Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about a program put on by the Northern Construction Association. It’s called Certificate of Recognition, also known as COR. Mr. Speaker, it’s a very successful program across Canada and it’s about safety management. It’s also implemented by all if not most provinces, which also includes the Yukon Territory, where they work on this accreditation on public service and construction projects. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, is his department today looking into this accreditation program and are they considering this as a certain standard level on all government service contracts as well as construction contracts going forward someday? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, the answer is yes, we are considering it at this point.
As I mentioned, the Yukon Territory is able to use this standard called COR throughout their Territory as well as their small communities quite extensively. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister had any engagement with the Yukon Territory to see if it is possible to use some of their phase-in model that they used over there where they had only significantly high contracts the first year and then they kept lowering them down until we could expand the program throughout the system in a fair and reasonable way, recognizing that they’re small contractors, small service providers, as well as large ones? Has the Minister used the opportunity to engage the Yukon on their process? Thank you.
We are quite familiar with what the Yukon has done in this area and the staged-in approach that they had utilized. We’ve had discussions. So the answer is yes.
Could this be described as an initiative that the Department of Public Works does support and do they see it as something they’ll be implementing in a timely way and what would that mean? Thank you.
Other jurisdictions have engaged in the process. Right now there’s only, I think, five companies that are considered to be certified. We are looking at the consequences of what it would mean to all the different departments involved and communities and their different contractors and different sizes of contractors. So it’s something being considered right now and we’ll be looking at it very seriously. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You don’t get to hear this often as a Yellowknife MLA. Would the Minister of Public Works be willing to meet with me and some constituents who want this issue to be seriously considered by the Department of Public Works, because there are a lot more than five construction businesses that actually use this and certainly there are businesses in Fort Smith, Norman Wells, I believe Inuvik, as well as Yellowknife that use this? So it’s a territorial program I’d see in the long-term, but the question really is, Mr. Speaker, is the Minister willing to entertain a meeting with some of these northern construction folks to see how they could help move forward on this initiative? Thank you.
We are already engaged with the Construction Association on this issue. I don’t see the relevancy of having the Member attend. I’m sure they would invite him if they thought he should be there. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
