Bob McLeod

We’ll look at our budget for employee recognition, and we’ll work with the Department of Environment to see whether we can develop this.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left I have Sharilyn Alexander, acting deputy minister of Human Resources, and on my right I have Shaleen Woodward, the director of human resources strategy and policy.

I don’t think you need to attribute it to lack of sleep. The money for locums is paid for out of Health and Social Services Authorities. I don’t have access to that information. We do know that the Minister of Health would have it, so…. I don’t know if you can ask that question now or if you can wait until she appears in front of the committee.

I don’t think we break out leave according to stress leave; it’s usually sick leave or extended leave. I think we can do an analysis by going through and reviewing the documentation for extended leave or sick leave.

Mr. Chair, we have an employee recognition program that recognizes staff when they achieve certain levels of service in terms of longevity.

We also have an employee recognition program where employees or teams can be recognized by their peers. We call it the Premier’s Awards of Excellence. We provide for long-service awards for each department on an annual basis.

This is certainly something we could consider. I know that in the past energy conservation was a goal that was expected of all deputies, and it was part of their performance measurement. We also had a program where employees could submit ideas for reducing costs and they would get monetary rewards based on how much money they saved the government. That program was eliminated about five years ago because they weren’t getting any suggestions after awhile. I think initially it was well received. We do have the Arctic Energy Alliance environmental awards, but I think it would be worthwhile to look...

I thought that’s what I was doing with this statement. This panel has not been created. I would welcome any input the Members may have. The panel will advise me on areas within my responsibility.

Mr. Chair, when I was referring to a reduction of $1.5 million, I was referring to expenditures. Because we weren’t utilizing as many high-priced agency nurses, we were saving $1.5 million.

With regard to the graduates from Aurora College, 15 of 18 eligible northern registered nurse graduates applied for graduate placement in 2008: 11 Aurora College degree graduates, two Aurora College diploma graduates and two southern educational institution degree graduates. Ten graduates accepted their offer of employment, all in acute-care facilities: one in Inuvik, seven at Stanton and two in Fort Smith...

I appreciate that from the Member. I agree it was probably inappropriate, and we’ll reactivate it and get it back to the list.

We had targets, and we asked the management to identify the positions. We were working under the direction that we were to minimize person-year reductions as much as possible. So we decided we would use vacant positions to fill our reductions for the Department of HR.