Mr. Speaker, it’s my pleasure today as well to recognize my constituents from Hay River South: deputy warden of the SMCC, Quinn Groenehyde, who received the Corrections Exemplary Service Award; and his wife, Jenny, who is an educator in Hay River.

Also, as Minister Lafferty said, Correctional Officer Anthony Beck, who has today received a lifesaving award, and his wife, Lynn Beck, who is also an educator in Hay River. Welcome to the House.

I too wish to pass along a welcome and recognition to Quinn Groenehyde. I remember when I first moved here to Yellowknife. He taught us basketball as well as many other things. My compliments go to him.

Mr.

Paul Pearce — I worked with him at the

Yellowknife Correctional Centre. He’s a good mentor out there. I want to pass special recognition to him.

Mr. Gord Oystrek, a training officer there — he taught us a lot of things in safety. It seems to me that every time he worked harder on us, he smiled as we screamed out in pain.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker, to all of those, and

congratulations on their Corrections Exemplary Service Awards today.

I’d like to recognize in the gallery my Constituency Assistant from Fort Simpson, Ms. Janice Mandeville.

As well, I'd like to recognize a former Fort Simpson and Deh Cho resident, Father Joe Daley. Mahsi cho.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to send congratulations to all the correctional officers in particular. There are many people in the gallery, and I don't want to recognize anybody twice.

I just want to recognize Mr. Walter Orr, who is a constituent of mine and an engineer with Ferguson Simek Clark.

If we have missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the House. I hope you're enjoying the proceedings. It’s always nice to have an audience in here.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions, Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, I need more clarity on which project he’s referring to. We haven't awarded any contracts for bundled water plants as of yet.

Mr. Speaker, I have a letter from Municipal and Community Affairs that says to the Northern firm, the one group from the North that applied on this RFP to do this proposal. They were told that they didn't get it. That only leads to the assumption — or I should say, the obvious position — that the southern firm must have been awarded the project, because we only had two groups applying for it. The Northern one didn't get it; the southern did. What was their involvement?

Mr. Speaker, I'll have to repeat my answer. There was no contract awarded. We are still in negotiations. I can't respond to the Member’s question.

Mr. Speaker, let’s put it this way. The Minister may be technically right, but when you tell one group, “You didn't get it,” that means the other group did get it. If you're still in negotiations with them….

What involvement did this group have, going back to the original work they had done — this southern company from Abbotsford — with the communities and MACA in preparing for this water treatment process bundled contract? In what process did they have involvement?

Mr. Speaker, this is a competitive procurement process that we have embarked on. The Member is asking questions for the details on the company that's bidding. At this time, I don't feel it’s appropriate to answer that.

Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, at least now we're on the same page on this whole issue. We're talking about the group that the Minister doesn't want to talk about.

To further clarify, I'd like the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs to agree to go back and look at the situation, because the southern contractor from Abbotsford, B.C., did a fair bit of work on these water treatment plants — and the potential proposal that came forward, that they bid on — and they are in negotiations right now and receiving…. Would he go back and review this file to make sure that everything was on the up-and-up, that they did not have an unfair advantage by

building the proposal and then bidding on it and then subsequently getting it? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, maybe we're not on the same page. We haven't issued a contract yet. We certainly agree to go back and review it once we decide if there's going to be a contract issued. With no contract yet issued, it would be a worthless exercise.

Mr. Speaker, I've got some questions again today for the Minister of Human Resources.

The first question is: are micromanagement, retribution and dictatorial leadership effective ways of leading healthy and functional organizations or departments?

: Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure what kind of threats he’s referring to, but I normally think that threats are probably not appropriate in any circumstances.

Yes, the Department of Human Resources is what I’m referring to. I’m wondering: are random searches of staff offices, monitoring of e-mail, excessive use of discipline and fear of reprisal for acting in the best interests of clients and of the public effective ways to motivate and increase the productivity in that department?

: Mr. Speaker, as I tried to explain yesterday, we are not undertaking random searches of people’s offices. We have a backlog of work that has been carried over from previous departments, and we’ve been working very hard to eliminate this backlog. Because of the fact that we have very limited resources, we have to work on weekends. We have a backlog team, whose only time they can work to reduce the backlog is on weekends. Not everybody works on weekends, so we have to be able to go into offices to get files that we need to clear up the backlog.

Mr. Speaker, all of the items I’ve listed here in my previous questions are the realities that exist today in the Department of Human Resources. All of the MLAs on this side of the House, or most of them, have received disturbing stories from constituents on the realities of working at or receiving services from the Department of Human Resources.

Is the Minister of Human Resources aware of the realities within the Department of Human Resources and the concerns of staff and the public?

: Mr. Speaker, I am aware that when you’re processing 7,000 cheques every two

weeks, you’ll have some complaints. I am aware that there were over 2,000 final pays that were carried over from the previous government under the old system of decentralized human resources, and I am aware that we’ve reduced that backlog by 50 per cent. Most of the complaints that are coming in are from ex-employees of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

I guess they didn’t want to work there either, Mr. Speaker.

The Department of Human Resources should be the example to which all departments are compared. They should be the most transparent with respect to the application of human resources policies and procedures. After all, they’re the ones who provide HR advice to all departments, boards and agencies of the G.N.W.T. Clearly there’s a lack of confidence among the public and the public service that the Department of HR is living up to this standard. The inadequacies within the department….

Do you have a question, Mr. Ramsay?

Yes, I do, Mr, Speaker.

Mr. Minister, what immediate actions will you be taking to improve the morale and the overall functionality and credibility of the Department of Human Resources?