Legislative Assembly Briefs
MLA pitches time off for wellness
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Friday, March 10, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson is urging the territorial government to consider giving GNWT workers an additional five paid days off a year for "wellness."
"To truly achieve a healthy and sustainable work-life balance for its employees, the government needs to consider the creation of employee wellness days as part of the overall wellness strategy," said Thompson on Tuesday.
He suggested the days off fall on the third Friday in February and four Fridays before long weekends to give employees more time for family, hobbies and themselves.
"This will give GNWT employees extra-long weekends to recharge their batteries and return to work rested and enthusiastic," Thompson said.
He cited job cuts, layoffs, contract negotiations and sedentary jobs as some of the reasons these days are needed. These days would come on top of existing vacation packages and the five days off at Christmas known as "Donny Days" after former premier Don Morin who introduced the formerly mandatory unpaid leave as a cost-saving measure in 2016. The Union of Northern Workers has since successfully negotiated to have those days paid.
Human Resources Minister Robert C. McLeod said the GNWT isn't looking to expand leave provisions.
"We presently provide very generous vacation, sick, and special leave provisions to our employees," said McLeod.
Petition proposes eliminating time changes
The days will start getting longer this Sunday when NWT residents turn their clocks forward by an hour. But some people want to do away with the need to switch over clocks altogether.
A petition to permanently adopt daylight savings time in the NWT and stop turning the clocks back each fall made its way into the legislative assembly on Tuesday.
"This will result in an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day during the darkest months of the year, when we need it most," the petition states.
Yellowknife North MLA Cory Vanthuyne presented the petition in the legislative assembly on Tuesday.
Yellowknife city councillor Julian Morse started the petition in November.
It closed on Jan. 30 with a total of 533 online signatures.
A motion passed to refer the petition to Standing Committee on Social Development on Thursday. Vanthuyne said the committee would then look at what effects the elimination of time changes could have.
Jail security improvements underway
Work on a new fence around the North Slave Correctional Complex could break ground this summer, the justice minister suggested Tuesday, although he said the government still needs to secure funding approval.
The justice department received approval during capital budget talks last fall to install new security cameras at the jail and improve the perimeter fence "along the west property line to the main Kam Lake driveway entrance," Justice Minister Louis Sebert said at the legislative assembly.
"It is expected that tendered documents on those two projects are currently being prepared for a spring tender and summer construction," he said.
The improvements come after accused murderer Denecho King escaped from the correctional centre in August, leading to a four-day manhunt across Yellowknife.
Sebert reassured MLAs that the public is safe and that fixes are already underway to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
Committee scolds MACA
MLAs gave the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs a slap on the wrist in its report on how the department supports community governments.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations was reviewing a scathing auditor general's report that found "MACA's support to community governments was inadequate to help mitigate risks in the key essential service areas of waste management, emergency preparedness planning, and fire protection services," the committee's report states.
The auditor general did find MACA helped communities maintain safe drinking water.
But the standing committee was unimpressed with MACA's tardiness when it came to providing the committee with its action plan to address the auditor general's 13 recommendations.
The committee says it was left with half a day to consider MACA's 36-page action plan, calling it "unacceptable."
"The committee appreciates the well intended apology offered by the deputy minister but is of the view that the late provision of important materials to the standing committee evidences either a lack of understanding or a lack of respect, on the part of the department, for the standing committee's oversight role in the process," the report says.
The committee recommended the department provide documents at least three business days prior to the public review of the auditor general's report.
MLAs endorsed the auditor general's recommendations and made seven recommendations to MACA. They included simplifying the department's action plan and creating indicators to measure progress on meeting the auditor general's recommendations.
