Bob McLeod

Our experience with the staff retention policy is that if there’s no suitable job for an individual in their home community, they could look at jobs in other locations if they’re mobile and willing to move.

I guess I should have been more specific. The $628,000 is part of HR; $270,000 is the part that’s here in the directory. The remainder is in HR strategy and policy.

Mr. Chair, we have seven regional offices in the Northwest Territories.

In terms of the positions to be reduced, those were put forward by the departments. Of course, HR put forward their own reductions. It was our responsibility to make sure that those affected were dealt with properly.

The main change to the Revised Estimates is because of the technical service centre chargeback adjustments. That was the main reason for the change.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The departments have been delegated authority to do staffing and recruitment. So, as such, they have the authority to do that.

The department put forward a position that was supported by the union — recognizing that there are 5,800 employees that were concerned about the discussions on budget reductions that we took to Cabinet recommending that we provide early notification.

I guess there are a number of reasons for the backlog. Our government workforce is aging. I think 40 per cent of our employees are eligible to retire within the next ten years, so I would expect that is the reason for the backlog.

We can provide most of that information probably today. We just have to make copies of it.