Caroline Wawzonek
Deputy Premier
Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of course we sort of shed our past lives a little bit as Ministers. So, you know but I can speak to the issue from the perspective as a Minister responsible for the Status of Women. And certainly I know the Member appreciates, this is an area that it involves obviously the Minister of Justice. It would involve potentially Health and Social Services as they do work with women's shelters as well as other ministries across the government.
The challenge with a proposal such as a Clare's Law, which certainly could well fall within my responsibility to promote...
Mr. Speaker, you've seen nothing yet in my capacity to speak. Now I get to talk about arts.
Mr. Speaker, with respect to art sales and art sales tracking, so at the moment I can say art sales aren't tracked by the NWT Arts Program in terms of the dollar value per sales or number of sales had. Again, you know, again, this is one where there's a number of individual artists across the Northwest Territories, some in collectives, some selling on their own, some selling, I know, under various social media channel.
And this is not an opportunity, this is not an area where the government is able to...
Mr. Speaker, today's mineral resource industry in the NWT is innovative, collaborative, environmentally conscious, and has the highest standards of safety. It collaborates with the GNWT and with Indigenous communities to enhance resources for capacity building and supports Indigenous participation in, and benefits received from, the mining industry.
The resource sector directly employs over 3,000 people in the Northwest Territories and contributes over $800 million in spending each year. It accounts for nearly a third of the Northwest Territories' gross domestic product. A healthy and vibrant...
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to try to be helpful and not repeat my answers but the simple fact is I'm back to the same response I gave at the beginning, that there are wonderful public servants and good people in human resources doing their very best to make sure that their processes are fair and that they are modern and that they are in keeping with the best practices of human resources processes anywhere else in Canada or the world.
Now, when I say about accessibility, I certainly have heard from individual employees direct to me. I have certainly heard from my own constituents direct to me. And...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, this is not there is not a blanket practice as what is described by the Member. Mr. Speaker, I this is a human system of 5,000 people strong. It is populated by wonderful people who work across the public service, great people in human resources. Does that mean that every single process and every single time at every single hiring is produces the end result that every person wants it to? Well, the end result is that some people don't get jobs. What we want is to have a process that is clear, transparent, accessible, and that is the purpose of human...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in hearing the Member's statement, I have been trying to go back to just see if, in fact, something has happened. Obviously, I have not been here for a particularly long time. To my best knowledge, I don't know that there's been a recent complete overall or complete review of the process of human resources. Certainly, part of the work that's happening right now with respect to the Indigenous recruitment retention framework as a significant framework that's meant to apply to all departments and be a major part of human resources work, that that doesn't...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think I've heard what percentage of people who apply. Mr. Speaker, I can say any employees of the GNWT who apply would certainly be eligible to file an appeal. So there's a hundred percent of someone who's already an employee. Obviously not everyone would necessarily selfdisclosed as being an employee at the time that they make an appeal or make an application. Similarly, Mr. Speaker, anyone who has staffing priority under the Affirmative Action Policy also has a right of appeal. And, again, it's not necessarily obvious that everyone would selfidentify as...
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that Bill 35, Supplementary Appropriations Act (Operations Expenditures), Number 1, 20212022, be read for the third time. Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, so I think it is only Canadian North, if I'm not mistaken, that is of a size that it would be receiving funding from other jurisdictions. They have to report all of their receipts, all of their revenue sources to the Department of Finance. But, again, the funding that we are distributing to them, again, this a federally mainly a federal program. The amount that they get from the federal government is for the wage subsidy program. So it is not business relief. It is not relief to assist them in their maintaining of their operations of their fleet of, you...
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we are not driven by getting money from the federal government. It will certainly be nice to get money back from the federal government. They have a disaster relief fund. It is set up to provide supports for all provinces and territories. Our disaster assistance policy is not that different from the others for this exact purpose. But we aren't before the House right now with this, making the commitments that I've made today, in the hopes that I'll get money back. We're here because we want to make sure that we're getting this money out as quickly as we can...