Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask a few more questions to the Minister of Human Resources following up on my questions from before about policies the GNWT has with regard to harassment and bullying in the workplace. My first question to the Minister is, he spoke about training and that it sounds to me as though the training simply explains the program or policy to employees so that they can understand what they may or may not do. My belief is that we need to educate our employees. We need to let them know what bullying is so that they can recognize it and then report it so that we can change attitudes. I’d like to know from the Minister if that is something, if I have misunderstood, is the education and awareness and training aspect of it something that I misunderstood or is that something that we can do.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of for Human Resources, Mr. Glen Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my response earlier to the Member’s previous questions, I made reference to the training that is provided. In that training we’re mostly explaining the policy of the program and how it’s outlined with some reference to the types of things that are covered, which would be the harassment that the Member is talking about.
I did have an opportunity earlier today to meet with the Northwest Territories area council for PSAC, and we did talk about our Harassment Free and Respectful Workplace Policy. They did indicate that they have looked at the policy, and although it’s great to have this policy in place, they did indicate that our policy tends to be, or appears to be, more reactive than proactive. I’ve agreed to look at the policy and meet with the Department of Education, who is doing some work on anti-bullying policies in the Northwest Territories, to learn some best practices and look at what we’re providing in the Northwest Territories public service with respect to prevention and promotion. I have and I will continue to work on that, and I will be happy to bring any of our findings to the Committee on Government Operations in hopes that we can improve the programs that we have in place to create this environment of fairness, dignity and respect.
Thanks to the Minister. That’s good to hear. I have been given to understand that from an employee’s perspective, our policy really isn’t all that helpful, so I’m glad that the Minister has heard that from union people.
I’d like to know from the Minister if, at this point, if I’m in a workplace and I see that bullying is being experienced by a fellow worker, does the policy that exists allow me to report the bullying that I see that’s not being perpetrated on me but that I see somebody else doing to a third person.
Before I answer the second part of the question, I’d just like to indicate that the policy does work when it comes to reporting individuals who have experienced harassment issues. We feel the policy actually works quite well. We’ve had a number of investigations. We’ve had a lot of mediations and other resolutions as a result of this policy, so it is helping our employees. But I do feel that the Member is correct. There are some challenges with getting more information out there and helping with prevention and promotion rather than just being responsive, so we will continue to work on that.
I didn’t really hear an answer to my question whether or not I can report bullying that is not happening to me, myself, but whether I can report bullying that is happening to another party.
I would like to know from the Minister if he feels that the policy that we have guarantees anonymity to somebody who is reporting harassment or bullying.
I didn’t answer the question because I, quite frankly, forgot it halfway through my response, so I missed it.
Right now, the policy is set up so that an individual who is being harassed or has experienced harassment can report that and go through the process. It isn’t set up so that somebody who witnesses something or thinks they’ve witnessed something can report it, but we do encourage employees to speak with their manager or supervisor on all issues and any issue related to harassment in the workplace, so it isn’t specific to that. As a result, with anonymity, if an individual is bringing forward a complaint and it’s going to be investigated, because it’s between two people and often we end up in mediation, the person isn’t necessarily kept out of it if they are filing a formal complaint. They have to be part of the solution.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate anonymity. If I am reporting someone, I can’t keep my name out of it. We’ve heard a lot in the statements today and I think it’s recognized now that in order to stop bullying, we have to, as an onlooker, speak about it, we have to stop it and we have to take some action. I’d like to say to the Minister that I really hope we are seriously looking at changing the policy so that third party reporting can happen, and if that does happen, we need to guarantee anonymity. I’d like to just ask the Minister if he would agree with me that this is the change that we need to make.
The Harassment Free and Respectful Workplace Policy has steps that we go through including mediation, counselling and all those types of things. I’m not sure that what the Member is suggesting would exactly work within the policy, although I do recognize that there is some value to that. Rather than committing to putting it in the policy, I will work with committee, I will work with Members, I will with Education, Culture and Employment. I’m interested to hear what PSAC and the UNW have to say on how we can actually address this issue. It may or may not be appropriate in this policy, so I won’t commit to putting it in there, but I will agree to do some work on this issue and share my work, and work and continue to work with committee.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Yakeleya.
