Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as I'm aware, there is a program or part of the program that supports people with disabilities and kicks in extra payments for those people who have disabilities under the Income Support Program. In terms of a transition, I'm not

sure what we'd be looking for, but I'd be happy to look into the matter and get back to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that the GNWT may have some programs for someone with a disability. It's very minimal. It's about $300 a month extra on top of normal income support. But one cannot get that, as they go through the federal process first and make sure they don't qualify for the federal process. The problem is these take a long time. They could take three or four months. For someone who doesn't have work, they have no money, the government does not allow any transition amount between while you're waiting. Could the Minister revisit that issue? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not aware of any tie-in to the federal program. I'll have to look into that. The Member asked if I would look into it. The answer is yes, I will.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's commitment and I will be happy to provide him with all the information he might require. But the third thing that I have to ask the Minister is the fact that our income support is really designed for people who are not able to get work for one reason or another, but not necessarily for those with disabilities. This woman who is disabled and can't really function at 100 percent keeps getting asked to take a course on how to get a job and how to lead a productive life. That's very frustrating. Would the Minister consider getting a different program to cater to that? Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will certainly look into the issues that the Member has raised. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final short supplementary, Ms. Lee. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat. It's with regard to the GNWT's plan to phase out the affirmative action policy through their human resource consolidation. I want to ask the Minister if it is the plan of the new consolidation of the human resource function of this government. Is that an avenue to the eventual elimination of the affirmative action policy, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is not the intention to phase out the affirmative action policy of the Government of the Northwest Territories. What we have looked at are a number of the reports that were done by previous assemblies, and Members of previous assemblies and one of the recommendations in one of those reports suggests that the name be changed to employment equity and that's one of the considerations we're taking into consideration as we go about the review of the government's affirmative action policy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The employment equity I know is based on the philosophy that employers will hire a representative workforce because it makes good business sense and operational sense to do so, and that's a quote from the past Premier of this government in 2002. Another quote is from the executive director of our corporate human resource division saying that I expect it will be here for another two years and then we'll eventually phase out the affirmative action and replace it with this employment equity. So I just want to ask the Minister what measures, with the amalgamation of the human resource function, is the department going to take to ensure that the guidelines that are in the affirmative action policy are going to be incorporated into this new employment equity policy, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our intention is, as we begin this work and pull the initial portions together, to meet with Members of the Assembly and through committees and put the work forward in that way and begin the in-depth discussion that we need to do on how we come up with a program that is going to work well for us as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess as it stands now, the government spends about $7.8 million just to carry out the human resource functions in the

various departments of the GNWT. How is the amalgamation and consolidation of the new human resources functions? Is that going to be a higher cost to this government or is it going to be less or is it going to be the same or has that even been visited yet, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work that's undergoing right now we're trying to get done within the resources we have available, but we also recognize that with over 180 employees being impacted and how we redesign the Human Resource Service Centre process and go into the regional build up of those, we understand and know that there's going to be some growth in the areas as we try to make sure we can do this job accurately and get it done efficiently, as well. So there's going to be some growth when we look at some increase in regional centres for staffing, as well as the restructuring of the office space. Right now, a lot of the individuals are in place in the communities within their departments and we're going to pool those into central locations in the regions. Thank you.