Mr. Speaker,

I’ve

indicated to my office to check on our schedules and my schedules and, of course, the Member’s. I want a schedule that we can coordinate with the leadership of Dettah so that we would arrange that meeting with the community as soon as possible. That may be within a week or so. I’ll be working with the Member on setting the time and location as to when we can meet with the good people of Dettah.

Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up where I left off with my questions to the Premier in regard to hiring. I just don’t want people out there in the public wasting their time applying to positions that we’re not deeming appropriate or where they’re not going to fit into our strategic initiatives, like I heard the Premier say earlier.

I’d like to ask the Premier: what positions currently are not deemed appropriate or fitting into our strategic initiatives, so that people aren’t applying for them?

Mr. Speaker, we’ve heard the Member in the past talk about the growth of our government and the growth of our employees. I don’t have a handle today on just what positions,

what areas of departments, are not going to fit with our initiatives. We’re undertaking that work.

The jobs are still going out there for areas that we need to fill. There hasn’t been a job-hiring freeze. The process still goes, but before a final hire happens, deputies are working on initiatives with their senior staff, bringing them back to our government and seeing how they fit with the cost-saving measures we’re making as well as the reinvestments, to see if they would align, as a preventative sort of step instead of having to deal with it after the fact.

Mr. Speaker, I guess the fact of the matter for me is that we weren’t consulted on that. I listened to the Premier state to my colleague Mr. Menicoche that no instructions had been given in terms of beginning reductions. When he was answering my questions earlier, it was obvious to me that he said that instructions had been given to department heads to begin an exercise where they would see where hiring fit in terms of the strategic plan.

So again, Mr. Speaker, it’s a bit complex. It’s a bit unsettling for me. I’d like the Premier to maybe explain exactly what instructions have been given to the departments.

Mr. Speaker, let’s not mix the words of one response with another. We know instructions have been given to departments to meet their targets. Instructions have not been given to departments — let’s separate that now; instructions have not been given to departments — to begin reductions April 1. We have not made that decision at this level. We haven’t brought those forward as part of a business plan as of yet. Until we get that level of approval, we can’t be going out and giving that direction to the public service.

What does happen as a normal course of business, for example, Mr. Speaker, is that when a program has been sunsetted already, when departments knew that their three-year funding was running out, whether it was part of a federal transfer or a program that a department may have initiated a number of years ago, then it’s normal business as we proceed. It’s not part of the reduction scenario or cost-saving measures that we’re taking as a government overall.

Mr. Speaker, I’m having a little bit of trouble understanding the logic where the government tells departments that they’re going to be okay hiring on a case-by-case basis in an effort to achieve reductions. We don’t have to wait until April 1st to figure that out; that happened last week.

That exercise is already happening. It’s at play in the government departments. The instruction was given by the government without consulting the Regular Members.

I’d like to again ask the Premier: what specific instructions have been given to the departments?

Mr. Speaker, I see the path this is going down: that as a new government, as Premier, we’ve not shared any information with Members, that we’ve been withholding information. I’ve taken a large number of steps to be as open as possible with Members, to share the direction we’re going in.

In fact, early in January I offered up the opportunity to see where we’ve looked at setting these targets. We’ve shared information. Is it complicated? Is it because the Member just disagrees with where we’re going? I’m not sure.

What we were trying to do is prevent the reverse. When we heard that departments were beginning to shut down positions and not hire, we hadn’t given a direction on a hiring freeze or anything of that nature, and that is not in place.

The policies are all still in place and being used for the jobs that are out there and being advertised. What we’ve asked for is an extra level of scrutiny, in a sense, with the deputy ministers as they’re doing their work to have a final look at that to ensure that we’re not going down a path that might six months later, when we come to our May/June budget session, end up laying off some employees that just were hired six months prior.

Mr. Speaker, that wasn’t the path I was going down, but the Premier said it himself. Whether the information is being shared or not — we could debate that for a long time. I have a differing view of things than the Premier does, obviously.

Again, I just wanted to ask the question: are we being clear and consistent with the instructions that are being given to the departments? Are all departments being treated equally on the instructions that are being given to them? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the result, as the Member has pointed out, of the additional process we’ve undertaken at this stage is to be clear, to be consistent with every department, and I believe that they are getting the message. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the polar bear licence plate is internationally known and has played a significant role over the years in promoting the Northwest Territories. I’d like to thank the Member for being persistent on this issue and for the suggestion and working with this government in terms of changing our licence plate to “spectacular.” I’d like to advise the House and the Member that the N.W.T. Tourism group is working with the Department of ITI and the Department of Transportation in terms of promoting this licence plate, and it’s going through its process of establishing such a logo for the Northwest Territories.

I’m glad the Minister understands it clearly that I in no way am suggesting to change the shape of the licence plate; it’s only the tagline. My concern is that it’s not happening soon enough. The issue, I can clearly hear, has good buy-in, but it’s not moving fast enough.

My question really is: when can we see some results of this work? When can we expect to be able to see cars driving around the Northwest Territories that say “spectacular” on the back of them? When can we see that work?

I, too, would like to see the licence plate and the word “spectacular” on it. I will follow up on this issue with my department. I will ask the department to give me an update as to this, and I will pass it on to the Members of the House. If Mr. Hawkins would like further discussions, I’ll be happy to sit down with him. I’m also working closely with my colleague from ITI in terms of advancing this issue so that all people in the Northwest Territories can be proud to have this word on their licence plates.

Mr. Speaker, this only begs one more element to this combination. Obviously it’s nice to see a Minister working with a Member and hearing the cries from this side of the House — and hasn’t forgotten us, by the way. But I’d just like the reassurance from the Minister that he will include the N.W.T. Tourism Association in on this as well as, as he had mentioned, the Minister of ITI. Finally, would he make sure I’m included in some type of release when they do this? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the spectacular question.

Laughter.

I would ask my colleague that he and I would work on this very closely. We are working directly with N.W.T. Tourism. We’re all working on this issue here. Hopefully, we would make the fact of the announcements in terms of when we could unroll this licence plate out to the people of the Northwest Territories.

My question today is directed towards the Minister Responsible for Transportation.

The other day I talked about customer service and whatnot, and brought up an issue about driver’s licences and how they’re not accepted as ID, even though they are official ID when people want to get additional pieces of ID.

New examples have come to me since I made that statement. In one situation, a lady wanted to change her driver’s licence because she got married. She brought in a certified legal copy of her marriage certificate and was told it was not acceptable, that she needed to have her original marriage certificate. So off she went home. She got her official copy, brought it back, put it on the table. They took a photocopy, handed it back and said, “Thank you very much.” That photocopy is not worth the paper it’s printed on. The certified copy was far more legal and acceptable.

I’d like to ask the Minister Responsible for Transportation to commit to looking at their policies and procedures to ensure they aren’t creating redundancies, they aren’t creating extra barriers for people, and they’re streamlined and efficient, thereby saving money and whatnot.

Mr. Speaker, the issue the Member has raised, I will be looking into it. I will be asking the department.

I know there is lots of work that has been done by the department in terms of this issue here. I will ask the department to review its policies to look at the specific issue that Mr. Abernethy is bringing up here today. I will make a commitment that I would follow up with it as soon as possible and see where we can provide better service to our people in the North.

My questions also are for the Minister of Transportation today.

I had a constituent who had occasion to drive to Hay River the other day and reminded me when she got here when she asked about the Kakisa River Bridge and the sign there that says, “Slow down; five kilometres per hour.”

We obviously have a very serious problem with the Kakisa River Bridge. Unfortunately, we don’t have an opportunity for an ice crossing or a ferry on that particular river. It needs to be fixed. It is a piece of Territorial transportation infrastructure that is obviously in disrepair. I’m worried about big trucks slowing down in a snowstorm to get down to that five kilometres per hour and the traffic behind them. It’s danger.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation: what is being done to address the problems at the Kakisa River Bridge?

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for raising this issue.

Mr. Speaker, the Kakisa River Bridge is in dire need of being replaced, and it is being looked at. It is an old bridge that shows some deteriorating structures to it. It is in the plans to replace that bridge.

We are asking drivers to slow down when they come to the bridge. It may be annoying to them, but they need to slow down to be safe on that bridge. I, for one, am fearful that a terrible accident may be in the waiting. I’ve asked my department. My colleagues here are all aware that this bridge is in dire need to be replaced as soon as possible.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation: what’s wrong with the bridge? Should we be worried even driving across it at five kilometres per hour? What is exactly wrong with the bridge that requires people to slow down to five kilometres per hour?

I’m just waiting for you to finish your consultation there.

What’s wrong with the bridge? Why do we have to slow down to five kilometres? Should we be worried about driving on it at even five kilometres per hour? What kind of assurance can the Minister offer to the public? What’s wrong with the bridge?

Mr.

Speaker, it’s a

precautionary measure that we ask of all public members, to slow down because of structural damages to the bridge, that they slow down when they cross the bridge at the Kakisa River.

Mr. Speaker, we ask people to slow down. If they don’t slow down and something unfortunate, an incident, took place, how serious is the bridge? This is a precautionary measure, I understand. If a big truck went over it and didn’t slow down, what could happen?

Mr. Speaker,

the

question is on all our infrastructure systems, on roads in the North here.

We’re asking as a precautionary measure for vehicles to slow down because there’s some structural damage that we need to have replaced at the Kakisa Bridge. Like any other, it’s not a fail-safe bridge, so we’re asking members of the public to slow down when they cross the bridge.

Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.