This is page numbers 2867 - 2906 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 know.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Would the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment support the NWT Arts Council as an independent arts organization? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the Member for Frame Lake asked these questions not long ago, I gave the answer that I would look in to the viability of creating an independent arm's length arts organization in the territory, and that is still the plan. We are going to look into this, what would it look like, what would it cost, and what could it do. So we're beginning that work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm wondering about timelines. I like to have timelines. So since the department recognizes that the 181.5 million federal dollars flowing to the Canada Arts Council -- for the arts, sorry, is not accessible to the territorial government, when will the department commit to reviewing the organizational structure for the NWT arts so that we can make it an arm's length organization. So I know they're looking into it right now. We've just come off of almost two years of the department reviewing an arts strategy. So I'm wondering what kind of timeline are they working towards.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the work to determine when that happens is underway. We are going to do a full review of arts funding programs across the territory. This isn't something that can be done in isolation, just creating an arts council. We need to take stock of what we're doing, how much are we spending, and how effective is it, and how can it be improved by the creation of something like an arm's length arts council. So that work is happening over the coming years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has the capacity to complete this work during the length of the 19th Assembly? Thank you.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Depending on what you prioritize, you can get a lot done in the next couple years. That being said, there is a lot of work that, like I just mentioned, we want to do in conjunction with this. And that is reviewing the programs that we have, how effective they are, determining if there's better places we could put our money, and one of those things we're going to look at is the arts council and what it could look like in the future. So I'd like to say that we could just get it done, but I also want to make sure that we research it, we look at what's happening in other jurisdictions, and then we do something that's right for the territory given our specific circumstances, because I don't want to create an organization that is set up to fail. I don't want to create an organization that is going to be very costly and not produce results. So we have to do all of this work before just moving ahead with something. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. Sometimes I don't say enough good things about my colleagues across the floor. So I want to congratulate the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for increasing income assistance for some of our residents in the flood-impacted communities. I think that was a really good move on the part of his department. But I'd like to know which communities are receiving the top-up. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for ECE.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the income assistance regulations, the department can issue an emergency allowance to income assistance clients when there is an emergency. And in this instance, there -- the emergency allowance was issued to income assistance clients in Fort Simpson and zones 1, 2, and 3 in Fort Good Hope. There are no income assistance clients in Jean Marie River, otherwise we would have supported them as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks very much to the Minister for that forward-looking work by his department. I'm just wondering, were these payments like one-time payments or are they going to be ongoing in some way? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The emergency payments are one time and so they were issued when the emergency occurred, and, you know, if you look at, like somewhere like Aklavik, it's my understanding that there hasn't been flood damage and power outages the way there has been in places like Jean Marie and Fort Simpson, and so the benefits haven't been issued there. But if that were to change, then I'm sure the director of income assistance would issue those benefits accordingly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister again for his response. I know that our colleagues on the other side have made commitments that we're going to get people back into their homes in time before winter, and so what kind of discretion is there recognizing that people -- some people are probably going to be out of their homes for a number of months. What kind of discretion is there to continue these top-up payments over a period of time and what sort of criteria would be used to trigger that action? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as I stated, they are the one-time emergency payments. So if there is a flood and the power goes out, someone loses all the food in their refrigerator. This is a one-time payment to help them buy food and things like that. So there is no plan to continue these one-time payments. And as for additional flood relief, that is a different department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.

Oral Question 772-19(2): Human Resources Issues
Oral Questions

June 4th, 2021

Page 2884

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I wasn't going to ask any questions but just listening to some of the comments here today, I'm going to go back to my questions that I asked the Minister of human resources the other day.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if she is aware of the unspoken practice and culture within the human resources wherein hiring staff will brown- and blacklist potential applicants and existing employees from advancing within the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for Finance.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, this is not -- there is not a blanket practice as what is described by the Member. Mr. Speaker, I -- this is a human system of 5,000 people strong. It is populated by wonderful people who work across the public service, great people in human resources. Does that mean that every single process and every single time at every single hiring is -- produces the end result that every person wants it to? Well, the end result is that some people don't get jobs. What we want is to have a process that is clear, transparent, accessible, and that is the purpose of human resources. That's the goal. That's what we are working towards. And as I said earlier, always recognize that continually in human nature, there will be opportunities to do better and to improve the systems that we're in, and it is my intention to oversee that and to see that we achieve that goal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, you know, listening to the comments in the room, you know, it surprises me that -- I'm not saying that all human resource staff are negligent. I think we have to look at the superintendents of each region. I think we've got to see where the direction comes from and a direction to go through. So with that, Mr. Speaker, does the Minister recognize that the hiring staff have sometimes been retaliated against certain individuals based on the applicant's or employee's association with certain people whom hiring staff doesn't like or like, know, or like personally? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, there's no place for retaliation in the human resources processes of the -- in the Government of the Northwest Territories. I believe that my office is very accessible, and I hope that it is. I've had many MLAs reach out to me and individuals who often felt that they wanted to raise a concern that they couldn't raise somewhere else. I hope that that continues. There is no place for retaliation. There's no place for that kind of favoritism. And if there's an opportunity to speak to someone to work through something to identify an issue to confirm if there's been something that's not according to that process and according to these practices, then we will do our best to find that out and to work it through so that it does not have a place in the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, I hear the Ministers saying there's accessibility. Accessibility is extremely hard, okay. Sure, the MLAs have accessibility. But what about the poor person on the street? Do they have accessibility to actually say what they actually felt when they went for an interview and is refused again, over and over? Can the Minister tell whether staff incompetence or employee insubordination may be part of the problems relating to broader human issues in the Government of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to try to be helpful and not repeat my answers but the simple fact is I'm back to the same response I gave at the beginning, that there are wonderful public servants and good people in human resources doing their very best to make sure that their processes are fair and that they are modern and that they are in keeping with the best practices of human resources processes anywhere else in Canada or the world.

Now, when I say about accessibility, I certainly have heard from individual employees direct to me. I have certainly heard from my own constituents direct to me. And, you know -- and in each case, if it's a constituency or if it's an MLA matter, what I am able to then do is see that the background and the process that was followed, identify if in fact there's an area where maybe we could do better, be more clear, to offer better information, to offer more, you know, plain language information, if there's more we could do to offer supports with resumé writing, with interview preparation, understanding why, you know, an interview was graded mainly the way it was. All of those are tools, skills, things that we can continue to do on top of which we have and I -- you know, again, the Indigenous recruitment and retention framework is going to be a very different way of governing the process of human resources in the Government of the Northwest Territories. We have training programs that continually roll out. And in addition to all of that, it's been made plainly obvious to me that, in fact, you know, there's other pinch points that we need to be looking at. That's the job of human resources and headquarters here is to continue to do that and to look again and again at what it is that we have, what it is that we use, what is it that's on offer - can we modernize?

Mr. Speaker, that's been -- I believe been a consistent message I've tried to put forward as the Minister responsible. It's the message I'm going to continue to put forward as the Minister responsible. And in the interim, when there are times when someone feels that the process hasn't been properly applied, I encourage people to reach out to their MLA, to reach out to me, to reach out to their union. That's why we have all of these systems here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.