Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To answer the first question, the position with the Mackenzie Valley development exercise will be one of the individuals. It is already in place, because we are part way through the fiscal year. The location of the South Slave position is, I believe, Fort Simpson. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is there a set time, Mr. Speaker, for when these positions in the regions are going to be put into place?

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, we are already advertising and may have, in fact, made some offers and in fact, may even have some people on the job today. I do not know. But as quickly as we can. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is addressed to the Premier. Yesterday, during our discussion on a comprehensive human resource strategy and accountability measures to see how these strategies were working, I asked the following question, and I quote from page 156 of the unedited Hansard yesterday:

"Mr. Speaker, as part of this work and review, given the fact that the Premier has indicated to my honourable colleague, Mr. Dent, that there is no way, at present, to hold deputy ministers accountable for targets or any kind of measurable goals in the area of human resource development, will they look at this critical area of clear accountability frameworks that cut across government. The commitment that was made back in 1997, and has yet to be honoured."

Mr. Speaker, the Premier responded on page 156 of the unedited Hansard:

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not think that the Member is correct accordingly as having said that I cannot answer the question when I do not agree with the basis on which he is making the question."

Mr. Speaker, I would like to quote, for the Premier's benefit, his response to Mr. Dent, from page 153 of the unedited Hansard:

"I know we have sent some suggestions to senior management over the years and asked that more aboriginals be hired, more women be hired to senior management across the departments as a whole, however, there is no clear measurable way by which to make this government, Ministers and deputy ministers, accountable for not meeting these targets."

My question to the Premier is, given that fact that there is no way and we are paying millions of dollars to deputy ministers to take direction, will he commit, in part of his review, to look at the area of clear accountability frameworks for human resource management issues? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members had taken up a line of questioning yesterday, as the Speaker is aware, about how this government is not, in fact, meeting the expectations of the Members in the area of hiring, particularly aboriginal people, northern people and women, in the civil service. The intentions of my remarks were to say that there is, in fact, clearly demonstrated by the Member's dissatisfaction with us and the previous government, no concrete way by which we can compel the people who do the hiring, recruiting and retaining of staff to meet certain targets.

We have a policy. This government is interested in looking at ways in which we can increase a number of aboriginal people, particularly in management, the same of increasing northern people and women in the area of management and overall as a percentage in the government.

It is uncertain for us, as a government, as to how we can best proceed. There is absolutely no disagreement on this side, that we should do something about it, but it is not clear to us the best way to proceed.

I indicated to the Members clearly yesterday that if this is a priority, why I did not hear about it in clear, articulate terms in the development of the document and workshop in Fort Providence earlier this year.

If it is a priority now then we are prepared to work at it, but Cabinet had abstained from the motion because it is giving specific direction. I had said that we would work on it over the summer and try to come up with a number of options for the Members to consider in the Caucus meeting or workshop that is slated for September, and that is still the commitment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. The time for question period has elapsed. I will allow the Member to finish his supplementaries. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I asked a very specific, straightforward question that was raised yesterday. I quoted the Premier saying there is no way to hold Ministers and deputy ministers accountable. I am hoping this is not a government-wide problem in terms of who runs the ship.

But will the Premier commit in the review that he said was going to take place between now and September to look at ways to, in fact, have a clear accountability framework that cuts across departments when you are dealing with human resource management issues? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware that this is something that all Members of the Legislature and previous governments have aspired to address. In all, I would say, probably not successfully. If there was a clear accountable way for this Legislature and this Cabinet to compel our senior managers to meet our expectations, then we would see results to reflect that.

I know that in agreements with BHP Incorporated and Diavik, we do have percentages of northern and aboriginal people that we expect them to meet and it is our information that there is clearly success in the way we arranged that. We have not done that in this government and we are committed to look at ways we could do it. The Members have brought forward a motion yesterday at least on their side, that they believe a Public Service Commission, whatever form that may take, would meet all their expectations for aboriginal and northern hires. I am not so certain that that is going to resolve any of the problems that we are facing, but we are committed to working positively with the Members to meet the general intent to their motion that they brought forward.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the Premier should keep in mind he has no idea what my motives, my assumptions are about a Public Service Commission, so he should not attribute his motives or his assumptions to me or any of my colleagues.

Mr. Speaker, I get back to this very specific issue. The Premier says accountability. It is not there. We do not know how to fix it. I am asking him to commit in this House -- he said in September when we go to Inuvik, they are going to have a bunch of work done. This is a critical component. If he is telling us that the deputy ministers run on their own with no accountability, we have a problem. I am asking if he will look at it and come back in September in Inuvik and lay out a way that they, as a new accountable, open and transparent government, are going to deal with this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe we tried yesterday to share with the Members our interest and concern in this area. We would like to look at ways in which we can increase a number of northern people in the civil service and increase the number of aboriginal people and women, particularly in the senior management level. That should be clear.

We would like to work with the Members on discussing the best way of achieving that. That should be clear. We made that commitment yesterday. What has thrown us a bit is that there is now a motion that has passed that says the Members on the other side have already figured it all out, with the solution being a Public Service Commission.

We abstained from the vote because it is a direction the Members wish to convey to us. We accept it. We are still committed to the fact we should first review all of our options and be clear about what our motives are and why we are interested in addressing this issue, and to work together in September to decide on a particular course of action, so all of us, Cabinet and Ordinary Members, come together and define a course of action that is acceptable to everybody.

The motion has thrown us because it has pre-empted the suggestion we made to work together to discuss a number of options, one of which would be a Public Service Commission. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Final supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is clear that rather than answer the question, the Premier would prefer to bash the motion and direction from this side of the House. This is not an issue about affirmative action at this point, who you hire or how you hire.

This is a management issue of accountability where the Premier has said, on record, that they cannot hold deputy ministers or Ministers accountable. What is he going to do about that very fundamental management issue?

As the political leaders of this government, if you are saying...

A question please, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Miltenberger?

...what are you going to do about it, Mr. Premier? You cannot hold deputy ministers accountable, as you say.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Premier Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to be clear, we share the concerns raised by Members. We have offered to do the ground work, the preparatory work to have this issue discussed fully in September, when all of us meet as Members of the Legislature. I will be going as a Member for Sahtu to work with all Members on deciding how to address this issue of ensuring our civil service is reflective of the population and the communities it serves, and the hiring and policies set out by this government are in fact reflected in the way in which hiring and recruiting and interviews and placement of employees are done.

I have shared that and said let us get together and work it out. Why do you not give us your research that convinced you so emphatically that the Public Service Commission is the answer to all the difficulties you see? That would be a good start. We will sit down with you in September and decide how the government can meet the expectations that Members of the Legislature are asking this government to be accountable for. Thank you.