Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The morale of the GNWT workforce is very important to the Government of the Northwest Territories. We do surveys with the staff and usually there is quite a tremendous uptake. I know that the Department of Health did their own survey with the authorities in the past. We do surveys with GNWT staff and ask those questions about whether individuals consider their jobs to be rewarding, if they’re satisfied with their supervisor, if they’re happy with the way things are at work. If there are any areas where they have concerns, those are the types of things we try to capture in these surveys. As a result of these surveys, then we will initiate some changes to make things more positive for the employees. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, who conducts these surveys, how often are they conducted and who reviews them? That wasn’t three questions. Thank you.

The surveys are conducted through the Department of Human Resources. I don’t have the frequency here with me, but I do believe they do it fairly frequently.

---Interjection

Every two years. Thank you. My understanding is they occur every two years. The evaluation is done by the Department of Human Resources, working with the various departments. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, is there a standardized survey that goes out to every public servant in every department, and what kind of uptake do they get? Obviously, these are voluntary. Responding to this survey would be voluntary, and I would like to know what kind of uptake there is on a survey such as that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, they are voluntary. They go out to every public servant. They are done across the country and we have about 80 percent participation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to know if the Minister would be willing to table, in this House, a copy of the survey that goes out to the public servants, and also if he could tell me here today in the House who reviews these and what kinds of actions do these surveys precipitate. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we would have no problem tabling the survey in the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Last week in the House I spoke about Fort Simpson resident Ms. Sharon Allen and her starting up the chapter of MADD. It was her desire to keep our community safe by targeting drunk drivers and initiating a check stop like she did last fall.

I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, how does our department assist with individuals that privately volunteer with such a well-known organization, such as MADD, in terms of keeping our drunk driving statistics down? Of course, there has been a bit of a rise there lately. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation works with organizations like the Students Against Drunk Driving and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. We offer some financial support to the Students Against Drunk Driving and we’ve developed a High Risk Drivers Program that we do in consultation with these citizen-based organizations. We consider these organizations to be very important and attribute a lot of the downturn in impaired driving and injuries related to impaired driving to organizations such as MADD and SADD. Thank you.

I am certainly pleased to hear the department’s support for organizations such as MADD and SADD. Specifically, does he know what other types of supports they have for the individuals and organizations? Most specifically, the RCMP assisted them last year by providing them their

vehicles and flashing lights. Are there any other in-kind supports that the department has?

The department would certainly like to continue to support these organizations. There has been one request for funding from the Students Against Drunk Driving from St. Pat’s High School. The department, through the Drive Alive! program, continues to work with organizations like MADD and SADD and look forward to any proposal that may come from those organizations because we consider that to be essential in assisting us to reduce impaired driving across the territory. Thank you.

Of course, we do have our own drinking and driving awareness program. Does the department also involve MADD and SADD when they initiate their annual campaign? Thank you.

Sometimes, I think, there has been some joint participation between the department and the Students Against Drunk Driving in combatting impaired driving such as check stops and so on. To date, I don’t believe there have been joint efforts with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, but the department would be willing to entertain any joint initiatives that Mothers Against Drunk Driving would like to propose to the department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would ask if the department would consider, during their next campaign, to involve local chapters of MADD and SADD for drunk driving awareness. Thank you.

The department would be pleased to, like I said, look at any proposal that may come from MADD on ways that we can work together along with Students Against Drunk Driving to do check stops or other things we have been doing under the Drive Alive! program at the Department of Transportation. Thank you.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this session I did a statement on nursing in Tsiigehtchic. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

I would like an update on the nurse that was committed to in this Chamber last February. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.