Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With me I have Tom Williams, deputy minister of Human Resources.

Mr. Speaker, yes, we are going to shake things up and especially now that we know they can grow one-pound potatoes in the Sahtu. This is an area that we are looking at and combined we have to also look at inter-settlement trade so that we can move the resources around and so on. I think this is a very important initiative for this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I should point out that it wasn’t that long ago, maybe 20 or 30 years ago, where because of our isolation in the Northwest Territories, that most, I’d say all of the communities were self-sufficient and self-reliant with regard to food production. We’re now at the stage where we’re starting to take baby steps and we’re starting with the Small Scale Foods Program. We’re starting to look at bigger ventures. I think that some Members have raised agriculture as an option, and that’s something that we continue to look at. Even others as we get further into it, we could see how we can continue to...

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize Mr. Ian Burkheimer, who is the director of Partnerships with the Pacific Northwest Economic Region and accompanying him is Linda Ecklund, senior economist with ITI. Of course, I have to recognize my constituent from Yellowknife South, Dawn McInnes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What this project will do is it will allow us to streamline our administrative processes through fixing the foundation as part of our 20/20: A Brilliant North, the NWT Human Resources strategic plan. This will allow us to reduce the significant inefficiencies of people and manual-based shift scheduling.

With the software based shift scheduling, services will be used to maximize resource usage. This will include having the right qualified staff in the right place at the right time, monitoring rules for overtime to maximize regular hours versus overtime, and utilizing...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will jump on the wagon if I can find one. Seriously, this is an objective and a goal for us. There are some challenges that we will have to address. Anytime you serve food and you provide food, you have to deal with health guidelines and you have to make sure that the food is safe and fresh and so on. These are the kinds of challenges that we have to face, but I think on a go-forward basis we can begin to work at it and we can take small steps. The more successful we get as we go along, the bigger we can get. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In follow-up to the questioning by the Member, I did ask my Tourism Marketing Advisory Committee to look at ways to provide financial incentives, and in their view they feel that with the discounts that are offered by hotels and airlines and the promotional items that can be provided by local businesses, that that might be sufficient. I like the idea of looking at what the Yukon is doing. We do already provide a certain level of financial incentives through our SEED program. Thank you.

As I’ve indicated many times, the authority for staffing has been delegated down to individual departments, and the majority of competitions are filled through the staffing process and they’re posted on our websites. We are moving to e-Recruit and all of the jobs that we advertise will be on e-Recruit.

With regard to the deputy minister level positions, that is under the authority of the Premier. The Premier decides if he wants to put it out to competition or if he feels that we have sufficient people who are qualified to do it within the public service. Thank you.

Several years ago, when the Department of Personnel was decentralized, the training money was allocated to the departments. There are a number of programs. Right now we have a leadership program with the government. People can apply to be part of this program. Generally they need some support from the department and we have regular training modules that have been established through the University of Alberta. We also have an Associate Director Superintendent Program for aboriginal people whereby we’re trying to increase the number of aboriginal people in senior management positions. We have...