Herb Mathisen
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, June 18, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - According to MLAs, the structure of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) needs to be re-examined.

Three consecutive committee motions addressed this Tuesday evening.

First, Dave Ramsay, MLA for Kam Lake, recommended ITI bring senior management positions into proportion with total positions in the department.

"Twenty-one senior management positions in a department the size of ITI is just too many," said Ramsay, who added that, in times of reduction, all departments should review their management structure.

Next, Jane Groenewegen, MLA for Hay River South, moved that ITI ensure all opportunities for decentralization be maximized.

"It is good, from time to time, to look at any functions that can be decentralized to the regions," said Groenewegen. "We just believe that ITI is a department that could potentially look at further opportunities."

Glen Abernethy, MLA for Great Slave, then put forward a motion requesting ITI look at bringing in more aboriginal employees into senior management.

"Although ITI does have a fairly decent aboriginal representation at the lower levels within the department, it is still low in the senior management and management-level positions," said Abernethy.

No Donnie Days money for laid-off employees

Wendy Bisaro, MLA for Frame Lake, asked the finance minister Wednesday what was happening to Donnie Days money collected from laid-off GNWT employees.

Bisaro said the government and the Union of Northern Workers (UNW) came to an agreement years ago that 1.92 per cent of each GNWT employee's paycheque would be deducted to pay them during their mandatory five days leave over Christmas.

"Both parties have also agreed that these pay deductions are attached to the job position and not the employee," said Bisaro.

Should an employee leave a position in the middle of the year, the new employee is still paid in full during Donnie Days, Bisaro said.

But since their position is being terminated, Bisaro said laid-off employees should be refunded the deducted amount.

"To add insult to injury, we are laying people off and we are reducing their salary for five days' leave that they will not be able to take," said Bisaro. "The money will not go to another employee as the position will be eliminated."

Floyd Roland, minister of Finance, said the government would have to sit down with the UNW to negotiate the refunds.

"The language in the agreement speaks to no reimbursements in this category," said Roland.

We want our money back - MLA

Glen Abernethy, MLA for Great Slave, asked Sandy Lee, minister of Health and Social Services, what the government was doing to collect Return of Service bursaries from students who did not complete their schooling or who have not returned to the NWT.

Return of Service agreements provide money to medical students to help them with their studies, on the condition that they return to the North to work after they graduate.

Abernethy said of the 13 or 14 bursaries awarded to medical students in the past couple of years, only two or three of those individuals had successfully completed their studies.

"I also believe none of them have returned," said Abernethy

He wanted to know how the returning of money was being enforced.

Lee said the agreements are "binding legal contracts."

"I am aware of a number of situations where employees have agreed to stay, and they just stayed long enough to work through their legal requirements," said Lee. "So that tells me that there are some enforcement measures being followed up on."