Question 69-16(2) Barriers To Hiring Persons With Disabilities  Mr. Speaker, I’m glad to hear that the Minister is open to working with the Council of Persons with Disabilities. I’d be most pleased to help him facilitate that. I mentioned in my statement that I believe that persons with disabilities priority ought to be changed. I would lik

Question 69-16(2) Barriers To Hiring Persons With Disabilities  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s reluctance to state an answer right here. But I would urge that we move forward on changing the priority. For me, it’s a no-cost item. We’re simply encouraging. We are giving people employment who deserve it, and we’re not actually spend

Bill 2 Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 3, 2007-2008  Mr. Chairman, I just have a couple of comments. This is a new process for me. This is the first sup appropriation that I have seen, and I want to echo the comments of my colleague Mr. McLeod, in that it seems to me that many of these expenditures in this supplementary appropriati

Bill 2 Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 3, 2007-2008  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m a little dismayed at the amount of this item: the $739,000 for the increase in contributions to the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority pension plan. It seems to me, and from what I understand, that this is an extra contribution that’s been re

Bill 2 Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 3, 2007-2008  Just a follow-up comment. I understand it’s going to cost us some money to bring these guys into our public service. But I think, in the long run, it is going to save money. I would encourage the Minister of Finance to encourage his colleagues to get this underway and spend the m

Impact Of G.N.W.T. Affirmative Action Policy On Persons With Disabilities  I would like to bring to the attention of this House an inequality that exists in the N.W.T. public service. For quite a few years now, we’ve had an Affirmative Action Policy in place to enable the hiring of certain target groups of Northerners as G.N.W.T. employees. This policy

Impact Of G.N.W.T. Affirmative Action Policy On Persons With Disabilities  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. We need to remedy this situation as soon as possible and can do that by removing barriers to hiring persons with disabilities. We must: (1) change the Affirmative Action Policy to show persons with disabilities as P1 priority — a n

Role Of G.N.W.T. Civil Service In Budget Development  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My hearing is going; I didn’t hear you the first time. Mr. Speaker, since the Finance Minister’s fiscal strategy announcement, which outlined the need for massive budget reductions for 2008-2009, Members have all been working very hard considering how to

Question 54-16(2) Role Of G.N.W.T. Civil Service In Budget Development  Mr. Speaker, I’d like to follow up on my statement in which I talked about using our employees as a resource. I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources what mechanisms currently exist for staff to provide input into our annual budget process?

Question 54-16(2) Role Of G.N.W.T. Civil Service In Budget Development  So I take it from the Minister’s answer that there are no formal mechanisms and processes in regard to input for the budget. I would ask the Minister whether or not there are any mechanisms in place, apart from the informal system that he’s already outlined, for an individual o

Question 54-16(2) Role Of G.N.W.T. Civil Service In Budget Development  Mr. Speaker, having heard the Minister’s answer, I’m sensing that there is not a strong formal program at the moment for input from staff. Two questions, I guess. Maybe I’ll ask them one at a time. The first one is whether or not the Minister can advise if there’s any real inpu

Question 54-16(2) Role Of G.N.W.T. Civil Service In Budget Development  Thank you, Mr. Minister. Yes, I am looking for a formal program with monetary recognition. I think it’s important. The Minister mentioned that there was a program earlier with nominal recognition. To my mind, something like 10 per cent of the amount of savings which are garnered

Question 46-16(2) Wind Energy Demonstration Project  In my statement I talked about the Remote Community Wind Energy Conference, which was held in December of this past year. Actually, I believe it was November; I’ll correct myself. The conference report was expected in January of ’08, and it’s now February. So my question is to

Question 46-16(2) Wind Energy Demonstration Project  That was before the end of this fiscal year, so I guess that will be the 31st of March. Okay, thank you. When can we expect to see a community identified for the wind energy demo project that was a recommendation from the conference ? I t also was a recommendation in

Question 46-16(2) Wind Energy Demonstration Project  I’d like to follow up and ask the Minister when he expects there will be some sort of advancement of the development of the regulatory and policy framework that is required in regard to selling and producing wind energy.