Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow-up to my colleague from Hay River North when he was asking about if there were ways of consulting with the public with respect to ways of affecting our budget here as a government.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister made reference to his roundtables he has held on revenue options and different things. I would like to suggest that one other idea for input that is not so much public input but it comes from a very reliable source, is asking our own employees of the Government of the Northwest Territories where there are ways to do things more cost-effectively and more efficiently.
You can sort of take the negative spin on that and a lot of talk has gone on in the past about the idea of whistle-blower legislation. That is kind of allowing protection for people who might want to report things going on in the workplace that are costing this government money, but I would rather take a positive and proactive approach to that and find out if there are ways of rewarding GNWT employees who know the system so well, much better than we can ever know it, and could come forward to us with ways of doing things better and rewarding them for that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raises an issue and a source of possible assistance numbering in the thousands. In fact, there have been attempts in the past to come up with ways to engage employees to look at incentives for doing that. That is again being looked at. As well, HR is also looking at whistle-blower legislation.
I agree with the Member that the intent here would be to encourage and reward people for showing initiative and coming forward with good ideas and rewarding people that do that. That is something that is being reconsidered as it has been in the past, but as well there is some reconsideration on the other side of the coin of whistle-blower legislation for those folks that come forward in other areas with information that is helpful to government that may not comply or meet the test on the side of meeting the test for advice that should be rewarded but may have different impacts. Thank you.
I can’t say categorically that I have come across this a lot, but in my time as MLA, I have been approached by people in the public service who do have ideas of different ways of doing things and didn’t really feel that their input would be welcomed, that they would be rocking the boat, if they would be potentially... I guess when we work in a group of people, sometimes people don’t want to stand out or take that kind of a step. From an inter-jurisdictional point of view, what do other provinces or territories do with their public service that allows them to participate in looking for ways to do things more efficiently? Is the Minister aware of that regime anywhere else? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t have that information with me today, but I would indicate to the Member that this government is interested, as we have all struggled with the fiscal reality we are in and the need to be efficient and effective, manage our resources at a time when there are enormous cost pressures and pressures to keep our costs down, that we are looking and interested in every opportunity and avenue that will allow us to achieve our goals, protect programs, protect services and move forward in a way that allows us to do that. We are interested in that, so we want to be able to work with employees that have those types of ideas that could be considered in a meaningful way. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How long would it take to formalize something like this? It is fine to say we are considering it, but time is of the essence here. He is always reminding us of how many days we have left in this government in days. How long would it take to formalize some mechanism for employees to become more actively involved in helping us do things better? Thank you.
It is in fact about 1,300 days that we have left in the life of this Assembly. We should be able to have some document that lays out some potential options within the next couple of months. As we go forward, either I or Minister of Human Resources will be able to probably speak about what has happened in the past and what are some of the possibilities, if we want to consider this going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Colleagues, before we go on, there are a couple of things I want to bring up. Members, we support or were given unanimous consent to go back to oral questions, not Member’s statements, with your answering and your asking of questions. I want your questions and answers straight to the point. Also, people using your cell phones in here, no more, please and thank you. Respect the House. Respect your colleagues. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
