Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I’d like to welcome, too, Chief Herbert Blake. It’s good to see you here. Bronwyn and Grant, it’s always good. Mayor Heyck, welcome back. It’s always good to have people in the House. Thank you for coming.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are related to the oil and gas needs assessment training. I wanted to ask Minister Ramsay – I know that he was working closely with the Department of Education and Culture and the Sahtu was going to complete a needs assessment on the Sahtu oil and gas training needs – has that needs assessment been completed?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d have to check with officials at the department and at ECE to find out the status of that work. Thank you.
I hope to hear something quickly from the Minister so that I can pursue this needs assessment in the Sahtu. Like I said, I’ve been on the Sahtu winter roads over the last couple of days, and I went to Conoco and Husky, and I went into the Wells and Tulita, and certainly there is a huge cry for training for the young people.
I want to ask the Minister, once he receives the report, could we look at the Sahtu needs assessment report and bring it to a Sahtu exploration readiness forum, conference, so we could start matching up training dollars with oil companies and the needs in the Sahtu?
Again, I fully support the Member’s push to have more training in the Sahtu. Currently, we are working with industry, we are working with ECE, and I will get that information to the Member.
Given the high interest in the oil and gas industry with all these contractors in communities, there are a lot of other programs going on, but right now the oil and gas industry is hiring a lot of people. Specialists are coming into the Sahtu to do a couple weeks of work then fly out. I’m looking at a training component base that’s strong in the Sahtu with the interests of the oil and gas being the main economic drivers this winter. We’re looking at this training program to the Sahtu needs assessment to be ready so that we can jump on the activity that’s happening now.
I want to ask the Minister, is there something that we can plan once the needs assessments have been reported, that we’d like to look at a second readiness exploration forum in the Sahtu region?
The success of the first readiness session we had in Norman Wells and the community meetings that we’ve had this past year were very successful in letting folks know what was happening in the coming year. I’ve had discussions with the Member and with the department and we certainly will try to move forward with a readiness session sometime this year, and we will also get that information on the training initiative, as well, and continue to work with folks in the Sahtu to ensure that there’s adequate training for people that want to take that training.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The oil and gas exploration is going to slow down sometime at the end of this month, so we need to jump on this opportunity as quickly as possible. When the Minister says sometime in the future, I’m hoping that between the end of March and sometime in September that we will have a training program offered to the people in the Sahtu based on the needs assessment and what’s needed now to help our people get jobs, get the training and build capacity. Can the Minister commit to having this forum prior to September?
I can’t speak to the training side because ITI is not responsible for the training initiative. Again, I will work with ECE and the department to find the information the Member is looking for. I do believe it is very important that that information comes out before ITI, with the communities in the Sahtu, puts on another readiness session there. That readiness session should happen before September, and I agree with the Member.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I have questions. I am not sure who they should be directed to because I’m talking about something that probably doesn’t really even fall under the purview of any Minister. I’m talking about the idea of how we manage our public service in the Northwest Territories.
Our territory has very many remote and far-flung regions, and as we sit here in this House today, there are people, public servants out in the communities all through our territory that are performing the functions of delivering programs and services to our constituents.
I think it would be safe to say, given the size of our public service, that at any given time there are areas of our public service, areas of different departments that are in need of review. I think that some indicators could tell us whether there were problems or not, and I’m talking about sometimes things that are slightly intangible such as morale. I think you could probably tell a lot about the efficiency of certain activities if you knew how many people working in that division or that area were off on stress leave, for example.
I’d like to know what is currently in place. What vehicle do we currently have in place for assessing this, other than the deputy minister, who would be located here in Yellowknife, having to follow up and monitor all of those activities and potential problems? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The morale of the GNWT workforce is very important to the Government of the Northwest Territories. We do surveys with the staff and usually there is quite a tremendous uptake. I know that the Department of Health did their own survey with the authorities in the past. We do surveys with GNWT staff and ask those questions about whether individuals consider their jobs to be rewarding, if they’re satisfied with their supervisor, if they’re happy with the way things are at work. If there are any areas where they have concerns, those are the types of things we try to capture in these surveys. As a result of these surveys, then we will initiate some changes to make things more positive for the employees. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, who conducts these surveys, how often are they conducted and who reviews them? That wasn’t three questions. Thank you.
The surveys are conducted through the Department of Human Resources. I don’t have the frequency here with me, but I do believe they do it fairly frequently.
---Interjection
Every two years. Thank you. My understanding is they occur every two years. The evaluation is done by the Department of Human Resources, working with the various departments. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, is there a standardized survey that goes out to every public servant in every department, and what kind of uptake do they get? Obviously, these are voluntary. Responding to this survey would be voluntary, and I would like to know what kind of uptake there is on a survey such as that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, they are voluntary. They go out to every public servant. They are done across the country and we have about 80 percent participation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to know if the Minister would be willing to table, in this House, a copy of the survey that goes out to the public servants, and also if he could tell me here today in the House who reviews these and what kinds of actions do these surveys precipitate. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we would have no problem tabling the survey in the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Last week in the House I spoke about Fort Simpson resident Ms. Sharon Allen and her starting up the chapter of MADD. It was her desire to keep our community safe by targeting drunk drivers and initiating a check stop like she did last fall.
I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, how does our department assist with individuals that privately volunteer with such a well-known organization, such as MADD, in terms of keeping our drunk driving statistics down? Of course, there has been a bit of a rise there lately. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation works with organizations like the Students Against Drunk Driving and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. We offer some financial support to the Students Against Drunk Driving and we’ve developed a High Risk Drivers Program that we do in consultation with these citizen-based organizations. We consider these organizations to be very important and attribute a lot of the downturn in impaired driving and injuries related to impaired driving to organizations such as MADD and SADD. Thank you.
I am certainly pleased to hear the department’s support for organizations such as MADD and SADD. Specifically, does he know what other types of supports they have for the individuals and organizations? Most specifically, the RCMP assisted them last year by providing them their vehicles and flashing lights. Are there any other in-kind supports that the department has?
The department would certainly like to continue to support these organizations. There has been one request for funding from the Students Against Drunk Driving from St. Pat’s High School. The department, through the Drive Alive! program, continues to work with organizations like MADD and SADD and look forward to any proposal that may come from those organizations because we consider that to be essential in assisting us to reduce impaired driving across the territory. Thank you.
Of course, we do have our own drinking and driving awareness program. Does the department also involve MADD and SADD when they initiate their annual campaign? Thank you.
Sometimes, I think, there has been some joint participation between the department and the Students Against Drunk Driving in combatting impaired driving such as check stops and so on. To date, I don’t believe there have been joint efforts with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, but the department would be willing to entertain any joint initiatives that Mothers Against Drunk Driving would like to propose to the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would ask if the department would consider, during their next campaign, to involve local chapters of MADD and SADD for drunk driving awareness. Thank you.
The department would be pleased to, like I said, look at any proposal that may come from MADD on ways that we can work together along with Students Against Drunk Driving to do check stops or other things we have been doing under the Drive Alive! program at the Department of Transportation. Thank you.
Thank you. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this session I did a statement on nursing in Tsiigehtchic. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
I would like an update on the nurse that was committed to in this Chamber last February. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated the week before last when I was asked similar questions, I have directed the department to do a review of the ISDM with respect to small communities and the types of supports we need to provide to those small communities, whether it is a nurse or some other mechanism to provide support that is appropriate to the communities. When that review is done, I would be happy to share it with the Member and committee. I am certainly looking for any input the Member may have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That was my next question. When will the department make necessary changes to their policy to allow a nurse to be placed in a community such as Tsiigehtchic? Thank you.
What we want to do is provide quality care to all the residents of the Northwest Territories. We want to make sure that our residents have access. I’m not going to presuppose the finding of the review of the ISDM, but we are looking for ways to improve the services that are provided in all of our communities. As I’ve indicated, we will be doing that review. I don’t have a timeline in front of me today, but I will get back to the Member with a bit more clarity on how long that review is going to take. I’m really interested in getting input from the Member as well as committee as we move forward with that review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Back in I believe it was 2001 we did have a nurse in Tsiigehtchic that did work very well in the community. I think all we need to do is amend those policies to what we had in 2001 and that will fix the situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. More of a suggestion, but, Mr. Abernethy.
I appreciate the comment and I look forward to doing the review, as I’ve indicated. There is way more to it than adding in a nurse, or not adding, in a community. We need to make sure the liability issues are good; we need to make sure that safety is taken into consideration; we need to make sure the community is receiving the services they need and expect, so there are a number of things to consider. It’s not just a matter of saying yes, but I will work on it with the Member and committee and get back to the Member with additional information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
