Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow up, I have questions for the Minister of Health. My first question is: How is the GNWT planning to bring the Hay River Health Authority into the GNWT, especially in light of them creating a one health board system?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bill 44 actually provides us with the flexibility to ensure the process for bringing Hay River health and social services staff into the public service can be coordinated in a manner that addresses the needs of both the GNWT, the UNW, Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and superann.
My next question is: What assurance does the Minister have and what consultation will the Minister do with the Hay River Health Authority seeing as they’re a special entity in the process of this new act?
Bringing Hay River into the one social services authority is an important element of the system transformation. We will absolutely work closely with Hay River Health Authority, the staff representatives, the union, but we also have to include superannuation, because one of the hanging points is what if, at all, the superann is willing to allow these individuals to leave or come into the GNWT, so a lot of negotiations. The GNWT currently has a mandate to begin those negotiations with the UNW, superann and Hay River Health and Social Services Authority.
My next question is: Would the staff’s seniority benefits be protected in this merger to go into the GNWT?
Any time the GNWT has worked with other governments or other bodies to bring staff into our employ, we have always been very, very conscious of these concerns and we’ve always worked really hard with those organizations, whether it’s the federal government or whether it was the Hay River Health Authority or five years ago or almost 10 years ago when we did the initial negotiations. We do our best and we will work with their union. Their union will want to protect their employees and we want to make sure the employees get a fair transition.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A while back the Minister was in Hay River and he committed to getting a cost associated to the pensions. Has the Minister come up with any of those numbers yet? It’s been some time.
There are so many numbers that are out there and we can estimate what some of those numbers will be, but until we actually get into the negotiation with the UNW, the employers’ rep, the employer as well as superann, we’re not going to know the full costs. We have been given the mandate by the FMB, Department of Health and Social Services and Human Resources to develop a mandate and begin those negotiations which will help us determine the actual cost of this transition.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
