Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement earlier, I said that I hope by the end of four years I can go renew my driver's licence on an evening or weekend in Yellowknife. My first question to the Minister of Infrastructure is: what are the current barriers to extending the hours of the DMV? I know that nothing is simple around here, but can she just identify some of the barriers?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member's acknowledgement about the difficulty of sometimes changing a process that has been going on a while. They have tried in the past to change some hours or to privatize the office here, and it didn't work well.
Some of the issues in which they were saying was the problem was that the timing and having people working late was leading to situations of harassment and even stalking. If that was to occur, there needs to be a response team available to the office that is located there. That would then mean extending security hours and others. It would also mean to extend the hours of people who could do the special approvals or overrides and authorizations. It is not just those three people sitting at the front or one person sitting at the front; there is other staffing that would have to be amended.
There were things around even just the building maintenance that would then have to change in order to have the extension of the hours. A big one was also in dealing with the union collective agreement, which I am not the Minister for, so I won't speak to. However, there would need to be negotiations and changes to that contract in order to extend the hours. Currently, we only have two funded issuing positions and one supervisor position. Any of these issues would not allow a six-day-a-week issuing without hiring additional staff, and as we have all heard many, many times in the last little while, we have no money. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
That was quite the list of challenges to simply being open for evenings and weekends. I do believe there is a solution here, and I do believe that I can work with the Minister to find one, even if we were to close Mondays and open Saturdays. That would be the exact same amount of working hours. Perhaps that is one of the solutions.
I am going to spend the next four years trying to work through each of these issues. I would like to begin with the collective agreement. The Minister is correct that collective bargaining is the department of the board of management, of which she is a member, and it is chaired by the Minister of Finance. Ultimately, each department brings towards to form the GNWT's bargaining mandate, which then meets with the respective union.
My question for the Minister of Infrastructure: is she willing to write to the Minister of Finance that the Department of Infrastructure, in the future, would like the flexibility to extend those hours at the department of motor vehicles?
It is my understanding that it is not my place to be lobbying my colleague, the Minister, in that manner, so my answer to you would be no.
That is completely the role of a Minister in their department. There are a number of schedules in our collective agreement, specific cases for corrections and nurses. Yesterday, we had a conversation about homecare workers and allowing them to work more flexible hours so that they can serve elders outside the hours of 9:00 to 5:00.
The Minister of Finance does not know the on-the-ground operations of every department. I am not asking that the Minister of Infrastructure commit that she can do this. We can't commit anything to change in the collective bargaining agreement. That is why it is bargaining. I am asking the Minister of Infrastructure to write on behalf of her department to the Minister of Finance asking for the opportunity for more flexible hours at the department of motor vehicles to be pursued during bargaining.
The Member is correct in that there is a lot of conversation that will go on within the Cabinet and which I would very much be okay with having a discussion with my colleague about your email. I have to say I was actually quite intrigued when I received your questions and did look at this as maybe an opportunity of something we could change. However, as I learned the processes of the GNWT, I understand that there is a process that has to be followed. Yes, I want to streamline and change processes so that they are more efficient. However, at this point, with the knowledge I have, I do not want to say that I would put a formal writing request in to my colleague.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
