This is page numbers 3193 – 3228 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 4th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was wildlife.

Topics

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

That’s what I said in my Member’s statement. How do we try to regulate something that is just common sense in our small communities? We should see some of the places where we store our food and wonder, gee, it must be quite the challenge to cook it up.

What makes something that is common sense in our small communities so unexplainable when it comes to our health centres? Why do we have to go through all these processes? How can the Minister help me with the existing facilities we have now so Aboriginal people and elders can get their traditional foods in these facilities?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, the Food Establishment Safety Regulations under the Public Health Act lay out what we can do legally when we provide traditional food into the long-term care centres or the hospitals. One way that we are thinking about getting around that specific issue is that because fish and game can be donated by individuals that have a general hunting licence or individuals that have the right to hunt and donate food. A lot of that has been done at the Vital Abel where they are serving traditional food, and the Member talks about how we would be able to work with the Vital Abel to provide food at Avens and the hospital, as an example. Considering that we do have contracts with those individuals, as well, we had to talk to all of them to make sure that we’re not trying to offload work on somebody without having that discussion first. I can assure the Member that we’re moving forward with this and that we’re trying to find a solution. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs on the subject of unauthorized occupation of a small point of land in the Weledeh riding. I’m talking about the houseboat that has been pulled up on shore at the point in Willow Flats. I appreciate that there were three originally; we are down to one. I have been getting complaints from constituents since this boat arrived in June and these complaints are escalating as we learn about the poor treatment of a pet chained now at the point.

Would the Minister explain who has what jurisdiction over this situation and on that piece of land and water? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have jurisdiction over that. It is

Commissioner’s Lake that land is called. We have been trying to locate the owner of the houseboat so they can be served and have that houseboat removed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that. This is a favourite spot for families to gather for picnics, to swim and to walk their dogs throughout the winter, or should I say, they used to do those things.

Would the Minister be able to explain how or if this jurisdiction arrangement will change with devolution? Mahsi.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, if it’s Commissioner’s land, I don’t foresee much change. Once devolution happens we’ll still be responsible for that land within the boundary. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Mr. Speaker, could the Minister explain when and how the City of Yellowknife could apply for jurisdiction over this area and if this could help manage situations such as the one we are faced with today?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, we will be more than willing to sit down with the City of Yellowknife and discuss the jurisdiction of the lakebed.

Again, the Member is right; from the correspondence that I have been getting, it is a favoured spot of a lot of people that use the trail. There is some concern, and I have received e-mails directly, about the houseboat that is there. We are looking at trying to, again, locate the owner and have the houseboat removed from the area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope the Minister does understand that there is a standing offer from constituents to assist the Minister. They know where this person is. The Weledeh residents have been asking for something to be done about this all summer, so we have lost a summer of swimming and picnicking and so on. Can we expect it to continue all winter as well?

What is the current status of the process of removing this trespasser? And, incidentally, the log structure that is in the ice just to the North is a dangerous barrier to travel during the dark parts of the winter. Mahsi.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I know there has been an attempt to serve the owner of the houseboat. I believe the sheriff has even gone out with a boat and tried to locate the particular individual. I can assure the Member that we are looking by the end of the week if we can’t serve these papers, then we might have to look at other options. My understanding is that once we do that, if there is a

concern that boat is going to be there next spring, to make a bit of a commitment that once we get all the proper work done, then the boat should be removed. If it happens to be this winter, it will be this winter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Human Resources. I just want to talk a little bit about termination of employment within the GNWT because there have been some cases in the Inuvik region and in my community where people have retired or who have resigned from the job position and had trouble getting their ROEs, or records of employment. I would like to ask the Minister, in terms of getting a record of employment, what’s the process. Is there a timeline from when an employee is terminated from a position to the time they can actually get their record of employment to either seek income assistance or some other form of payment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A record of employment is required after many situations. If an employee has interrupted earnings of over seven days, they are required to be provided with a record of employment. When an employee’s salary falls below 60 percent of their weekly earnings, they are supposed to be provided with a record of employment. When an employee declares bankruptcy, a record of employment is required, and there are a lot of other reasons why a record of employment is required.

The requirement is that a record of employment is provided within five calendar days of the last day of the pay period in which they are last paid for, so it’s five days from the end of that. I know the Member and I have had some conversations about this and had shared concerns of constituents that there is a bit of a backlog on the ROEs and we haven’t always hit our five days, and this is important. We have to fix this. The department is looking at their processes right now, trying to identify the barriers on these and barrier on making the five-day commitment, and we’re looking at re-engineering and some streamlining to fix this problem that the Member has brought to my attention. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

The Minister did hit a few things on the head there in terms of some challenges that we

have in getting these ROEs passed to government employees.

Can I ask the Minister what some of these challenges and barriers are? Would it be dealing with HR training, development? Do we need to put more training within our HR staff or is there more capacity that needs to be in that department such as more personnel to cover such processes? Can the Minister identify some of these barriers and whether or not our HR department needs more human resources themselves or more funding sources? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Mr. Speaker, at this time we hope that through the review of this process, we can identify and answer some of those exact questions. Right now we feel that we have enough positions established, but we also do have turnover and some vacancies within our own shop and it’s difficult to find people who are capable of doing this work.

One of the real challenges is just the sheer quantity of these ROEs that are required. Today there are about 382 that are required. Between April 1, 2012, and August 30, 2013, just by way of example, we processed 3,653 records of employment. If you break that down to the workday, that’s 10 ROEs a day that this unit is processing. When you actually consider that each ROE involves an audit of the file to verify all sick days, annual days, special leave days, make sure they’ve been paid what they’re supposed to be paid and that all that information is properly tracked so that we can provide an accurate ROE so that the individual can get EI, there is a little bit of time involved for each of these files.

But I get the Member’s point. We do provide training to our new staff that come in. They mentor and sit with experienced staff so that they can become familiar with the processes. Once again, those are the processes we have today and we’re looking at those processes to see if there’s any way to streamline and improve them so that we can meet our commitment of five days after the final pay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is a lot of ROEs that need to be addressed. I understand the Minister has talked about streamlining the process. I’d just like to ask the Minister, for somebody who needs an ROE and requests an ROE maybe for EI, is there any way for a person to get higher up on the list or more of a priority? Is there a process that this person could take, rather than having to wait a period of time to receive an ROE? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Mr. Speaker, one of the things I encourage all staff to do when they know they’re coming up to the end of their

employment is obviously to have a discussion with the benefits officer. If they have a discussion with their benefits officer prior to their last day, they can usually streamline the process a little bit so that people know how urgent it is; this person isn’t going to be having a job, they’re going to be going on EI. I would encourage all employees of the GNWT, when they know that they’re coming up to their end date, to talk to their benefits officer so that we can get these dealt with in a timely manner and have the five-day turnaround so that they’re not affected for EI and other benefits. So, talk to your benefits officer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary again, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know this is my fourth question here, but one in particular was medical termination. When we do have a GNWT employee that does have medical illnesses and can’t continue with their job, can the Minister give me a timeline when somebody who is on medical, when they’re going through their termination, how long is that process to get a person terminated from the GNWT when they’re going through medical termination? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Mr. Speaker, that’s a very difficult question to answer because every situation is going to be different. Obviously, we want to work with our employees and find ways to bring them back into the workforce, rather than having to go to that final step of termination. So we tend to work with our employees, try to accommodate them where appropriate, reasonable and feasible. If all things fail and the person has to be terminated or let go based on their condition, we work with the employee to try and figure out the best way. But at the end of it, an ROE is still five days, so we still have to find a way to make sure that we can get those out within the five days of the last pay period that the employee is working on.

Once again, we’re reviewing the processes and trying to streamline them to make sure that we get these things out when they’re supposed to get out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.