Bob McLeod

Because it was a vacant position. To me it’s a moot point, but if it’s important that it be activated, we can reactivate it.

Well, I guess the analysis that was done was identified as an area in which we could get away with one less person, so I guess you could call that an analysis. I am not sure how detailed an analysis the Member would have been looking for, but we did look across the department to see if there were areas where we could make reductions, and this was one area.

I think the reduction of one-half of the nurse educator mentor will affect our ability to provide hands-on services to the authorities. We recognize it will reduce our ability to do that, but we will be focusing our efforts entirely on supporting new nursing graduates. Our expectation is that over the next few years the number of graduate nurses will be reduced. For example, next year with the intake of the program the expectation is that there will be seven graduates as opposed to the 15 or 20 this year.

I do agree.

We do have the benefit of previous arbitrations that have ruled that when an employee terminates, they are not entitled to those funds that are attributed to Donnie Days.

Well, that’s why we have funded positions. If you have 100 positions and you have a million dollars — each position’s worth $10,000 or whatever — if you reduce by one position on the POI side, you reduce the money side by an appropriate amount. You eliminate one PY on the one side. So if the competency officer costs $100,000 or his salary is $100,000, then you would reduce the salary dollars by $100,000.

Mr. Chair, we are looking at a number of areas. Certainly in the area of staffing, we are looking at moving away from recruiting through the papers and moving more toward the Internet and computers like other jurisdictions do. We are looking at those kinds of areas. Certainly we think that with the vast expanses of the Northwest Territories, that would be one area where we can grow and reduce our costs.

Mr. Chair, with regard to the number of employees and potential retirement, that was based on the analysis of employees and pension information. We’re assuming that most people will retire when they reach a certain age.

With regard to summer students, 205 summer students have been hired. Our numbers are probably a little lower than in previous years. I think a lot of it can be attributed to the fact that this year we have an interim supply, where the money runs out at the end of June. So our expectation is that if we put on a full-scale direction to departments, we’ll get more summer students...

I’m quite prepared to hear from that individual. I should also point out that individuals who want to retire or are close to retirement…. We can’t be seen to be coercing them into retirement, because then it becomes a human rights issue. But our existing policies provide for voluntary separation for those individuals who are close to retirement and would like to see themselves replaced by potentially affected employees. Certainly, I would be very pleased to hear about it, because our existing policies do provide for exactly what the Member is telling me.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is an area in which the department has been working very closely with Health and Social Services and Stanton to not only reduce the rapidly growing costs but also to develop our own northern workforce. I think that over the past three years or so this program has been in place we’ve been very successful. Agency nursing fees are down 70 per cent. Projected costs have decreased by about $1.5 million. We do have 422 nurses in the casual nurse float pool. These are further broken out into two categories: a pool to cover the community health nurses and also hospital...