Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment Programs, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I did raise the question already with them and I have to apologize to the honourable Member but I haven't received a report back yet on that matter. But, I did raise it with the staff.

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for High Arctic, Mr. Pudluk.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. On Tuesday, March 1, 1994, I made a statement on the difficulties with construction in the High Arctic with the access program. I think the Housing Corporation could be more sensitive in dealing with the people involved in the home ownership program and recognize the difficulties they have been through, especially in the wintertime. Could the Housing Corporation be more sensitive to people? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Project managers, project officers or inspectors who inspect these access units, their job is to assist the clients to get their access unit completed. They should be sensitive to clients' problems. They should try to assist clients to finish their units on time. That is their job. If employees of the Housing Corporation are not doing their job properly, then I'll address that. But also, we must remember that we cannot stretch out the building of these units to take years and years so that people are still using public housing and holding up other people from moving into that public housing. The job of the Housing Corporation is to assist clients. If I can get some specific cases from the Member, then I could address that issue. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for Aivilik, Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My question is to the Premier. My colleague from High Arctic raised this issue last week, stating that there is lack of supervision or reliability on the part of some of the government employees, especially in the small communities. What is the role of the government

liaison officer in the small communities to ensure that other departments, like the Public Works, Renewable Resources or Economic Development, are following government instructions, guidelines or terms of reference to serve the government and the community? What is the role of the GLO, as workers representing the Executive? Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, in the deliberation of the Department of the Executive, we indicated to the Members that over the years the government liaison officers have been assigned some job functions in the communities. What we saw in evaluating the various job functions is that in some communities, many of the GLOs were performing various functions which were quite dissimilar. Some of the liaison officers were filling in for social workers and also in other areas, like renewable resource functions. As a result, we're doing a functional review of regional liaison officers to see just exactly what role they should be taking. They don't have a supervisory function, they are to mainly work with the regional office concerning what's going on in the communities.

In the Baffin, they've made arrangements to have the GLOs perform certain job functions for Renewable Resources in Hall Beach, Broughton Island and Sanikiluaq. In Fort Smith, they've seen the field service officer position in Hay River transferred to Personnel. Because these functions are varying, we're reviewing them to see which ones we should retain and what the job descriptions should be. We are still doing a functional analysis of those particular positions.

In Tuktoyaktuk, there was a full-time liaison officer which now has been split because the work load just wasn't there yet. The review will soon be complete and we'll have a better indication on how we can make better working relations and more clearly defined job descriptions for those positions that are left, whether they're half-time or full-time.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have a lot of questions. Is the government planning to give better terms of reference, not necessarily of a supervisory capacity but of a coordinating role to ensure that the government's budget expectations or terms of reference of other department employees are fully expedited?

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, these generic job descriptions that I'm speaking of have been developed for government liaison officers. What we've tried to do is design their job descriptions to fill the needs of the common duties of the GLOs. We are looking at the demands and priorities in each community and region to fit into the job descriptions. I know that because of the evolving responsibilities of community councils, other work that has been taken on to fit requirements of the community, that a lot of the terms of employment were redundant or not really up to date. So, we are trying to tailor the job description to what the priorities are at the community level.

Certainly, I think the question is, that once they are put in place and people fully understand what their job is, would we making sure that we're monitoring so the person really is doing the job? Madam Speaker, that is part of the process of reviewing what people are doing in the outer fields of the Northwest Territories. We will actively implement the follow-up process. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Arvaluk.

My last supplementary, Madam Speaker. Before that is done, what can the GLO do if personnel of various departments who have no supervision are not carrying out their functions as government employees?

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, at this time, the government liaison officers do not have a supervisory role over other job functions in the community, such as the social worker or Department of Renewable Resources' worker. They do not have a coordinating role or supervisory function. If the worker is gone, from time to time they are asked to assist because a number of our GLOs are ex-social service workers. From time to time they are asked to help out, but they don't have a management function or supervisory responsibilities. They merely report in and do the best they can. That is one of the reasons many of the full-time positions have been made to half time positions. Thank you.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I appreciate that. I should rephrase my question. What can the community do then, if a civil servant in some capacity is not fully carrying out their function?

Thank you. Madam Premier.

I would like a clarification on the question, Madam Speaker. I'm not sure whether the Member is asking me what would a community resident do if they felt that the government liaison officer was not performing a function, or was he referring to all other government personnel in the community? Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Arvaluk, can I request that you repeat your question, please.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will try to make it very clear here. If, for example, a social service worker does not arrive in the office when she/he is supposed to or when a work order from the regional office of the Department of Public Works arrives in a community and isn't carried out for a couple of years, a certain amount of frustration builds up in a community. The hamlet has a foreman and if a hamlet employee is told he is not performing...