Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Human Resources. In light of the budget cuts and positions and whatnot, you have individuals who are making less than $30,000 cut through this process. For people living in communities, with $30,000 you're struggling as it is. Then to take whatever little seasonal job they have away and save $30,000, it will probably cost you $30,000 just to deal with the processing of this person.
I'd like to ask the Minister: have you looked at seasonal positions and looked at alternatives for those seasonal positions, where you’re only looking at saving $30,000, and can you reinstate it knowing that it's not going to have a major difference in regard to the reduction for the savings this government is going to have? If anything, it will probably cost you more. So have you looked at those individuals who are in the area of $30,000 and exactly what that is going to prove by way of these budget cuts?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. McLeod.
I know that seasonal workers are very important to the communities. Just to be very clear, maybe the Member could clarify what types of positions he is talking about. Is he talking about firefighters? Is he talking about highway workers?
Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about the marine equipment maintainer assistant’s position in Fort McPherson for the Abraham Francis Ferry on the Peel River. This individual has been with the organization almost 30 years. He's making $30,000 a year as his main source of income. He has a large family. Yet as a government, we're trying to say we don't need you anymore; you've been with us for 30 years, but maybe it’s time to go. Yet we think we're going to save $30,000. I think if anything we should be giving this individual a medal for hanging in there as long as he has and maybe trying to let him know we’re going to give him a pension or something before we kick him out the door. So I’d like to ask the Minister — that’s the position I'm talking about — is there any way that position can be reinstated?
As I talked about earlier, we do have the Staff Retention Program. The Department of Human Resources will work very closely with the department responsible for marine operations to work with the affected employee with the objective of retaining him and finding him a similar position somewhere in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know: as the so-called seasonal positions are being cut, are those individuals eligible for a pension from this government for services which are seasonal?
Employees that are seasonal-indeterminate obtain benefits on the same basis as any other indeterminate employee.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Mr. Speaker, the importance of marine operations, especially in my riding where we depend on two ferry services, and also the number of individuals we see having to be hired from southern Canada because we cannot find those individuals…. Has the Minister looked at the possibility of training and whatnot for these individuals? We're short of engineers; we're short of captains; we're short of people. Yet in order to fill those positions, we have to hire in some cases from overseas.
I'd like to ask the Minister: have you looked at the possibility — I know there's money in the budget for training for those particular positions — of whether that individual could be offered an opportunity to train for one of those positions?
Originally I grew up in Fort Providence, and I know that a number of people have been trained to work on marine operations. So I'm sure similar arrangements for training opportunities could be made available in the Member's constituency. I know the department has identified $100,000 that they're making available for marine training. Perhaps we can work together so that this individual could take advantage of that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
