Masi. It is a two-part question, but it's up to the Minister of NWT Housing Corporation to answer either both or one.
The piling is done, like I had just stated. The structural material was just shipped to the community two weeks ago, so that's in there. The remainder of the material for the facility will be sent in once the ferry is in operation. We're expecting in the first week of June or so, when the ferry is operating. We're still on schedule for the completion date of November 2016 and we're really monitoring it to make sure that it does get finished by that date.
Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my final question: is there any added costs that's going to be added to this project because of the delays? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We don't perceive any more additional costs because now we're on track. Of course, there was additional costs with the engineering work that had to be done to make sure that the piles were safe. As a Minister, my priority is to make sure that anything that we're building is done structurally sound and safe, so I have no problem paying for the engineering costs that it did take to make sure that we're ready to go.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I make this statement on the need for back-up power in the community of Kakisa. Kakisa is supplied electrical energy through Northland Utilities and the diesel generator is situated at Dory Point. Recently the community had a power outage and there was no back-up power. Impacted by that unfortunate predicament that the community was in, you know, the impacts of electrical power impacts the core of the costs of living. My question is to the Minister for Public Works. I understand that the Government of the Northwest Territories plans to develop a new Energy Plan within this year. What is the status of that work? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Public Works and Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members may be aware, the Energy Plan just expired at the end of March 2016, so we're just taking part in this process. I'm presuming that we'll begin this process within this fiscal year and hoping to be finished by the end of the fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'd like to thank the Minister for her reply. How will Regular Members on this side of the House and the public be involved in the development of the Energy Plan?
We're always willing to work within the public, and so I'm hoping that we'll utilize the MLAs as well and keep them informed and utilize them to actually reach out to their constituents and to provide support within the Energy Plan that we're looking at.
Mr. Speaker, how will the new Energy Plan reflect the needs and the realities of small communities such as Kakisa, a community that needs back-up power?
Public Works and Services is really aware of the needs of thermal communities, and so one of our priorities is really to work within those communities to try to supplement their usage of diesel. All of the small communities and the thermal communities, as well as market communities, will be considered within the Energy Plan that we're developing.
Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister comment on possible opportunities for the Northwest Territories stemming from the federal government's commitment to get remote communities off diesel, especially in terms of getting financial support for renewable energy projects? Mahsi.
The Department of Public Works and Services is always willing to negotiate with the federal government to see if there are resources that we can utilize to assist within the Northwest Territories. Specifically with Kakisa, we've had some positive work with looking at extending the transmission line from Enterprise to Kakisa and to Fort Providence. Of course that would take significant financial resources to do that. At this point we're actually trying to negotiate with the federal government to see if they would provide support for that project.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Yesterday my colleague from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh asked the Minister of Transportation a question about the second bundle of the Building Canada Plan. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please clarify if the government's approach, the federal government, will be with the second bundle as a package deal or is it broken down project by project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bundle number two was submitted to the federal government as a complete package with various projects in it for the Northwest Territories. It is a one-bundle project to the federal government. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for his answer. Yesterday we had heard they're looking at different projects. Is the federal government looking at different projects within this bundle or dealing with the whole bundle together?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our submission was on a number of projects under one bundle. Bundle number two has a number of projects; being various bridges that we talked about in the House yesterday, different road projects, Canyon Creek access road. There's various projects all within bundle number two submitted to the Building Canada Fund.
This will be my final follow-up question. When will the Minister be able to communicate this information to the smaller communities? Because I know bundle number two… Some of the access roads are part of that project. When will that information be communicated to our communities?
Yes, there are a couple of community access road applications within bundle number two, specifically in the Member's riding. When we hear back from the federal government, hopefully by the end of June, we'll be able to communicate those to the Members and figure out how we're going to move these projects forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Human Resources. I'd like to ask the Minister of Human Resources if you can give the House a status on the Regional Recruitment Program. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Human Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Regional Recruitment Program is actually being utilized throughout the Northwest Territories. I will commit to getting the House and the Member the exact numbers of uptake across the Northwest Territories. I can't say it is more successful in some regions than others. I believe we've only had one application in the Sahtu, meanwhile in South Slave we've had a number of applications. It is still being pushed; it is still something we believe will help make a significant difference in recruiting Northerners for northern work in those non-statutory positions. Unfortunately, I don't have the numbers in front of me today. I will commit to getting those to the Member as well as to the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister, although I recognize that direct appointment is a Cabinet program, I'd like to ask the Minister if he can indicate to the House in direct appointments being done by Cabinet, if there are as many direct appointments now as there were the previous six months.
Mr. Speaker, there's very strict criteria that are utilized that would determine whether a department will submit a direct appointment. We can share those criteria with the committee and let them know why we would be supporting or utilizing the direct appointment process, as some of them are for things like interns or where there's been an unsuccessful competition many different times, or when we know that a competition will likely prove unsuccessful. I will share those criteria. As far as the numbers, Mr. Speaker, I do know that there have been a couple direct appointments during the life of this government, but I couldn't tell you the exact number. I will confer with Cabinet and find out whether or not that is information I can share. I believe we can, but I would like to confer with Cabinet before I release that information to the Members.
Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the Minister could advise the House if he feels that the recruitment, or we put restrictions in recruitments such as a geographical restriction to recruitment, if that is broadly known across Cabinet. If geographical restrictions is something Cabinet could look at and down into the departments when they're doing recruitment.
Mr. Speaker, I won't talk about my personal opinion here, but I can state that we actually do have that program available to us already for non-statutory jobs. We can actually go out and advertise on a geographically limited area for specific positions. By way of example, if we had a non-statutory position in Fort Res, we could actually run a competition within 35 kilometres of the community and limit it to just that zone, so that is a tool that is actually currently available to us. Some departments have used it. It is available to all departments, where appropriate.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the same Minister if there is a strategy to address the affirmative action numbers in the government. We know that the affirmative action numbers are low; they're far below what the goal is. I'd like to know from this Minister if there's a government-wide strategy to address the issue of members of the public service not having…priority one candidates not having many numbers or high numbers as we wish to achieve in the government's goal. I'd like to know if there's a strategy in place to increase those numbers. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the government is committed to having a public service that represents the population we serve, which means we'd like to have a public service which is about 50 per cent Aboriginal. We do have the Affirmative Action Policy, which is a passive policy used during the hiring process. A number of departments have taken on some specific initiatives, like the Department of Justice with a corrections entry-level training program to train local people, targeting affirmative action candidates for jobs. As far as a broader tool that's available, other than things like the Regional Recruitment Program and direct appointments, there's a limited number of programs that are just geared specifically for Aboriginal people. We do have an Aboriginal training program for senior managers that we do utilize and we do have an Aboriginal advisory group within the departments, staff from the departments, Aboriginal staff, who are providing some guidance on how we can work to better improve our statistics. Right now, we're running at about 32 to 33 per cent Aboriginal representation compared to 50 which is our ultimate desire.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just had one follow-up that I wanted to ask the Minister of Finance. Part of the issue is that we do a lot of work behind the scenes as Regular MLAs and with the Ministers on the departmental budgets through the business plans. I agreed with the Minister, that a lot of the information that I asked about earlier had been provided to this Member and other regular MLAs, but I'm hoping that he could table the information about the multiplier for impacts into the private sector, the potential lost revenues to the government, and where the job cuts are actually going to take place. Can the Minister table that information in the House so that the public can have it as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll follow up and gather the information and I will see where we're able to table that. But I will follow-up. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following four documents entitled “NWT Main Estimates, 2016-2017;” “Fiscal Responsibility Policy”, “Planning and Accountability Framework”, “Budget Dialogue 2016: Report on What was Heard in Participants' Own Words.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
