This is page numbers 1989 - 2018 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was need.

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Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

I will start by saying that no Minister, no elected Minister in this House, left during Christmas because I believe that, as elected officials, all of us, all of us in this House as elected officials, are responsible for being role models to the residents of the Northwest Territories. We cannot change the past, but I do know that the public was hurt. I also know that over 1,500 people from the Northwest Territories left the NWT for leisure travel during that time. I also know that it was not an order; it was a recommendation, so nobody broke the law, even the residents who left. No one broke the law.

It has been a tough, tough year. People have gone, as the Member said, without funerals, without seeing families, all kinds of issues. People are making personal choices. However, I do believe that everyone who left made those personal choices and had tough decisions to make and that they made them in the best interests as they saw fit.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

I was referring to public servants, not elected officials. Yes, we elected officials, we have not been travelling. I have not been travelling since the announcement came out, so I am speaking directly about public servants. They are responsible for their public funds. They are public servants, so these are areas of concern that were brought to our attention, and we have to keep in mind that there is accountability from this government to the public. The public, there is an outcry, and who is accountable? The Premier is accountable for that. The next line of question will be that I would like to get more information. Will the Premier provide this Assembly with a complete list of ministerial travel, including destination and purposes, both personal and official, since the COVID public health emergency was first declared last spring?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Actually, I do believe that the ministerial travel is posted on the website and is available to all Members already. I think it has been done. My understanding is that no Minister, as I said, has left the territories since COVID-19. The only Minister who actually left the territories when COVID started was myself, as Premier, at the beginning of COVID, when I was down there and I got hit. Sorry, I have been corrected. There was a Minister, again, who left because of extenuating circumstances, but not during the Christmas period. That record is public. That record can be obtained. If the Member does not know where to access it, let me know, and I will let him know where to access it.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Premier. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Masi, Mr. Speaker. For the sake of the public trust, which I feel the trust has been broken, our political leaders and senior bureaucrats must set the high standards of conduct, whether it be in this House or outside this House, especially during a public health crisis. What rules is the Premier putting in place to ensure such regrettable double standards are not seen again in the ranks of our government? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Again, we can't change the past, but we need to learn from the past. As stated to Members when we spoke in other times, I made a commitment. I did. I talked to all of our Ministers and said, "Please, don't leave unless it's extenuating circumstances." People do have extenuating circumstances, medical travel, loss of family members, horrible stories have happened over COVID-19, and I wouldn't want to penalize anyone for those things. That's not the goal of protecting our residents, is to penalize people; it's to keep people safe.

I had spoken to our Ministers, and I had spoken to all of our senior official staff. I told our senior staff verbally and in writing, and I believe I shared that with the Members, the standing committee on the other side, as well. I have told them that there are legal issues with that. We can't tell people that they can't leave the territory. That is a human right of people, but I have told them that I will not be supporting any travel, unless its extreme situations, until COVID-19 is done. We try to learn from our lessons. I apologize to the public who have been hurt by this. That was not the intent. I want to also state that, not only Ministers, I'm hoping that all Members will also be role models and not leave the territory until COVID-19 is done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, my questions are for MACA, and I am asking for help in regards to bussing services in the community of Tuktoyaktuk. This past week, the weather has been minus 63 for a few days, and we are looking to seek pots of funding and to work with the Minister in the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk. I know that the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk has a letter in to the Minister. We would like to work with her going forward to try to provide funds for the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct. I have been having conversations with the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk in regards to their busing services for Reindeer Point. It is located, I don't know how many kilometres, outside of the community, and I do hear the Member about the weather conditions as well, having the residents access basic needs in the community, as well, getting to the Northern Store, getting supplies, health appointments. I do want to assure the Member that we do have the operation and maintenance funding to the communities, water and sewer capital, and gas tax funding, as well, but we don't have specifically for these type of services. I will be working with the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk to resolve this issue. It does open up the conversation, as well, for the other communities in the Northwest Territories that do have these built-up areas located outside of their local communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

I thank the Minister for that. Would the Minister at least agree to cost share the busing services for the community? They have been doing this for the past three years, and it is really affecting what they are able to do to provide other services to the community. Is the Minister willing to at least provide some sort of funding relief for the community?

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

This year MACA did provide additional funding for our COVID response for communities throughout the Northwest Territories. It just lay within their hamlet and their council, how they were going to spend this additional funding throughout their community. I will follow up with the Member, as well, and I would like to take another look at their business plan and what my department has created with the hamlet out of that and looking to see what funding we could possibly be looking at. Once again, MACA doesn't have funding that is specifically provided for busing; 87 percent of our budget is distributed out to the communities, hamlets, charter communities, towns, and villages.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Would the Minister look at just talking to her federal counterpart in regards to getting that funding and increase the budget for the hamlets across the territory? I know that everyone is struggling and trying to provide services due to influx of COVID monies from the federal government. Are they able to try to redirect that to the communities across the territory?

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Yes, we are in conversations with the federal government in looking at the additional funding for smaller communities. I just wanted to reassure the Member that the funding that Tuktoyaktuk receives annually, all combined together with the pots, is approximately $4 million annually.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final short supplementary. Member for Nunakput.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, the executive, I guess, that I will be meeting with next week to try to come to an agreement to work with the Minister, are coming to Yellowknife next week for meetings. I would like to ask the Minister if she would be willing to meet with the SAO and the mayor of Tuktoyaktuk when they're in town in the next two weeks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Unfortunately, I will be returning back to my riding, and we will be having a grand opening in one of the smaller communities for our seniors centre, but I will follow up with the Member for future dates that we would be able to meet with the Hamlet. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT has launched their annual summer student recruitment campaign. Last year, due to COVID, this was cut short. Many students were impacted. I am happy to hear that the Minister advised my colleague from Thebacha yesterday how it is moving ahead. My question for the Minister of Finance is: how is the government's Affirmative Action Policy incorporated into the government's summer student hiring process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Finance.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Affirmative Action Policy applies to the summer student and internship programs, just as it does to all GNWT hires. Hiring managers are expected to be fully aware of all of those policies, certainly, and as I had referenced earlier, there are a variety of training tools, including an online tool kit for new managers as maybe needed so that they can employ that policy in this form of hiring as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

When a request is received to hire a summer student, is the hiring manager provided with information on the government's Affirmative Action Policy and how it applies to summer students?

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Yes. There is a database that gets created, which is why summer students are asked to register and interns are asked to register as part of the process. When a hiring manager wants to participate in that, they have to get access to the database. When they get access to the database, they are reminded that the hiring process does still need to apply the Affirmative Action Policy. That reminder is right there. Again, at this point, they really should be versed in those policies as part of their training as being managers.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

I'm just going to go down to my next question. What mechanisms are in place to assisting hiring managers to ensure they are appropriately applying the Affirmative Action Policy when hiring summer students?

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

I sense the theme of where this is going, and really, all of the policies in the world are really only as good as the people who are applying them. I am conscious of that. We certainly talk a lot within the Department of Finance around making sure that training is available and accessible; that the drive to give employees time to take their training is there; and that there's a conscious awareness from the top down that, really, we want employees to take the training. We want managers to be abreast of their training. We want them all to have those opportunities to take the right training so that they can do the best to employ the good policies that we do have and raise issues if there needs to be changes.

I do gather the general direction of the questions here, but more specifically on this one, I will also say, if there are students who are looking to be hired who are not a priority 1 or a priority 2, it is expected that the manager will go back to human resources, will check back in with them before simply proceeding, and, indeed, if in the end there is a hiring that is outside of those priority candidates, they are expected to go through the deputy ministers.