Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Public Works and Services. Will the Minister confirm when a planning study will be undertaken for replacement of the school in Aklavik?

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated earlier, that school will be scheduled for replacement or a major upgrade about 20 years after the last mid-life retrofit, and that would be in 2019. If we work backwards, I’m assuming that construction will begin in 2019. Then the planning

study, if we’re following the cycle, should start in 2017.

Last week the Minister did confirm that we were going to go ahead with construction for a new school here. My question pertains to the community consultation.

Will the Minister assure me that his department will consult with the community members to ensure a new school building accommodates their needs?

We have a capital planning process and the capital planning process takes the department’s requests for new infrastructure through five different filters and then once the projects are categorized they will go through five more filters. At that point it is determined that we are going to move forward, that this was the project that was highest on the points, and then we move to a planning process. After the planning process is complete, actually the following year, we go to design detail. It is during the design detail that there is community consultation that will occur. There’s a schematic design and then when there’s a detailed design, then there will be a community consultation process. But there are discussions with the communities through the organizations that are responsible for the infrastructure from the very beginning of the process.

There are a number of problems with this school here, whether it’s the foundation, electrical, plumbing, a number of issues. This building was built in 1969. That’s well over the 40 year mark. It’s time for a replacement. We had confirmation last week. Will the Minister live up to his confirmation that there will be a new building?

Thank you. We know that Moose Kerr building is actually in pretty good physical shape. We are going to run it through the capital process. There’s no doubt we have been maintaining the building and it is in good shape, so we’re pleased about that. Even though the schedules have time periods as to when the buildings should be replaced, sometimes the buildings are in very good condition and then, in that case, for the sake of the money, we could effectively do a major renovation. But as I indicated, there is a plan to replace that building in 2019. The process leading up to that, I’m indicating that the process will start in 2016 and then a planning study in 2017. From there it just flows to when the building is commissioned, which would be, I guess, between 2019 and 2020.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final closing, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The policy kind of conflicts here. First it says whether the building is over 40 years old you will get a new

building. Then it says 20 years after major retrofit, which will still be way over 40 years.

So I’d like to ask the Minister, will the Minister ensure that Moose Kerr School is put on the right flag list? Thank you.

The Department of Education is going to put this into the capital planning process. What we essentially do is compare project to project using various filters, protection of people, protection of assets, protection of environment, financial investment, and the need for programs and so on. After that we do the scale of the impact, the severity of the impact, the urgency and also the mitigation factors. So those are filters that we use for all capital planning. In that way we’re able to compare one capital project against another and it makes sure that the process is an objective process. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources some questions about the department’s position on employees who have been charged. I’m not too clear if they’ve got a policy or a guideline or a procedure or how it works when it comes to our employees. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Each case is quite specific. It would depend on whether or not the individual was management, excluded, union. In the case where an individual was unionized, then what we’d recommend to the employee, if there are issues that they’re not happy with if they’re to be charged and not feeling that they’re being treated fairly by the departments, is they have the option to deal with their union. Thank you.

Earlier in my Member’s statement I spoke about the presumption of innocence, which means, of course, you’re innocent until proven guilty. I’ve got a scenario where an employee was actually suspended without pay, pending the court case. If there’s no policy or guidelines, how can this happen? Like, we’re an employer, we’ve got beautiful policies on maintaining and keeping and expanding on our employees, yet when somebody gets in a situation like this we suspend them without pay. How can this happen? I’d like the Minister of Human Resources to answer that. Thank you.

Aside from any court situation, we have a code of conduct with our

employees. So, employees are expected to follow a code of conduct. There is also a possibility that individuals could be new employees and still be under probation. Therefore, there’s a possibility that the department could be looking at rejection based on probation. Thank you.

Natural justice must prevail. I clearly laid out in my Member’s statement with regard to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that people are innocent until proven guilty, yet here the Minister is saying perhaps they are breaching a code of conduct. They’re actually not. It has to be proven in a court of law. I would like to cover off in other departments, Justice, maybe RCMP, people are actually not suspended without pay. They are delegated other duties in their department.

Why are we taking a hard-line position, especially when we’re not following any natural justice process? I think we’ve got to be fair to all our employees, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

It is very difficult to speak in an open forum like this about individuals’ employment status. My best advice to the employee or to the Member, and the employee has gone to the Member for advice and support, is to actually discuss with the union the situation the employee is encountering. He is likely a union employee. In that case, then the union would provide the support necessary so that when he feels he is being treated unfairly, the union will represent that individual with the management of the department. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I know that the Minister thinks I’m trying to be specific, but I’m trying to be general about this. When it comes to treating employees fairly, it means treating them all fairly.

Why would we want to treat one employee more unfair than other employees, especially when he’s not management, he’s not an excluded employee and he’s fairly low level as an employee? So just generally, he’s sitting there, he’s the Minister of Human Resources, the law and natural justice must prevail and everybody must be treated equally, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

To be general, in the Public Service Act, Section 29 allows the deputy head to suspend individuals in the public service that are considered to have misconduct. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned back in February of 2013, I asked then-Minister of Health and Social Services about the right to a second opinion. He mentioned that they were hiring a policy officer to review the health benefits. The review of a second opinion is within that review.

I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, what is the update on that review of the health benefits? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.