Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has various leave for volunteer activities. Some of the leave is laid out in the Collective Agreement and in the Human Resource Manual. We have civic leave, where an individual employee of the GNWT can take up to 15 days to work with public boards, community councils and committees. There is other leave, as well, for something we refer to as sporting leave for people who are athletes, officially designated coaches, managers, head officials and so on, and GNWT allows up to eight days for that type of activity. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the next question I have is I understand this leave is something you probably have to apply for, but I’m wondering if we have any agreements or any leave in place for short-term demand or quick demands on volunteers, such as firefighters in the Northwest Territories. My colleague from Inuvik talked about his firefighters and department. In Hay River we have a strong firefighters group as well.
I’m just wondering: what agreement does a firefighter have to have with the GNWT to take immediate action when there’s a fire?
Mr. Speaker, as far as the training of the firefighters goes, for that aspect of it the GNWT will provide five days of leave. If a firefighter at work is called to a fire and needs to take leave for that day when they’re fighting a house fire, I think that is something that we don’t have specifically covered in our HR Manual, but it’s something I think that the GNWT, as the manager of that employee, allows an individual to go and fight a house fire if they’re part of the volunteer group.
However, some of the other things that may be important to this questioning is that right now the GNWT is doing a comprehensive review of all of the planned leave, to try to determine the best way to move forward with this leave and also recognizing the fact that the GNWT has probably the best leave from most public services across the country. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the question about the short-term leave for firefighters has come up over the last couple of weeks when we’ve had two major fires in the community. I’m just wondering: in that review, will there be something that once you have a firefighter on staff, that basically there is no requirement; he or she can be called on demand for the firefighter services once they’ve agreed that they’re allowed to be in the GNWT and be a firefighter at the same time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, although the operational requirements are something that is a factor in granting immediate leave for an individual to fight a fire, none of the departments or any of the managers that work for the GNWT will withhold leave when some firefighters have an immediate need to leave to fight a house fire. None of that leave will be unreasonably denied, but like I indicated, there is an operational requirement as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the other volunteer groups that have come to me recently is the Canadian Rangers, obviously a great volunteer organization, as you all know.
I guess the question is: What are the leave requirements for GNWT staff that are members of the Rangers?
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, civil leave used for participation in community councils, public boards and other committees, other volunteer organizations around the community. The Rangers are used extensively for search and rescue, as well as firefighters. CASARA have their leave when an individual is out on the land, lost. In that case the Rangers would fall into that leave. When the Rangers are exercising, as I’m sure the Speaker is aware, then the leave will be granted under the civil leave. Thank you.
Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I made reference to the state of northern and Aboriginal broadcasting in the Northwest Territories by pointing out opportunities in assisting our broadcast station of CKLB. I made reference that capital funds are particularly hard to come by. The station has struggled to keep up with maintenance of its community transmitters and has been unable to implement new communication technologies. In essence, as I see it, Aboriginal media should not be a second-class citizen in today’s NWT broadcast community and it deserves better. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Training has always been a major component of the Native Communications Society’s work. It has been a springboard for many well-known careers woven into the fabric of our daily life in the Northwest Territories: William Greenland, Peter Hope, William Firth, Richard Van Camp and photographer Dorothy Chocolate are among the first to jump to mind. Therefore, I’m recommending that we build upon this strength and develop a fully funded training program for northern Aboriginal broadcasters, monitored and administered by the society.
Can the Minister tell me how he will assist in making this happen? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As this House knows, I am a true supporter of anything that contributes to the health and strength of our Aboriginal languages. NCS, the Native Communications Society, is valuable and also contributes towards this.
Again, there is no doubt that those talented individuals have worked for the society, as well, and learned from NCS over the years. We fully support that as government, for their contributions over the years.
The Member does put in a very interesting idea about how we can move forward on providing the training to these northern broadcasters. I have instructed my department to work with NCS possibly developing some sort of a training package. Not only that but identifying those students that may be pursuing this at post-secondary. It will consist of northern broadcasters, Aurora College, Aboriginal organizations to keep the language strong. Those are the individuals that I need to coordinate with.
I’m encouraged by what I’m hearing today and I’d like to thank the Minister for that. As mentioned, core funding from Heritage Canada has not changed in over 30 years, and coupled with the meagre advertising revenue and inconsistent GNWT funding, this has created a very lean operational base in which to maintain the open doors.
Can the Minister tell me how he’s going to leverage what is possible from the GNWT as own-source funding in order to meet this growing concern, and how is he going to act as a lead negotiator with CanNor opportunities?
The CanNor funding has got its own sources and they deal directly with NCS, but I can speak to the areas of meeting with the federal Minister, the former Minister and the current Minister of Canadian Heritage, on a number of occasions to lobby the federal government for additional funds on Aboriginal language in general. This work, obviously, is ongoing work that we’re doing between the two parties. This year we’ve entered into negotiations, as well, with the federal government on the Canada-NWT Languages Agreement. We are on the verge of negotiations with the federal government and it will be happening this fall.
I thought we were on a roll here, but it seems at a little bit of an impasse. Some of the things that I can introduce to the Minister are simply just indexing what we’re giving annually to this society so we can actually increase with the cost of living.
As I mentioned earlier, CKLB is a Timex watch working in a digital age. Therefore, I’m recommending that the proper funding be provided to assist northern and Aboriginal broadcasters with, specifically, capital equipment replacement costs.
Can the Minister tell me what he’ll do to support this initiative?
This is an area that we’ve been working very close with NCS, identifying the capital projects, and they’ve submitted proposals to our shop, the GNWT, through ECE, and we’ve been working very closely with Heritage Canada, as well, because they provide the capital expenditures. Those are some of the discussions that we are currently having with the federal government on behalf of NCS. At the same time, NCS, the CEO is also advocating with the federal government, as well, so at both angles we’re pushing the federal government. We’ll do what we can to push that even further.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In order for us to make sure we do not hit this wall of worry for our northern and Aboriginal broadcasters in the future, it’s imperative that we put in place the right evaluation tools to prevent this mishap from occurring again.
Assuming we can get a new funding model in place, can the Minister indicate to the House by what measures he plans to evaluate progress after this renewed funding is made available?
Since we’ve been dealing with NCS the last few years now on the reporting mechanism with the federal government, we’ve been talking about evaluating and reviewing of their proposals, as well, and the annual reports that are coming in. I completely agree, because we are a public government, and the way that the money is spent is essential to be a responsible government. This is an area that we’re primarily focusing on.
My department also recently discussed the 2014-15 contributions with NCS, which included an enhanced review of the outcome. This was done with NCS agreement, so they’ve also supported our government, as well, and we support them in return. The annual reporting requirement, which I’m very pleased to advise the Members that NCS has provided on time and in accordance with the requirements.
In closing, I’d just like to give the Members a heads-up that I would like to restate that this government supports NCS and, indeed, our community broadcasters in terms of their contribution in promoting Aboriginal languages across the NWT and I would like to thank them for the excellent job that they do on a daily basis.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the short sitting time we have here – we only have two weeks and we can only do so many Members’ statements and questions – one area that I wanted to focus on was human resources and some of the issues that have come up with human resources. I know I asked questions back in our winter session about the Regional Recruitment Strategy and how we were taking some of our employees and giving them 80 percent of their salary and 20 percent goes to training.
Can I ask the Minister of Human Resources what the progress is on that? Last I heard, there was one person that went through it when we were supposed to have numerous individuals in the program early in 2014. We’re about halfway through the year. I just want to see how many people who have gone through the Regional Recruitment Strategy are new employees or employees with advancement in their jobs.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Regional Recruitment Strategy is one where a position would be identified by a department. Of all the vacant positions that may be in the region, the department would identify a position and then determine that that position would be one that can be filled by an individual that does not have all of the skills necessary to do that function at this point but can be trained up.
We are having some difficulties finding the key positions in the department; however, we have found some. We managed to put one individual on, like the Member said. We have five more individuals where we’re developing training plans and those ones are underway, so we’re looking at that. We have four more applicants where the department is developing a job description type of thing, one in management, so we’re looking for an individual with certainly some schooling and some skills that can be brought into a management level. We’re actually looking at a nursing position, as well, with one of the health authorities, an officer position, and a clerical position as well.
That’s definitely something that’s good to hear about. It’s a lot better update than the one we received during the winter session where there was just one individual in the program. Should an employee of the GNWT or somebody looking for a job would want to get into this type of program, how is the person able to access the department rather than the department recognizing these positions and just looking at filling them.
How can an individual approach the department, their manager or even the Department of Human Resources? What steps would an employee of the GNWT need to take to get advancement in their career under the Regional Recruitment Strategy?
A good point of contact for us has been the government service officer. The government service officers who have worked in the communities that they’re responsible for put a list of individuals in the community that they feel that have achieved Grade 12, and from that list the government service officers have talked to the regional directors. It’s a standing item with the regional directors at the regional management committee meetings and they’re communicating that back to the Human Resources department. In Human Resources, we have a regional recruitment specialist, and that individual then works with the department. Once the position has been identified and potential candidates have been identified, then we work with the human resource specialist to draft job descriptions and then we move forward with the department on that. That would be the good point of contact. You can also just contact the human resources division through our employment website.
Thank you. I’d just like to ask the Minister, under this Regional Recruitment Strategy, he mentions that managers look at filling positions.
Have any of these positions resulted in direct appointments from the managers or from the department position that didn’t go out for public contest? Have any of these positions been direct appointments?
Mr. Speaker, the reason for the whole thing would be direct appointments; it’s a direct appointment process. We go through the regular direct appointment process. The individual managers, unless they’re dealing with a person that’s affected, cannot direct appoint. Individuals affected through layoff would be the only way where an individual can go through the process back to the Minister as a Human Resources direct appointment. Otherwise, all direct appointments go through Cabinet. So there have been no direct appointments through the Regional Recruitment Program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the new program, I was hoping that we’d see more of these jobs being filled by people that aren’t employed in the GNWT or ones that are already at GNWT and can advance to management positions. I understand that we’re also reviewing our Public Service Act that reflects these direct appointments. The reason I’m getting into direct appointments is because I have had concerns of our P1 residents of the Northwest Territories not getting jobs and losing most of the jobs to people that have been living in the North not very long.
I just want to ask the Minister, what is he doing to address that issue where our P1s are being overlooked for jobs when we have a program here that’s supposed to promote and enhance and train and develop our northern residents? Thank you.
Thank you. A representative public service is a priority of this government. We have asked, through my office I have talked to the deputy minister of Human Resources and advised the deputy minister of Human Resources that I wish to see all of the human resource plans from all of the departments, that she was to talk to all of the deputy ministers across the GNWT to look at the human resource plans and determine how the departments are going to raise the level of Priority 1 candidates in each of the departments. So we are doing that. We’re examining that to determine how the numbers look now so we have some department-by-department, community-by-community statistics. From there we will look at where we see the key issues being or the key areas where there are issues and we’ll be approaching those issues within the various departments across the GNWT.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made a statement on just some of the challenges that our people have in terms of meeting their challenges to heat their homes. My question is to the Minister of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Could the Minister explain how the NWT Energy Action Plan could provide immediate relief for increasing fuel prices and our dependency on fossil fuels? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member’s statement today in the House captured some of the potential in terms of hooking in some of the communities in his riding, Providence, Kakisa, to the grid. It’s just a question of where are the resources available to do that and we are working on that piece as well. Thank you.
The question that I have is the Energy Action Plan outlines the potential expansion of the southern goods from the South Slave region. I wanted to see and to know whether there has been any regard or consideration for the benefits that communities in and around that area could derive from the expansion of the grids, especially at the end of the day the consumers that have to contend with the high and increasing rate of fuel.
How would the communities benefit from such an expansion? Mahsi.
If there was one of the two options that the Member talked about in his statement, if one of those was put into effect, either the running of the grid north along the west side across the bridge up to Behchoko or running a low voltage line down as the Member suggested in his statement, both would have the benefit of taking two communities off of diesel-generated electricity and would bring the costs in line with Yellowknife and would drop the emissions. It would be a much better long-term solution for all and would get a big chunk of community needs off of fossil fuel.
In terms of the next steps for the Energy Action Plan that the government is contemplating and in development, what can we expect in terms of this series of steps that could come about within the year in terms of advancing the plan? Mahsi.
Thank you. The government will continue to invest, as we’ve laid out in our business plan, in relatively modest investments that we can afford in the different areas with renewables, with solar, with biomass, with energy efficiencies, rebate programs, those types of things. We’re also looking to successfully conclude our negotiations and discussion with the federal government on our increased borrowing limit that would give us the opportunity to sit down and talk about these economic investments, be it grid expansions in the North and South Slave, road expansion between Wrigley and Norman Wells, those type of things where we would be able to come to the table and talk to industry through a P3 type of process about how do we partner in those type of things.
So, in the short-term, it’s going to be the business we already have committed, longer term it’s going to be a successful conclusion to give us the tools to make those investments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue I want to ask questions on today is a continuation of my Member’s statement. During my Member’s statement I talked about the importance of a health care card that is secure. I’ve promoted the idea before and I’ve done a fair bit of research recently. I found it quite interesting that British Columbia actually has a photo I.D. health care card, but what’s interesting about theirs in particular is they include their driver’s licence on it as well. It simplifies one’s life.
Ontario has been doing this since 2007 and they have many and critical pieces we don’t have time to go through here today, but just highlight things such as magnetic strip, organ donor.
So, knowing that health care is so important, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, would he be interested in investigating this type of process as we proceed to our next renewal of health care cards, which is in about two to three years? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for bringing this to our attention today and also for providing me with his research. I think it’s a really good idea. I think we should do the research and I commit to having the department do research and analysis into the different types of cards that are out there like BC, and I think BC is certainly an interesting model where they’ve combined driver’s licence and health care cards. There might be cost-saving opportunities there for us. So I commit today to having the department do that review and we’ll be able to provide that information to the Members with a cost analysis on what potential costs could be...(inaudible)…in 2015. Thank you.
Thank you. That’s an awful tough answer to come back to because that was pretty much everything I wanted. So the only other thing that I would ask is it’s important, as I pointed out, that British Columbia links it to their driver’s licence.
So, just to be very clear, did the Minister, and I saw him nodding his head, but I’ll let him speak to this issue, that they work with the Department of Transportation to find out if this is something they could progress to merge towards a one-card system that makes sense?
The last thing, Mr. Speaker, is I’ve already got pretty much what I wanted, unless he takes it back, which wouldn’t be the first time. Minister Roland did that to me. A lot of small communities, you can get your driver’s licence done with a photo ID process. To me this could help blend it. That’s the point I want to make sure, is that it’s accessible throughout the territory. Thank you.
I think these questions are timely given that we don’t have a renewal again until 2016. So that gives a bit of time to do the analysis that the Member has asked for, including models like BC which may be reasonable. I will certainly work with the Minister of Transportation to see if there are any opportunities for us to expand and have a joint card. I won’t take it back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
