Statements in Debates
Thank you. I’d just like to ask the Minister, under this Regional Recruitment Strategy, he mentions that managers look at filling positions.
Have any of these positions resulted in direct appointments from the managers or from the department position that didn’t go out for public contest? Have any of these positions been direct appointments?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the short sitting time we have here – we only have two weeks and we can only do so many Members’ statements and questions – one area that I wanted to focus on was human resources and some of the issues that have come up with human resources. I know I asked questions back in our winter session about the Regional Recruitment Strategy and how we were taking some of our employees and giving them 80 percent of their salary and 20 percent goes to training.
Can I ask the Minister of Human Resources what the progress is on that? Last I heard, there was one person that went...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge, appreciate and give a sincere thank you to the Inuvik fire department. The Inuvik fire department currently has 40 members, including the fire chief, the deputy fire chief and the dispatch. Only the fire chief and the deputy fire chief are career firefighters. All other members are volunteers, and in fact, this might be the biggest volunteer fire department in the Northwest Territories. Our longest serving volunteer firefighter has been doing their job for over 30 years, as well, so his commitment, his experience that he...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the new program, I was hoping that we’d see more of these jobs being filled by people that aren’t employed in the GNWT or ones that are already at GNWT and can advance to management positions. I understand that we’re also reviewing our Public Service Act that reflects these direct appointments. The reason I’m getting into direct appointments is because I have had concerns of our P1 residents of the Northwest Territories not getting jobs and losing most of the jobs to people that have been living in the North not very long.
I just want to ask the Minister, what is...
That’s definitely something that’s good to hear about. It’s a lot better update than the one we received during the winter session where there was just one individual in the program. Should an employee of the GNWT or somebody looking for a job would want to get into this type of program, how is the person able to access the department rather than the department recognizing these positions and just looking at filling them.
How can an individual approach the department, their manager or even the Department of Human Resources? What steps would an employee of the GNWT need to take to get...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. Byrne Richards and all the work that he has done in the mental health and addictions field and his consideration for people with addictions. Welcome to the House.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It was a recommendation that I think came out of the 2000 report, as well, and something that went right back, I think it even mentioned 1977. It talked about requiring financial and human resources for this area with child and family services and nothing has been developed. There has been no caseload standards being developed and we’ve heard in some cases where a certain child protection worker might have had up to 100 cases and some of them might only have a few. So we want to make sure it’s something standardized, caseload management, and that each health authority...
Thank you, Madam Chair. In consultations with the department, we did hear that there were informal consultations with the child protection workers. We want to make sure that there’s something formally in place where instead of child protection workers being afraid to say how they really feel, that as front-line workers, as case workers seeing what’s happening in the homes, on the streets, in the communities, that they provide the recommendations that will really have a strong impact and effect on this act as we move forward and that it should come from the bottom up rather than top down and...
Thank you, Madam Chair. The Auditor General did indicate that when he was doing their questioning, some of the child protection workers did indicate that they did receive training, but the level of training that they did receive varied from child protection worker to child protection worker, and I feel that that is something that needs to be standardized and something that needs to be in place so that all children that are in child protection cases have the same equal service delivery and we provide that same service delivery. Thank you.
Yes, just briefly, Madam Chair. Just speaking in terms of wraparound services and all those that are working with our child that is in care, I think it is almost common sense and with the Health Information Act that we’re working on that this might be something that we can move forward into where RCMP, teachers and anybody associated with the high-risk child or the child in service that some kind of plan of care of treatment is in place, so this is something that we’d like the department to work on.