Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I will generally respond to all of the opening comments from the Members, but I will answer the question from Mr. Bromley first. The only change that we’re looking for in the provision where a Minister may direct appoint a person to a position, to any position, is the person would now be affected by layoff, potentially affected by layoff, as opposed to what we’re… Pardon me. Right now in the act, the individual has to be actually laid off and discontinue service. Then I would be in the position to direct appoint that person to any position. What we’re requesting here is that the position, as soon as the individual is affected by layoff, potential for the layoff, that person is going to be laid off and if there’s a position that he or she is qualified for, I can then make the direct appointment into that. There’s no change there. It’s just the wording of the layoff.
I’d like to speak on each of the items. Duty to accommodate: The proposed change to Section 18(2) simplifies a way to duty to accommodate appointments made to fulfill the GNWT’s human rights obligations. It means that once an employee and management have agreed to an accommodation where an appointment to a new position is necessary, it can be made with minimum fuss and inconvenience for the employee. It also limits the release of information about the employee’s accommodation to only those who need to know. It gives the GNWT, as an employer, a process to quickly put employees into new positions to fulfill our human rights obligations to accommodate employees.
The appointment of employees identified for layoff - Clause 4
The proposed change to Section 27(3) allows employees identified for layoff to be placed into appropriate positions without having to be first formally terminated. For employees identified for
layoff, this change minimizes disruption for their continuous employment status. It provides them with a greater confidence that their employment status will not be interrupted and helps minimize disruption to the employee’s personal life. This change simplifies the administration of this government’s commitment to retain affected employees. It provides a measure of staffing stability for departments which want to retain valuable employees whose jobs they’ve had to relocate or eliminate.
Absence of leave for political candidacy
Bill 30 eliminates a perception of conflict of interest by removing the Minister from direct appointment of granting leave to restricted employees for the purpose of running for election. Instead, the deputy minister accountable for the act will approve an employee’s leave for political candidacy. The act does not allow us to deny leave for most employees who wish to run for political office. It is only restricted employees, basically senior managers, who may be denied. The changes provide restricted employees with assurance that political considerations of the Minister will not interfere with their ability to seek election. Employees can consider running for public office with confidence. If they are not successful, they have a job to return to.
We take the political rights of the employee very seriously and cannot deny a restricted employee’s leave unless their absence would very seriously interfere with the ability of this government to operate. As far as I am aware, no restricted employees have been denied leave to run for office.