Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of the people that we had indicated would be losing their jobs in Hay River, I had indicated 12 full-time positions at the Dene K'onia and the 10 casual positions. The Minister indicated that we wouldn't count the casuals into the job losses. However, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to indicate that of the 10 casuals, at least six have worked at that facility for more than three years, four years, three years, seven, and seven. Quite a number of them have been there for a long time. This is their sole source of income. I think it is really a sad statement on the part of this government and somewhat an abuse of employees, to be able to just now dismiss them with no consequences and no security and no financial risk to this government, to just let them go. I'd like to know if the Minister considers these types of casual links of service to be just...if it's okay by policy, just to let them go. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when an individual applies to the Government of

the Northwest Territories under a casual position, they're fully aware and made aware that in fact that position is short term and there are no other ties to the GNWT once that position is deemed no longer necessary. There are no additional benefits in the sense of pension and those things. When somebody is hired on as a casual, they're aware that the casual basis is different than that of a term employee or a full-time employee. So that's the information they operate with and some individuals do choose to take the more flexible environment of casual employ. At the same time, they don't have as many deductions as a full-time GNWT employee, because there are deductions for other insurance packages that are available to employees. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure they're aware when they take casual positions of that, but I'm sure they're also compelled to take it because they probably need work and they probably have families to feed. But, Mr. Speaker, with respect to term employees then, as well, is it possible that this government would let term employees go when their term comes up, in order to backfill their positions with other affected employees who have been on a priority hire list because of job losses? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is referring to, I believe, the staff retention policy that we have as a government. When a term position comes up, it usually means that that job is no longer there for an employee or else there is a returning employee coming back to that position. We do, through staff retention, put affected employees on a list and when openings do come available, they would be slotted in, according to their work history and background, to see if in fact they could be fitted into a position that would become available to them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What recourse would an employee have if they had been in a term position for a two-year period, the term is going to be renewed but they are ineligible to apply because somebody else is on a priority hire staff retention list? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when an employee is hired on a term position, again, their employment contract would state for how long that position is available. If it's a two-year position or so on they would be available, that's the timeline of that. The staff retention portion -- and I would have to double check this -- I don't believe would apply because the job is slated to come to completion in that time frame. But I'd have to get the background on that. I'm not fully up to speed on that section. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for Mr. Roland as the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat and the workforce for the GNWT. Mr. Speaker, the affirmative action policy that our government has, I mentioned earlier, was passed in 1989, as one of its provisions the creation and operation of the Northwest Territories Affirmative Action Advisory Committee. It sounds like a pretty useful organization, considering the issues we're facing now. I wanted to ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, what is the status of this committee and what is its current mandate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the committee that the Member just spoke about hasn't been in operation for quite some time now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Okay. For quite some time, Mr. Speaker. I'm assuming now that we're going back into previous governments here and I will not hold this Minister accountable there, but I would like to ask why this government has not acted to create or engage this committee and get some creative work coming out of it. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the work we're undertaking now around human resource service centres and the work tied to that around preparing ourselves for bringing forward a paper for two Members, we feel that through that avenue, we could address how we would engage further activities or would we still feel that this is a satisfactory avenue to use. We would be addressing that through that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This committee, according to the policy, means that it can be composed of nominees from unions, native organizations and special interest groups that provide interest to the then Minister of Personnel. Now, the Minister already has a mandate to create an advisory group and I would like to know, even though there is this forthcoming process, it sounds like this committee could make a potentially valuable contribution. Would the Minister be considering whether or not he will actually engage what is already a mandate on the books for him? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I had stated earlier, with the work we are undertaking now to bring forward a document for Members to review, at that point I would take that into consideration. At the present time, I think we need to do the work we are. We understand there are problems and we're working to try to improve on that, but I'd like to bring the next piece of the work to Members from that point, then look at what we might do or not do. Thank you.