Alright. We will move to detail after five minutes only. Thank you.

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All right, committee. We’ll come back to order. We’ll begin detail. We are on the Department of Human Resources, page 3-7, department summary, Human Resources, department summary, operations expenditures summary, $42.099 million. We will defer this until after consideration of the activities. Page 3-8, Human Resources, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Page 3-9, Human Resources, information item, revenue summary. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to the line entry for this page, we have a Sun Life medevac recoveries in the main estimates of $750,000 and we’ve seen from 2012-2013 of only $250,000. We’ve seen about a half million

dollar lift in the mains. Maybe if the Minister could explain why the lift and what that number refers to.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In 2011-2012, that was the first year that we had a revenue target here and we had them originally at $250,000 but the actuals came at $761,000, so we’ve had to make an adjustment so that we don’t have to do a larger correction later in the year. We think the $750,000 is closer. At the end, it will have to be amended to the actuals.

The second part of that question was a definition of Sun Life medevac recoveries.

For a specific definition I will go to the deputy.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.

Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Mr. Dolynny.

These recoveries, is this a policy that is easily retrievable for review or is this something that’s just within the confines of the directorate?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not sure I understand the question 100 percent. Sun Life is basically our insurance provider and under the insurance program we can claim back 80 percent of costs, and for medical medevacs we can claim back 80 percent of the costs in certain situations. We have to obviously fill out paperwork and add justification and then we’re able to charge back as part of our insurance.

I’ll rephrase my question here. There’s obviously a policy that the provider is using or a guideline with respect to the recoverables. As Members, are we able to have access to what that policy of recoverables are about?

I don’t believe that it’s confidential. I believe it’s our insurance policy. I think anybody can look at the policy that Sun Life

has with us and that we pay for. If the Member is interested in looking at our insurance policy, I see no reason why we couldn’t share it with him and committee if they’re interested.

No further questions.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Committee, we are on page 3-9, department summary, Human Resources, information summary, revenue summary. Page 3-10, department summary, Human Resources, information item, active position summary. Page 3-12 and 3-13, Human Resources, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $625,000. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I could bring this up I suppose under Human Resource Strategy and Policy, but really I’m talking about direction here when I’m talking about the safety practices of the government and the barrier that I referred to in my general comments. I think the department is doing what it can, largely in response to the safety issues and the fines, but really what’s happening is this department provides policy to the other departments and then it’s a matter of trusting them to implement it. That’s not happening. That’s been pointed out by this Minister. He has no control over those departments.

I see here this activity is to provide advice to the Minister as well as the deputy ministers across the GNWT. I think we need some interaction maybe with the Premier and the Minister here to come up with the authority that this Minister clearly needs to have in the area of safety practices for the well-being of our employees across all departments. The Minister knows that. He’s essentially said it. His hands are tied. He’s doing what he can. He happens to be a Minister of a couple of departments, one of which is problematic and we hear that he is working on that and moving on it, but he doesn’t have control over others.

Will the Minister start addressing the issue here and work with the Premier and Cabinet, I suppose, whoever the decision-makers are at this level, to address this and get this Minister the authority to do his job for all of us to the benefit of our employees?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member is essentially right. Ultimately the responsibility for these things falls to the individual deputies. A couple of things have happened over the last couple of years that I think are going to help the process. One of the things that has happened is that WSCC, based on I believe it might have been questions raised by the Member in the 16

th Assembly and I think myself as

well, started providing us a breakdown of what the actual claims costs are by department. Originally

we only got it as a government as a whole. That is helping to inform the individual deputies as to the individual problems within their mandates.

The deputy minister of Health and Social Services sits on a deputy ministers committee and they’ve had an opportunity to continually push and explain this. I think the knowledge of the problem is becoming better understood at the deputy head level. I’ve personally had discussions with the Premier about this issue and about the accountability of us as Ministers and deputy ministers to try to address these problems within. Individual Ministers and deputy ministers have a performance review at the end of every year to success or failure in workplace safety, and fines and fees is something that will be considered as bonuses or, sorry, incremental pay is provided. I have been having those conversations.

The Premier is clearly aware of the challenges we face. These are not secrets to us. I have brought them to the Cabinet table a number of times and will continue to do so until such a time as these fines hopefully disappear and we have a safe, healthy workplace.

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. It sounds like he is acting on this. I’m glad to hear that. I hope it works. When there’s a wishy-washy line of authority, you often get a wishy-washy result. It sounds like there’s some firming up happening if it’s actually explicitly stated in revue standards for deputy ministers and so on. I appreciate that. It sounds like a reasonable compromise to try out.

I’d ask that the Minister keep us apprised on that and maybe the Premier to report if that has to be implemented, if there is – I forget the Minister’s term for pay and benefits – action that has to be taken. We’d like to know that this is happening and being effective. I take the Minister’s response and I know that we all understand that where you have wishy-washy lines of authority, it ends up in that kind of response.

I’ll commit to providing committee, on a regular basis, our stats on workplace safety claims that we are paying or the WSCC is paying on our behalf. I can assure the Member that the Ministers take this seriously, the Premier takes this seriously, we’ve had conversations. We don’t like paying $600,000 when we’d rather use that money for programs and services in the Northwest Territories. This is something that with some diligence I think we can overcome. It’s going to take some work, there’s no doubt there, but I think we’re all committed to having these results.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ll continue where Mr. Bromley has probably left off here and opened the door here with respect to WSCC continued issues. I’m from a bit of a different perspective on this and I believe the directorate and the Minister have more accountability on our performance than we’re maybe led to believe here.

The Minister has gone on record to use quotes such as ”we are the collaborators of HR management” and he’s also used the terms ”as we provide the tools.” The Minister mentioned $600,000 in claims or penalties. It’s actually closer to $750,000 in claims or penalties in the last two years. If the department and directorate is responsible for the tools, the question I have to ask is, which tools are we using, which tools have we brought forward, which tools are we using or have we brought to the table to help mitigate the current claims growth, the current penalties?

The Minister has gone on record as saying we’re probably going to see some more fines this year. I believe that the leadership for this does come from this department. Even though the managers must manage, the tools come from this department. So I want to hear what the department, directorate and Minister here are going to do to address these WSCC concerns.