Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the need for some discretionary latitude in the granting of leave to teachers who may be involved in volunteering in very worthwhile efforts on behalf of promoting healthy, engaged youth in our communities. If the government doesn’t think that these kind of volunteers make a difference in our communities, we need only point to a young man like Brendan Green, who made it all the way to the Olympics, and he did so as a result of the volunteer coaches in Hay River that started him off and got him going on his sport.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment how do we change a policy that would give the principal of a school the discretionary latitude to grant leave for a teacher to be involved in these activities. Is it a policy at this government level? Is it at the DEA level? Is there a regulation? Is there a human resources manual? How could we go about making amendments to something like that so that we can grant our school principals and our teachers more flexibility?
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I do agree with Mrs. Groenewegen that these teachers that do volunteer work are invaluable to the team and they make a difference to the students’ lives, even the athletes’ lives, so we must support them as best as we can. This is the first I’ve heard of the incident but, definitely, this is an area that we need to follow through with the DEA, and I need to work closely with my colleague, as well, in HR. We all need to work together on this on what’s best for the students and how we can have those individuals, the resource team available for these athletes. It’s based on some time off and so forth. There is also an agreement with the NWTTA and so forth, so there are different agreements that we have to work with, but I will commit to the Member that I will be working closely with HR and the DEA on this particular work.
The Minister has indicated he didn’t hear of this before, and perhaps I should have drawn this to his attention in a less public way, but I understand this has been a situation that has been ongoing for volunteers and coaches who are teachers for some time now, so I thought perhaps there would have been other incidents like this raised.
I want to reiterate that I’m not finding any fault. Teachers don’t like to complain, and this teacher is not finding any fault with the people who are his superiors. What he is saying, and what I’m saying, is that we need a more flexible policy. I’d like to ask the Minister how will he – I know he’s going to consult with the Minister of HR because it is the HR Manual that needs to be talked about here – engage school authorities at the superintendent level or at the DEA level to make sure that there is support for a change like this.
With my department, I’ve just got a note that they’ve been in touch with the superintendent to try and find the background of the situation itself, so we are trying to find a remedy towards this particular area. As you know, we want every athlete to be successful, so that’s an area that we need to tackle. This is a GNWT policy and NWT Collective Agreement policy as well. There are several areas that we need to deal with and develop guidelines towards that. Again, I need to work with HR and the DEA. They’re getting a clear message now. My department has already been in touch with the DEA, the superintendent, and working through the logistics of how we can support these teachers towards their time off.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he has previous experience with bringing about such a change or a policy of this nature. I’m just wondering what kind of a time frame we might be looking at. What’s involved in terms of the approvals and getting that new rule or regulation or policy out to the folks that are in a position to approve leave? What kind of a time frame might we be looking at to accomplish all of that?
I don’t recall encountering this kind of incident in the past. There might have been a couple before. The time frame, I need to seriously look at this. As I’ve stated, this is the first event, but I will be working with the Department of Human Resources, and also the NWTTA and within GNWT policy itself, and working with the DEA. We need to involve them, the superintendent. We’ll try and expedite this process as best as we can. Again, there are parties involved, so we need to engage with the parties. If the changes are going to be made, they need to be involved as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d just, finally, like to ask the Minister, if he does get any push back from any of the people that need to be consulted with or there are any people that don’t necessarily agree with where we are going with this and he requires any other political support from the Members of this House, if he does get push back towards this idea, will he agree to inform us so that we can be fully aware of that?
Most definitely. We need to work with all Members on this particular work, because it does impact across the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities, the DEAs, the NWTTA. If there is a push back, then I need to work with the Members.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
