The Premier’s Award for Excellence was created to recognize GNWT employees who have distinguished themselves through work-related achievements and contributions.

Today, I honour the following employees and teams for their accomplishments.

Bob Bailey is an assistant deputy minister with the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. Since his time with RWED, he has shown a strong commitment to its overall goals and initiatives. This has included developing new important legislation. Bob’s strong belief and support of teamwork in the department has also been a key factor in the department’s success.

Bill Hval is the airport manager at the Fort Smith Airport. His dedication to providing quality service to both clients and carriers is very apparent. Bill has been recognized in particular for his strong commitment and initiative in working with the community of Fort Smith in developing a fire abatement project that has practical benefits for the community.

Doug Doan is an assistant deputy minister with the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. Doug has shown a strong commitment to the department’s overall goals and initiatives and has played an important role in ensuring the department work together to meet its objectives. These initiatives undertaken by RWED are often quite complex and require a great deal of commitment. Doug has shown that he is committed to helping provide quality programs that meet the department’s mandate to promote sustainable development.

Bill Pogson is the acting director of corrections services. Bill has played a key role in assisting managers of the various correctional facilities to develop effective programs and staffing levels. He provided the leadership with new outreach programs at two young offender facilities that provide core programming for youth in the community who were considered at risk for incarceration, lead the conversion of a facility from youth to adult offenders and lead much of the successful establishment of the new North Slave correctional facilities.

The occupational certification team has been key in creating new occupational standards for the Northwest Territories. This team includes Colleen Proctor and Angela Littlefair from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and David Earle from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. This team invested a significant amount of time in gathering information regarding current standards for specific occupations and in developing a certification process. Occupational certification benefits employers, employees and the general public through the establishment and recognition of occupational standards.

The NWT teacher induction program team includes Amanda Mallon and Muriel Tolley from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. This team has developed and implemented a program that supports new teachers in their first year in the classroom. It provides an orientation, ongoing mentoring and assistance from experienced teachers. This mentoring program is now in its third year and has proven to be successful in retaining teachers. Their efforts represent the government’s commitment to quality teaching in the North.

The Stanton benchmark study team is comprised of Robert Adolph, Corinne Devitt, Marta Moir and Heather Webb from the Stanton Territorial Health Authority. This team has demonstrated significant initiative and effort in preparing the Stanton Territorial Hospital submission for the Canadian-wide benchmarking study. This study will allow Stanton to measure its services to NWT residents in areas such as patient care, efficiency, quality and utilization of services against the performance of other major health facilities across the country. This will help identify areas of strength and areas of improvement regarding the services the hospital provides to the citizens of the North.

Mr. Speaker, all teams and employees who have been chosen to receive this award were nominated because they demonstrated excellence, innovation and dedication to their work. They have provided a valuable contribution and it is my great pleasure to honour them. Please join me in congratulating them on their achievements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause