Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I indicated in my Member’s statement we had an inconsistent application of our human resource five-day special leave provision for our civil air search and rescue and firefighter GNWT volunteers. More specifically, most of the required southern training for these volunteers occurs on weekends. So when these GNWT volunteers want to access special leave days for travel on a Friday and return on a Monday, they are denied by their supervisor. Currently, Mr. Speaker, that travel is not explicitly included in the five-day special leave, and it is within this context I wish to address the Minister of Human Resources.
Can the Minister indicate to the House why his department would not consider allowing travel to attend required training courses as part of the five-day special leave provision within our Human Resources Policy? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The special leave provision is part of the negotiations between the union and the Government of the Northwest Territories. If the leave, as laid out in the Human Resource Manual for firefighters and the CASARA people is a special leave, as the Member indicated, they would be following what is negotiated within the policy within the special leave requirements. Thank you.
The GNWT Human Resource Manual also has a list of various boards where GNWT employees, if appointed or elected, may access special leave for travel to attend meetings as part of their duties. Sadly, CASARA NWT board members are not on such a list.
Can the Minister indicate why CASARA NWT board members are not included and would the Minister consider such an addition? Thank you.
As I indicated, it’s something that is negotiated. If the individuals, the members of the public service that are with firefighters and CASARA wish to be on that list, then that’s something that we would look at in discussions with the union the next time our negotiation mandates are developed. Thank you.
Upon further analysis, it was evident that even the GNWT volunteer firefighters face similar hurdles when accessing special leave days to maintain their professional qualifications. This begs me to ask: how many other volunteer groups out there who contribute to the safety and security of our residents are affected with this inconsistent policy?
Can the Minister indicate to the House how he and his department will address this shortcoming? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am currently looking into a specific request from the Inuvik group, with the idea of coming up with a solution that is satisfactory to this group and also the firefighters, as they are captured within the same section. So this is what we’re doing.
It sounds to me, just on the value of what we’re talking about right here, that it is important individuals playing an important role and that the Government of the Northwest Territories should do all they can to try to support both of these groups. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I finally want to go into a last question here, and I’m a bit perplexed. We’ve heard from the Minister today that he might look into this and that the policy might be reviewed in the next negotiation. We’re asking here today that the policy be looked at for its integrity. I believe we need to go a bit further in addressing our GNWT volunteer base who specialize in our safety and security.
Will the Minister commit to a proper review of all human resource policies applicable to these volunteers, to ensure that we are maximizing the strength of these volunteers as a valuable NWT resource? Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we can look in the Human Resource Manual to review all of the provisions for individuals such as these two groups and other important volunteers that do work for the people of the Territories. Thank you.
