The clock is now ticking for employees at the Fort Smith Correctional Centre, namely those working in the men's unit.

It was announced during budget discussions earlier this year that cutting out funding for the centre would save the GNWT an estimated $2.7 million, but the GNWT decided to keep the funding in place for one year this past June.

That funding is due to sunset once the current fiscal year ends on March 31, 2025 and Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins wanted to know what will happen to the dozens of employees that could find themselves out of work at the end of that month.

"I was getting phone calls (and) text messages (Monday) from people in the South Slave, more particularly both in Hay River and Fort Smith, regarding the layoff notice given to the Fort Smith correctional centre staff," he said on Tuesday. "The Finance Minister did say during Committee of the Whole (debate) back in June that they were pausing it with an uncosted plan, but they were going to propose something."

Hawkins added that he had emailed Premier R.J. Simpson on Monday evening about the matter.

In response, Finance Minister Caroline Wawzonek said layoff notices have not been given out to those who could be affected, but rather meetings took place between employees and representatives from the Departments of Finance and Justice on Oct. 25.

"If the time is coming up, rather than waiting until formal notices are provided that staff actually have information in advance, they could have choices, they could ask questions in advance," she said. "That way when the clock does start to tick on getting a formal notice, people have the opportunity to make choices well in advance and with lots of time ahead of them."

That didn't sit well with Hawkins, who wondered if the visit was "a friendly conversation that we don't know what we're doing, or what type of notice was specifically given to these 32 employees."

"What I'm hearing are concerns that they were giving specific job action notice," said Hawkins. "In other words, your job's ending and here's your notice. Maybe the Minister could be very clear on the record to explain what exactly was told to the employees with respect to their employment."

Wawzonek, who told the House that she wasn't there for the meeting, said that if people are facing a change in their employment status, the GNWT implements what's called the staff retention policy.

"A staff member would get a 21-week notice period (and) that clock starts to run when someone gets their notice," she said. "They were not given their notice. Rather than waiting until someone gets their notice, senior members went and met with individuals ahead of the time when that notice would have to be given so that when they get their notice, they are actually able to make choices about what types of route they may want to take in order to enact under the staff retention policy."

Wawzonek added that some of the affected employees are eligible to take retirement, while others could transfer within the GNWT.