Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I talked about other jurisdictions that proactively take the right approach in disclosing salary ranges for civil servants. In the Northwest Territories it presents itself as a very significant challenge.
My question is to the Minister of Human Resources. What is the Minister doing to publish public service salaries over the range by way of example of $75,000 in the similar manner as BC or even Ontario does? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on the recommendations of the Access to Privacy Commissioner in the last Assembly, the government also made a recommendation that the government post all salary ranges for different categories of employment in the Government of the Northwest Territories. The Member and I were both on that committee, and since becoming a Minister I have directed the department to post all salary ranges for all categories of employment in the Government of the Northwest Territories on-line. They are all there.
As far as posting individuals’ salaries and individual position salaries, we are actually limited by the conditions of the Access to Information and Privacy Act. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister mentioning the last part, especially about the privacy issue. In Alberta, they recently passed through an FMB directive, which is similar to our process of the Treasury Board, that actually makes this happen that I’m talking about. Ontario, which I’ll table later today, actually publishes people over $100,000 by position, name, where the position is located, as well as their specific salary.
So what is actually stopping this particular Minister from publishing this type of information that’s being published across Canada? Thank you.
I’ve seen that information and I understand that some jurisdictions, under their particular access to information and privacy legislation, have the freedom to do that. We have our own stand-alone legislation here in the Northwest Territories which we have to comply with, and our legislation does not allow that. I am happy to sit down with committee and have some discussions around this, and if they wish for us to pursue this and look at our legislation, we’re happy to do that, but right now our legislation actually limits our ability to do exactly what some of these other jurisdictions are doing. Thank you.
There have been occasions when this particular Minister has been quoted in this House about demanding that salaries get publicized. So why would this question be less relevant when he’s a Minister now? I’d like to ask specifically as Minister what has he done, rather than asking committee to make the recommendations that you can either follow or not follow, but what has the Minister done in his capacity to bring forward the information as I’ve suggested in the manner I’ve suggested? Thank you.
I’m happy the Member brought up my past experience, my past comments. I did exactly what I’ve done already as a Minister, which is post all ranges for all GNWT positions in the Government of the Northwest Territories. I’ve said in committee, I’ve said in the House that that should be done and I’m happy to say today that is exactly what has been done.
With respect to posting individual salaries and individual position salaries, I’ve never been supportive of that, but if it’s something that committee wishes to do, I’m happy, with my colleagues, to look at that and discuss it with committee. If that is the wish of committee, we are happy to pursue that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act in 1996 from Ontario does exactly what I’m suggesting. What does the Minister have to hide from when I’ve given numerous examples as to why Ontario does this? They specifically state the institution people work on, their specific names, their specific positions over $100,000. What does the Minister have to hide from, from proceeding with this type of information on public disclosure on our website? Thank you.
Thank you. I don’t think we have anything to hide about or hide behind. Bottom line is, our legislation is specific and it talks of this particular area. We are not in a position to release that information without changing the Access to Information and Privacy Act.
Like I said, I’m happy to go to committee, have a discussion on this and if committee wishes us to change the Access to Information and Privacy Act, that is certainly something that we are willing to work with committee on. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
