Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Mrs. Groenewegen has mentioned, there’s a bit of a pink glow in the Chamber today and that’s because it is Pink Shirt Day. It’s Pink Shirt Day here and across Canada. For the third year in a row, NWT MLAs are acknowledging the importance of this initiative to combat bullying, and for the third year in a row we are not alone.
In the last two years, the Anti-Bullying Campaign has gathered momentum across North America and across the NWT. NWT students, educators and education authorities have developed and implemented strategies, awareness and resources to deal with the issue of bullying in our schools. It has become a front of mind issue for both the students and educators.
It’s tempting to put all the responsibility for addressing bullying onto the school and educators, but we must accept that bullying takes place in all kinds of environments and situations, not just schools. Bullying has to be considered in the larger context, the bigger picture. We cannot ignore the importance of addressing bullying in our society as a whole.
As I did last year, I wish to again highlight bullying in the workplace. Four out of 10 employees are affected by workplace bullying. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, “Many places of work, consciously or unconsciously, endorse, perhaps even encourage, bullying behaviour. In fact, workplace bullies frequently get promoted or they are often not dealt with directly as the workplace culture does not know how to address such behaviour.”
We’ve managed to bring bullying to the fore in the education system. We now have to do the same for the workplace and there are three key actions we can take: recognize bullying behaviour; speak out
at the time that you encounter bullying; and stand by those who are being bullied and support them.
The GNWT needs to take the lead, work with industry partners and develop some strategies to highlight, educate and profile bullying in the workplace. I was really pleased to see the GNWT messenger service on Monday highlight Pink Shirt Day and the GNWT Harassment Free and Respectful Workplace Policy. The Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission has a lovely, very pink ad in today’s Yellowknifer. Both of these actions show a start towards highlighting bullying in the workplace. If we continue with these actions, the GNWT can lead by example and in doing so we will improve not only our own GNWT workplace but all workplaces in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.