Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask a few more questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and try to clarify what he’s describing in terms of steady increases to our minimum wage. On that process, I’m a little confused.
I think the Minister has explained that there will be a committee and that this committee will do some investigation. They will then make a recommendation to the Minister. If that is correct, he can clarify that for me and confirm that.
The other question I have is: Who will be on this committee? He said it’s a small and efficient group, but how many members and who will they be? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The recommendations will be brought to my attention to factors in setting up a minimum wage for the NWT. As you know, we increased our minimum wage in April 2010, another one in April 2011 and we’re still working on 2012. So those are just some of the areas we’re currently exploring. The people that will be part of the standing committee, I don’t have the actual list in front of me, but I can provide that to the Member once they’re established. Mahsi.
Thank you. I hear the Minister saying that this is going to be a committee. I didn’t hear how many members. I’d like to know how many people are going to be sitting on this committee. I presume it’s going to be GNWT employees and I worry about the added workload that it’s going to mean for them. I gather this committee will be a permanent committee. So all these things I’d like the Minister to clarify. How many members on the committee, is it a permanent committee and how much time does he expect this will add to their already heavy workload? Thank you.
Mahsi. This particular committee, obviously, will be established. Definitely we’ll have some staff on there because we deal with the minimum wage, cost factor and so forth. But we have to minimize the hours, the costs towards the committee.
Again, I don’t have the detailed information because this is all new. We’re just establishing the committee in the spring, within the next couple of weeks. So once I have all of the information, I will be providing it to the Members. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. I guess if the Minister is looking to be efficient and to reduce work, I really don’t understand why he’s establishing a committee. We are committed to death, I think, in this government.
I’d like to know from the Minister why we would not simply do something as simple as tying minimum wage to the cost of living and do increases to the minimum wage when our cost of living increases. Thank you.
Mahsi. Obviously, that will be taken into consideration, as well, and I want to hear from the employers, the employees and the representatives, not only my staff telling me this is good. I want to hear from the general public. So that’s why we’re establishing this committee. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess if the Minister is going to establish a committee, then that’s going to happen, but I think we could canvas our employers once, agree to tie it to the cost of living and then we’re done.
My question to the Minister now is, if this committee is established in the spring, when are we going to see our next increase to the minimum wage? It’s been two years since we’ve had one. Thank you.
Mahsi. Once the committee is established, they do their work and get their recommendations to me, I’m hoping that either the spring session or early this year I want to reintroduce that to this House. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
