Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m aware that the staff have done a lot of work to prepare for this public discussion with the public. We have looked internally to partners in the Department of Finance and Stats Bureau to get information. They met with the public advisory group a few times and we have put out the public discussion paper at our earliest possible opportunity so that the public will have an opportunity to put their full input into this process. Thank you.

The motion to do this review happened well over a year ago. I noticed that the Minister points out that they spoke to the advisory group, which I understand is a GNWT. I didn’t hear any reference at all to actually meeting or talking with the stakeholders, the seniors, the NWT Council of Persons with Disabilities. So I’d like to thank the Minister for confirming that they didn’t, in fact, do that.

I see zero evidence in any of the information provided by the Minister that the Department of Health and Social Services conducted any research into the possible effects of proposed changes resulting in people leaving the North with respect to the changes that may come forward. This research was clearly requested in the motion. I was wondering if the Minister could please tell me why this information was not collected or considered and why the potential ramifications of residents leaving the NWT are not included within the document released on February 22, 2010. Thank you.

Just to correct the Member’s statement, the public advisory group that I was referring to is a group of NGOs, and that includes the NWT Council of Persons with Disabilities, YWCA, the Centre for Northern Families, Yellowknife seniors and NWT seniors. So, meetings were held with those groups. There was internal working groups of DMs and appropriate resources within the government so that we could pull information together that could help with the public discussion.

The Member is asking, did we look at the analysis of changes. That’s something that we could do and if the Member knows that the final product or as we work through the product, whatever that may be, will be reviewed by the standing committee and the Members here. The Member is saying that we have

everything worked out; we have not. We have, I think, the research points us into a certain direction. We want to put that out to the public. The public has a chance to explain to us. And without knowing the final product, I’m sure we’ll be criticized if we went out with some other information. So I think the important thing is that we need to have this discussion. The Members will have a chance and we should let the process unfold. Thank you.

Just for the record, the individuals I’ve talked to who are in that working group have indicated that they were basically told what the department is going to research and what’s going to happen after that. They weren’t actually encouraged to do what the motion suggested, which was to give alternate areas of research, give alternate opinions, alternate thoughts, so that when this information comes out, as it’s coming out now, it should come out complete; meaning that we should have all sorts of options and things to consider.

The Minister says that the research does point in a certain direction, and clearly it does. We want to make an informed decision here. We want supplemental health to be the best it can be for everybody in the Northwest Territories, which means we need information on both sides. I was wondering if the Minister could please tell me how can we make an informed decision in the absence of information or, worse, with only information suggesting one side or leading in a particular direction. We need both sides to make the right decision on supplementary health. Thank you.

I don’t believe there was a question. I just want to clarify that the public working group did have a… The department officials met with the public working group, the NGO groups. They wanted to have good information to base their discussion on. They’ve had a look at the information that we’ve provided and they are working with us. We will continue to work with them, work with the Members, work with the public, because I agree with the Member that this is the best program there is in supplementary health anywhere in Canada. We will continue to maintain that and we want to make sure that those who are in need the most will have access to it and that it will continue to be fair and equitable. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister keeps telling us that this is the best program in Canada. I can’t argue that. On paper, it’s the best in Canada and certainly the most lucrative. But when she says that it doesn’t actually include the cost of living in the Northwest Territories, and slight changes will send us to a tipping point that may well result in people leaving the Northwest Territories, yet there’s no evidence of

research done -- and I’ve said this several times -- to suggest that they’ve even done any analysis on that. Will the Minister commit to actually doing the research on the ramifications of people leaving? If 39 seniors leave, that’s $800,000 out of our pockets. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I do believe that it is, bar none, the best Supplementary Health Program that is available in Canada. What we know is that there is a group of people who are excluded as it is currently administered. So we want to look at the access and see if those who are most in need are accessing those. I believe we have lots of good information out there that could start the debate. It will be facilitated at public hall meetings and I am sure that all of the questions that the Member is asking could come forward and we will have a good dialogue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are addressed to the Minister for Human Resources. In my Member’s statement I talked about the duty of employers, and particularly the GNWT, to accommodate and reintegrate employees, who have been off the job, as quickly as possible. Some of my anecdotal evidence indicates that that doesn’t necessarily happen within the confines of our GNWT employees. So I’d like to ask the Minister what policies and procedures exist. What timelines do we identify in policy and procedures to integrate, reintegrate or accommodate employees who have been off the job due to injury or illness? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As an employer, our government has a legal obligation to accommodate employees who have a mental or physical disability, to enable them to return to the workforce to their full capacity. The accommodation that we determine it through is information provided by their physicians that sets out their limitations, and we work according to those timelines that generally are determined by the disability that the employee has. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I guess I’d like to know if we are working with statements from physicians, if I have been injured on the job and my physician says that I need an assessment to determine whether I can go back to work, when an assessment is required is it standard policy or practice for the GNWT to go to

local resources first before we go outside to get these sorts of assessments done? Thank you.

Each situation has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis in order to determine what accommodation is required. Some of the areas depends on what type of special equipment needs to be provided, what kind of amendment to duties are involved, whether there is retraining involved or whether we have to amend hours of work. If there are assessors here, and I understand we do use local assessors or, depending on the situation, we may be required to go south for an assessment. But, like everything else, if there is the capability here, we’ll use it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I certainly would hope that we would go local and that sending somebody outside would be a recourse of last resort. In terms of training that our HR staff get, I know they are certainly trained in many areas, but in the area of accommodation of workers returning to work after injury or illness, I would like to know what kind of training our HR staff get. Thank you.

Our main objective is to enable employees to return to work as active and productive members of the public service. We do have sensitivity training. We do have a training calendar that outlines the needs. I am pleased to advise that with the passage of our budget, we will be hiring a duty-to-accommodate consultant that will ensure that the employees that deal with this have the proper training or we identify the proper training. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I am glad to hear that we are expanding our view on both persons with disabilities and accommodating people who need to be reintegrated into the workforce after a time away. I would like to ask the Minister, I mentioned in my statement I think it’s important for staff to be trained. I also think it’s important that workers know what things are out there for them, that they need to know our policies and procedures. So what kind of training do GNWT workers get in the area of accommodation and reintegration? Thank you.

We are taking steps to advise everybody that the GNWT workplace is open to all Northerners, and anybody that is planning for jobs with the Government of the Northwest Territories, if you currently have a disability and you require accommodation, we encourage you to identify your needs if you apply and we will accommodate those needs during the hiring process.

As far as training, it’s something that our whole focus is on delivery, service delivery to our clients,

and we will provide all the training that is required to our workers that deal with persons with disabilities and ensure that they understand what is meant by duty to accommodate and that they fulfil those responsibilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement, with regard to the NWT Power Corporation, with the Minister in the specific case of the grocery store in Fort Simpson that failed. Can the Minister do a post-mortem on that whole situation and provide some recommendations that this cannot happen to another business? Just to work backwards, Mr. Speaker, I think it would be a good thing to look backwards to ensure those types of businesses don’t get into those same types of arrears situations with the NWT Power Corporation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.