwest Territories. It seems like we’re having people enter back into the system. Once they come out, they come back to it again. It’s been said in the House here that we seem to be recycling some of the inmates and it seems like we’re not giving enough resources to rehabilitate them properly so that when they get out, they stay out. I want to ask the Minister of the type of dollars that are committed to programs to help the inmates while they’re in the centres.
We do provide, as I stated earlier in the House, the programs that are available to the inmates. The dollar figure depends on the institution that we have across the Northwest Territories. The most important thing is to have rehabilitation programming and to reintegrate the individuals back into the community. I think the important part is the Aftercare Program. We can do what we can within the system, within the institution, but once they leave, there’s another venue they need to access and that’s the Aftercare Program. As I stated, I work closely with the Minister of Health and Social Services on delivering those programs.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister look at future planning to implement strong bush camps in the Northwest Territories rather than continuing pouring dollars into a concrete facility that just seems to recycle our people over and over again and nothing is changing? Would the Minister look at implementing some strong bush camps that would possibly help the justice system?
We are very proud of the programs that we have with respect to the on-the-land programs that the Member is referring to. One of the programs is also in the Sahtu region and it has been very, very successful. We want to continue with that. Not only that but within corrections across the Northwest Territories we do have those programs. I agree that we need to strengthen that. We need to build on it. That’s one of our goals, is to rehabilitate those individuals. Obviously, we don’t want to see them back in the system, but it’s out of our control. That’s our goal as the Department of Justice and I will commit to working on that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I want to ask the Minister about his statement that he’s very proud of the Sahtu. In the last four years the funding level has not changed once in the Sahtu for the on-the-land program in the Sahtu. It’s been in the...(inaudible)... Costs have increased with the program. Will he look at putting this into a permanent program with the inflation costs of running the program? Because right now it’s something that is desperately needed in our region. Would the Minister look at that?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that we are closely looking at. We are currently in the final stages of having a review done on the community justice programming. This will fit well with what the Member is referring to. Definitely this is an area that we have been pushing and we will continue to do that. We feel that this is an important piece of work, that rehabilitation and reintegrating those individuals back to the community will be a success due to these programs that are being offered.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the orders of the day, please.
---Unanimous consent granted
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Leon Lafferty as a former MLA and also from Behchoko. Also the two most important people in my life: Maurice and Dora Marie Lafferty, my mom and dad.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. If we missed anyone in the gallery, welcome to the Chamber.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Can the Minister list all the post-secondary educational institutions that enable our northern students to do their practicum in the North?
Also, can the Minister provide a work plan and implementation schedule that would show how the Grande Prairie College and our Education department help our northern students begin their work experience placement in the North?
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Law Foundation 28th Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2010.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty.
