Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. A couple of questions there, actually. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We always do transitional arrangements for the incoming government, and absolutely, if I get the concurrence of all of the Members that this summer student strategy is important to make it a part of the transition information, then I will do so. We will be discussing this at future meetings. We’re quite prepared to do that.

Clearly, this is an important issue. A summer student employment strategy is a very passionate issue, provided by the comments and questions by the Members of this House to the government. If the Minister of Human Resources is willing to accept a letter on behalf of all Members to encourage him to act upon this immediately, would he be willing to act upon it if the Members of this side of the House committed that strongly in writing to cause action right away?

Once I receive such a letter, we’ll proceed with the utmost speed.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on the shocking numbers that I see here. As of May 18, 2011, 3 o’clock, there’s only four people in the Summer Student Program hired in the Sahtu region by this government compared to the South Slave where there’s 36, 42 in total; North Slave region 103. Four students that are given the opportunity in the Sahtu to be hired. I listen to the Ministers of Public Works and Services and Transportation and it doesn’t quite cut it with me. I want to ask the Premier if he would work with his officials and see if there’s any way that these numbers can be increased. Aurora College in Beaufort-Delta hired one student in Sahtu, but in the other communities they haven’t hired any. Can these numbers be improved to maybe five or six, rather than a dismal four?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought I heard Public Works and Services or Transportation in his statement. It went on for a while, so I lost track.

Seriously, though, the issue of student hires has been one that this government has pushed and worked with the Department of Human Resources and all departments to improve on our numbers. The fiscal situation that we find ourselves in, the departments are doing their best to improve on that, but as we’ve heard from a number of Ministers, with our fiscal restraints departments have had to voluntarily squeeze in some areas. We’re still trying to match or do a bit better in some areas than we did previously. There are areas where, yes, it’s weighted heavy. When some departments have only a headquarters function, other departments help balance that off, because we’re into all communities and regions and will continue to try to improve on that.

I mentioned the Ministers of PWS and DOT because he talked a little bit on this issue here. For example, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority is going to hire four, but in any other regions, none of their health boards are hiring any summer students. This is an agency of something like the Sahtu Health Board. I want to ask if this opportunity can be given the same as the Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority, which has hired six people.

The fairness and equality is not there. Can the Minister ensure that our regions will also have the same opportunity as the boards in Yellowknife and Fort Smith so that we can also hire summer students? Come on, let’s increase these numbers more than four.

The issue with the health boards is that in trying to get the numbers, some have not been able to provide the additional numbers, so there may be some additional summer students out there that we’re not aware of. The other area is we’ve given them budgets to operate within and we’ve given them the authority to make those decisions, as well. We’ll try to get all the information so that we have fully updated numbers as we progress. I know the Department of Human Resources works with all departments to try to pool all those together and we’ll continue to do that.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Cabinet and Premier have been extremely helpful today in providing information. Obviously, they were prepared for these questions.

I have a question. This is something I get asked about a lot in my constituency when it comes to summer student hires. Could they give us a breakdown, please, between P1 candidates and P2 and other candidates for summer students hired by this government for this upcoming summer season?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have that information and I’ll provide it to the Members.

Mr. Speaker, thank you. I understand that the Minister does have that information. Will he make it available now? Later? Thank you.

As of May 18, 2011, 3:00 p.m., we have 166 summer students hired: 91 are indigenous Aboriginal; 75 are indigenous non-Aboriginal; zero other summer students. We have 16 job offers out for signature: four to indigenous Aboriginals; 11 to indigenous non-Aboriginal; and one to other summer student, for a total of 16 job offers out there. Thank you.

I’m sure that although this information was available to the Members, it is good for the public to know that and it is very good news. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I didn’t hear a question there. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills.

Colleagues, before I go on to the next item on the Order Paper, the Chair is going to call a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

Colleagues, we’ll return to orders of the day. Item 17, motions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 44 to deal with Motion 8-16(6), which I gave notice of yesterday. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted

Proceed with your motion, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act was enacted in 1994;

AND WHEREAS in the 17 years since the act was passed, e-mail, laptops, flash drives, smartphones and other technological developments have dramatically altered the way government manages, uses and communicates information;

AND WHEREAS other Canadian jurisdictions have conducted comprehensive reviews of their access to information and privacy legislation in recent years;

AND WHEREAS since the coming into force of the act, the Information and Privacy Commissioner has made a number of recommendations for amendments to the act that have not been addressed;

AND WHEREAS the Information and Privacy Commissioner has recommended a comprehensive review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act in her 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 annual reports;

AND WHEREAS the Standing Committee on Government Operations also recommended a comprehensive review of the act in its Report on the Review of the 2008-2009 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner;

AND WHEREAS the Government of the Northwest Territories February 2011 response to the standing committee’s recommendation did not provide an undertaking to complete a comprehensive review of the act;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends the Government of the Northwest Territories undertake a comprehensive review of the Access to

Information and Protection of Privacy Act, including an examination of access to information and privacy legislation in other Canadian jurisdictions and all past recommendations of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and bring forward a bill during the first two years of the 17

th

Assembly;

AND FURTHER, that the Government of the Northwest Territories include mention of the need for a comprehensive review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act in any transition document or report to the 17

th

Assembly;

AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 90 days.

Thank you, Mr, Menicoche. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion.