Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to, at this time, recognize Mr. John Quirke, who is the new Clerk of the Nunavut Legislative Assembly and a resident of Iqaluit.

--Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me pleasure to

recognize Mrs. Kelly Kaylo, who is the regional manager for Canadian North Airlines. Thank you.

--Applause

Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize our trusty reporter who is always on duty, not always printing what we like but shooting straight from the hip, Mr. Jeff Colburn from News North.

--Applause

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Before we go on to Item 6, oral questions, Minister Todd made mention in his statement that there is an application related to the pay equity issue which is still before the courts. I believe that is what he said. I am not sure whether or not it would be in order for Members to be asking questions since under our rules, it is very clear that Members must not ask questions to seek an opinion on matters that are before the courts.

I have asked our law clerk to give me an opinion on that. I would like to have it before we proceed with question period. I understand Members are going to be asking and I do not want to make a mistake of going ahead with a question if it is subject to the sub judice convention.

We will take a break.

--Break

I would like to apologize, first of all, to the Members for a delay in question period. I felt very uncomfortable on whether or not we should proceed if we anticipate that there will be questions asked on pay equity. I wanted to be sure I am fair to the Members and also fair to the government who would be receiving the questions. There was a ruling made by Speaker Ballantyne in September, 1992, and I just want to say a few things on it as to what he said regarding civil cases.

The purpose of the sub judice convention is twofold: to protect the interested parties from prejudice and to maintain a separation and mutual respect between the legislative and judicial branches of government.

The rule as it applies to civil matters, particularly those pending before a quasi-judicial tribunal, in this case it is the Human Rights Commission, is less clear and hence the sub judice convention becomes more difficult to apply. Beauchesne's Parliamentary Rules and Forms, 6th edition, citation 507(1), notes "that no settled practice has been developed in relation to civil cases, as the convention has been applied in some cases but not to others." Thus, the application of this ill-defined convention, as it is applied to civil matters, is left to the relevant Speaker.

We will allow questions to be asked in this case. I will also be relying on our law clerk, if we feel that the question is out of order, the Members will be told. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance concerning the collective bargaining process. Mr. Speaker, with the current impasse in the collective bargaining with the UNW, will the Minister of Finance now remove pay equity from the negotiating table? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said many times in this House and as I alluded to in my earlier Minister's statement, we are not prepared, at this time, to remove pay equity because if we did and we signed a collective agreement knowing there were pay inequities, we would be in a position to be sued by the UNW. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister in this House, categorically state and confirm that the new job classification system as proposed and introduced by the GNWT, formulated by Hay Associates, is in actuality gender neutral and bias free? Can the Minister categorically tell us now that is the case?

Mr. Todd.

Mr. Speaker. I believe to the best of our ability it is. We have, I believe, evaluated somewhere in the region of 5,000 jobs. We have indicated on a number of occasions that there may be some slippage out there. I have asked that clearly in a letter to the UNW, what their concerns are. We will try to address them in a reasonable manner. I am confident that the Hay Associates Job Evaluation Plan is fair and bias free. There may be one or two isolated cases that require re-examination. We have offered that up on a consistent basis and I offer it up again today. We have indicated we could do that with a joint committee made up of ourselves and the UNW. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the next step on the negotiating round would be mediation. Will the GNWT be moving to the next step of mediation of the collective agreement negotiations today? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Todd.

I would have liked to have gotten an agreement from the UNW that the proposal we placed with them was one they could take to the membership. If they choose to go to mediation, I do not have a problem with that. Thank you.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the UNW has, time and time again, stated that the job information which has been evaluated is not complete, current or bias free. Has Mr. Todd the ability to table in this House any information so we can see it, so the people, the public at large, can see that the information being provided by the GNWT is current; has been fairly evaluated and, indeed, is bias free? Thank you.

There were two questions, Mr. Todd.