Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I made reference earlier in my Member’s statement about the psychological health and well-being of our employees or any employees, for that matter, in the Northwest Territories and the National Standard of Canada for Psychological and Safety in the Workplace that the Mental Health Commission of Canada did. I would like to ask my questions to the Minister of Human Resources.
I know the GNWT has its own program, the Employee and Family Assistance Program. What does the government pay to run the EFAP and how often is that utilized? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the contract numbers with the providers here with me today, so I’m unable to give that information to the Member. However, I know the department does track everyone who goes through EFAP and I can get that number for the Member.
I do appreciate that. I think it will give us an indication of how well we as a government are doing for employees out in the workforce.
I mentioned that on November 25, 2014, the Mental Health Commission of Canada released the implementation guide for psychological health and safety workplace standards. This is the first time something like this has ever been done.
Is the Minister familiar with that program or that the release had happened last November and whether his department is looking into that type of implementation program as something we can build on here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am not familiar with the national standard of Canada for psychological health and safety in the workplace. However, the Department of Human Resources I’m sure is up to speed on all of those types of reports or standards that have been released. Again, I can ask the department to bring me up to speed and, if need be, bring the Members up to speed as well. Thank you.
If the Department of Human Resources isn’t up to speed or not familiar with the national standard that’s being adopted right across Canada, in fact since it was released in November, there’s more than 21,000 copies that have been downloaded from the website.
Will the Minister direct his staff to take a look at this implementation standard and see whether or not it is something GNWT can adopt for themselves for employees who do the hard work in our government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It’s quite possible that the department is up to speed on that report. Myself, I’m not. If we are not and if the Department of Human Resources is not familiar with the report, I will ensure the deputy is able to transmit that to the department so members who are working with the public service are well aware of this standard. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to reiterate that the implementation guide is available at no cost, so it would be no cost to government to take a look at that.
The last one is the Canadian Standards Association does a one-day workshop in partnership with the Mental Health Commission of Canada with regard to this implementation guide.
Would the Minister possibly look into having his staff take that one-day training and see how much of an impact it does have and whether or not we can develop a training type of program under these national standards? Would he ask his staff to look into that one-day training workshop? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know that the department is up to speed on occupational health and safety of the employees of the public service. If this is something that can be done and something that employees in Human Resources will benefit from, thus benefitting all public servants in the GNWT, then I will speak to the senior management to get their feeling on whether or not they feel it would be beneficial to the staff there to take this course. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
