Moving onward,

Mr. Abernethy. Were you done?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. We’ve

raised concerns and questions about the fact that we’ve seen the department has already begun the process of notifying, or at least some of the departments have already begun the process of notifying, staff that they’re potentially going to be laid off in ’09–10, which we obviously think is a little on the premature side. These 13 individuals in the 14 positions: has the Department of Transportation notified them that their positions are affected and that they’re going to be laid off?

Mr. Chair, I’m just curious if the Minister could tell me whether or not these individuals were given a date as to when their last

day of employment with the Department of Transportation would be.

Mr. Chair, no; we haven’t given a date. We have given them a notice of potential layoff. We haven’t given them a date yet.

No real question, just a bit of a comment, similar to the comments you’ve already heard. I think it’s fairly unanimous on this side of the room that we think it’s a bit premature to have notified employees whose positions are going to be affected in ’09–10. Obviously, we’d be curious how you guys came to the conclusion that it would be appropriate to notify people in ’09–10 when we haven’t even done the ’08–09 budget. Like I said, I have no questions, just a bit of a comment. I’m sure others will be asking questions on this topic, so I’ll stop and give them the floor.

Thank you,

Mr. Abernethy. Moving on to Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I guess that with respect to the regional positions, as well, I just wanted to clarify that the 310 positions did include the airport personnel at Fort Simpson. I just wanted to ask that, Mr. Chair.

Thank you,

Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chairman, yes.

Thank you very much. I was going to ask that, and I do have to voice my objection to reductions in future years, but I can speak to it later on the line item that specifically refers to airports, Mr. Chair.

Thank you,

Mr. Menicoche. We’ll move now to Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to follow up on the questions of my colleague from Great Slave. I’m just wondering if the department is advising people and notifying employees that they’re going to be potentially affected by a budget that is going to happen in ’09–10. I’m just wondering: where does the direction come from to make those decisions to send out notification letters? Does it come from HR, or does it come from the Premier?

Thank you,

Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Yakeleya.

When we started the exercise of reductions within the government, Mr. Chairman, that was a coordinated initiative by the Ministers and also working with the HR Minister. We also heard from the Members, and I recall

some of the discussion from the Members in terms of the potential impact of this reduction exercise.

Was it the department’s decision to send out notification letters to employees, or was it somebody else’s decision to send notification letters out to employees?

The people of the Northwest Territories. This was done on the discussions among my Cabinet colleagues. We heard from the Assembly, the Minister responsible for HR, Mr. McLeod, so it was a Cabinet decision that gave this direction.

Again, I’ve heard different versions of the same kind of story. It’s very confusing for me, and it’s confusing for the employees who have received notification they may be impacted a year from now. I was just trying to get a better understanding of how the command went. The Minister said the Assembly, but it wasn’t the Assembly. It was Cabinet that made that decision. I just wanted to, again, get on the record that Regular Members had no part in sending out notification letters to affected employees, not in ’08–09 and not in ’09–10. I just wanted to state that quite clearly, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chair, I do apologize for the mistake in my answer. I do take that back. It was on the direction of the Cabinet that we sent the letters out to the affected employees.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are all the employees who are potentially affected receiving written letters? If they’re receiving written letters, whose signature is on those letters? Is it the Minister? Is it the Minister of HR? Is it the Premier? What does that letter look like, and who signed it?

Mr. Chair, all letters were written by our department, and Mr. Neudorf, our deputy minister, was the signatory to those letters.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the Department of Transportation has anybody received a verbal notification that their job may be affected by future budget decisions?

Mr. Chairman, all letters were written to the affected employees. This initiative was coordinated with the Human Resources department.

Thank you, Minister. Any further questions?

Hearing none, we’re on page 9-8, Active Positions by Region. Then Active Positions by Community, page 9-9. We have a question here. Mr. Hawkins.