Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to have the deputy minister respond to the question.

Thank you. Maybe I’ll start off with this discussion a bit on the open house with Ms. Beard and then go to the deputy.

If the proprietors were able to come in with a new hospital, new construction, 30 percent bigger than what we have in place, 30 to 40 percent bigger than the current hospital, with a more reasonable cost than renovating and expanding the hospital, of course we would go with a new hospital, but at this point we were thinking that this would be the most efficient way to go. Once the proprietors are able to look at the project and cost the project out, we would have a better idea of which direction to go. Thank you.

It’s kind of an interesting comment. An unfilled position would be the only reason that we would be trying to fill it.

Also, in addition to that, the Member had requested how long the positions were inactive. That is something that we can get department-by-department information. Again, we would have to go back to the departments and determine how long each of those positions, the 71 positions, were inactive, so the department would be willing to talk to the other departments to get that information to the Member.

The budget that we were looking at for the hospital at the point when we had gone out to RFP, looked like in order to bring that in on the budget that we were looking at would be to renovate, renew the hospital while the hospital is in operation. If one of the proprietors is able to come in at a cost that was equal or lower for a new site, new building and everything, then the government would take a look at that as well. It’s not off the table. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There has been no change to the Direct Appointment Policy.

I indicated that there are 1,038 vacant positions. I guess just to give some numbers, overall vacancies reported in the previous report were 1,226. That dropped to 1,038. The vacancies to be filled went from 527 to 466, as I indicated. The use of casuals went from 15 percent to 18 percent. The positions to be inactivated have decreased considerably from 218 down to 71 positions. Positions that are home position individuals that were on transfer assignment, there were 84 of those types of positions.

I’m not sure that the department would be in the position to complete a legislative proposal to look at the energy efficiency act for the Northwest Territories. Currently, we are using the energy efficiency act that is used across the country. We use the energy efficiency and national energy efficiency codes when we do our buildings and make sure that all of our buildings are under the National Energy Code. These are building that are designed that exceed most of the energy efficiency requirements across the entire country and within the Northwest Territories. I’m assuming that Nunavut and the...

Had we left the 71 positions in the budget, then you would have seen a huge decrease, so what we did so that we’re able to compare apples to apples, was to remove completely retroactively to those positions left. It has no impact at all. Maybe what I am going to try to do is try to get Ms. Beard to add some of the details on how that had occurred. It is like we are comparing the… I think the department has 119 people, so we’re comparing that all the way along, not the 190 people that were in the department previously. It is as if those 71 people had never existed in the system. I think it is...