Madam Speaker, Return to Written Question 13-12(6), asked by Mr. Pudluk to the chairman of the Financial Management Board concerning Government of the Northwest Territories policy on recovery of monies owed.

The government's practice with respect to recoveries from employees is based on policies and terms of the collective agreements with our unions. The Union of Northern Workers' contract stipulates that we can only recover 20 per cent of an employee's net pay for any overpayment of monies. The Northwest Territories Teachers' Association contract stipulates a 10 per cent of gross recovery factor. The exception to this rule is recovery of salary paid for any period of time the employee was away without approved leave (AWOL) from the worksite. Recovery of rent is not covered in either collective agreement, therefore, when rent is owing it is our practice to work out an amount of recovery that will ensure that the employee is not left with a zero net pay.

When there are numerous recoveries being made from an employee's pay it is still our practice to try to ensure the employee receives some money each payday. However, if we receive notice of a period of AWOL it is recovered at 100 per cent and could result in a zero paycheque.