Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Minister and his deputy minister-designate, for coming out here and giving us the first presentation of the Department of Human Resources, which is great to see that it's coming to some fruition after a lot of moving about, I guess, in the government and lots of issues being dealt with and with the other hiring practices that each department was going through. Just a lot of the issues that I was going to raise on the opening remarks have already been covered by a lot of the other Members already, so I won't repeat many of them.

Just in the opening statement from the Minister, I wanted to know, you know, the lack of control and inconsistent hiring practices that were severely off track with government policies of the day was one of the main reasons why amalgamation of human resources was being reconsidered again. To put it under one roof and make it more consistent, more fair, and unbiased, and to have a greater degree of control over what the government is doing in the human resources management area.

I just wanted to touch base on some of the things that weren't mentioned in the opening remarks with regards to the affirmative action policy that my friend Ms. Lee was just talking about, and the employment equity policy that the government was talking about as a replacement to the affirmative action policy. This is another one of the main reasons why they amalgamated human resources again, was because of the growing number of concerns about some biased hiring practices and unfair treatment of employees and whatnot. I think if the employment equity policy is going to come as a replacement to the affirmative action policy, I would still like to see some kind of internal advisory committee established within the Human Resources department with some objective. Independent people on this committee that can oversee and maybe provide some more control and direction into how the government plans on developing a public service that is actually representative of the population that it serves.

I would like to also see that a lot of the regional positions that are being kind of gravitating into Yellowknife and headquarters positions because of the lack of resources, I guess is what the main reason is being, but I would like to see more people that can, that actually work for the government in the regions have better access to a human resource representative in their region or community than speaking to someone over the phone about a human resource issue in the community which that person might not be aware of or not too familiar with the dynamics of the whole community and social system that it runs by. I think that people out in the regions will have a better, more of a personal contact with those issues because every community, like I say, you know, I'm sure that the Minister is aware that the differences and diversifications of the communities in the NWT is quite diverse and the gaps are pretty wide in some instances. Human Resources has to really fine tune to address a lot of those concerns that are coming out at all, in all areas of the human resource spectrum, I guess.

Again, just to get back to some of the things that the Minister pointed out in here. It's good to see that a lot of approaches and support mechanisms are going to be in place, especially for the disabled and the compensation and benefits issues and appeals and grievances that are going to be brought forward to the Human Resources. But I'm really looking forward to seeing this department really making some concrete, tangible differences in the public service itself. I really look forward to providing my support to the whole department and making sure that, you know, everybody is treated fairly and consistently and that people who have the formal education and the cultural education and the background to be treated in the same fair and consistent manner as anybody else in the NWT. I think that in itself will go a long way to establishing the public's trust in how the public service hires and fires employees.

Just getting back to the firing, I know there's no real people in the government that I know of who have been fired in the last number of years, but I think that's another area where the Human Resources really has to come into play and really, if the government really blunders on something or as an employer really makes a blunder and spends a lot of government money for no good reason, then instead of getting a letter of reprimand, I think the Human Resources has to go a little bit further and get some heads rolling. With a lot of departments sort of going awry on their budgets and spending money without proper authorization, then the practice of the day is to make them do a lateral movement and get them out of the department and get them in somewhere else and maybe even promote them. I think stuff like that we really have to have a better grip on how we handle those situations. The government is always looking at the liability issue, but I think we really have to visit the principles of the matter and put liabilities aside for awhile, or in some cases where it is not an issue of liability but accountability, more or less. I think the Human Resources has to be a spearhead for the government, for the whole government wide, to spearhead issues of accountability and transparency and consistency. With that, if that happens, I'm behind it 100 percent and I hope it transpires that way. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.