Thank you. Mr. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not know if the Minister has answered my question. I am asking whether, within your policy, you have something that allows for the participation in the hiring process of the local bands, hamlets, education societies or native organizations, or whatever the case may be? What is the policy? Do you have a policy with regard to participation?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

We are on staffing. Mr. Gargan.

No, I am happy with what the Minister has said, but you have already put a restriction on it, by saying that it depends on the type of position.

Thank you. Staffing. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Staffing. Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have two particular matters I wanted to deal with. One happens to be a matter under the Work-force Adjustment Program.

Now, I have heard Mr. Chairman, that there is some concern being expressed by individuals who have been involved in the Work-Force Adjustment Program. It is my view, maybe the Minister could correct me, that there is a priority lesson in which most of the individuals have been laid off, or under the Work-Force Adjustment Program given priority for rehire, is that correct? Maybe you can clarify that for me.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if I could ask the Minister, and the deputy minister, to review the situation, where that priority may not have been considered to individuals under that particular program. Maybe to address it immediately, or properly, so that we do not have a complaint, or any grievance, filed as a result of that.

There are circumstances, and I know of one case, I do not want to talk about it here, I would rather deal with it on a more private nature. I do want, generally, the department to be insistent that the particular arrangement, or that program, that you embarked upon with the Union of Northern Workers, is adhered to, in terms of the priority, or whether, or not, jobs are available to those individuals, that have been let go, or at least laid off. I do not know if I necessarily want to use the word laid off, but that is the only words that I can think of at this time.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Staffing, total O and M of $2.757 million. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Labour relations, total O and M of $1.010 million. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Equal employment, total O and M of $974,000. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Employee benefits, total O and M of $17.797 million. Mr. Arngna'naaq.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One area that I wanted to comment on, is the employee benefits. Having been an employee of this government, I have an idea as to what employees do receive, in fact, as an employee, I made several comments regarding the benefits that I received, as an employee of the G.N.W.T. I was glad to hear the Minister commenting on the fact that there will be equalization of benefits for people who are hired from the north, because I felt as an employee, the value received by an aboriginal person, or someone who was born and raised in a certain community, was not the same value of vacation travel benefits, as those employees who were hired from the south.

I know this is an incentive to bring people up north, good qualified people to come up north. I still did not see where justice was being done for employees who were hired in the north. Especially when we talk about hiring northern people, and especially when we priorize aboriginal hire in our system.

The other area in which I got to know the collective agreement quite well, was when I made a grievance regarding the travel of employees. There is one certain clause of the agreement which says that you are not able to take, or apply for special leave, unless it has something to do with the weather. If you are unable to get back to your community due to weather, after being on vacation, if you flew in, that was fine, then you were able to receive that special day. However, if you are coming from out on the land, and coming in from vacation, and you are stuck because of weather, you are not able to get that benefit, you do not get that special day.

I went through that, I grieved it through the union, and it went all the way to the Commissioner, and then it was turned down. Areas like that, when you have things like that, that affects people hired in the north, then there is a different scale used for people who are hired from the south, and people who were hired from the north. What I wanted to see, was that there was the same kind of benefits given to different people.

That is just one area that I wanted to raise. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.