Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The first thing that we are doing is that we are looking at community-by-community statistics and determining whether or not in a particular community that the numbers of affirmative action positions are low and then we are trying to fill the positions that are vacant in those communities with Aboriginal employees by various strategies that we are undertaking. One example would be the Regional Recruitment Strategy. Thank you.

As the Member knows, inside the main estimates we have positions, compensation and benefits. There’s a category there. The departments use that money for that purpose. At this point the indications that I have are that this is what that money is used for, it’s not expended on other things. There may be personnel hired elsewhere to do the job, but it is used to pay individuals compensation for doing the job for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

An individual that goes on assignment would still have the home position held for them. However, they do need to do that job that he or she was doing in the home department. So, on a transfer assignment they will backfill that position. That position stays vacant and they will backfill the position with most likely a casual or a term position until that person returns to the job. So the position is vacant. The money is used to continue to do the job that the position would do back at their home department.

With the students that are trying to gain experience, the Government of the Northwest Territories uses a couple of methods to give the students experience. One is the Summer Student Program. We try to track some of the students that are going to school down south and we try to employ them during the summer giving them some experience each year. Also, at the end of that, when some of the students are finished school and want to get into a job to gain some experience, we use the Internship Program to bring students into the GNWT.

As I indicated earlier, there are various uses for the money that goes in with the positions. The departments still have the mandate to perform the tasks that are assigned to them as a department, so sometimes when they’re unable to fill a job and after a job description is completed, and the job is advertised over the period and they are, for some reason or another, unable to fill a job, then some of that money would go to a term position perhaps. It could be going to a casual and also has been used for relief workers. Sometimes when you don’t have all of the positions filled then there’s a...

The departments manage their own human resources. They do it using the vacant positions. Sometimes they maintain a home position for an employee that may be under an assignment. So that home position would be considered vacant. They may need other priorities that need to be met by not just by the Assembly but also the department priorities and they use the position by filling some casual positions to meet the mandate. They support other positions that are required, other priorities that are required and also sometimes if the department had some vacant positions, they may keep the positions...

At this time many of the dormant and inactive positions are not funded. They’re unfunded positions or just PYs that appear in the PeopleSoft as dormant and inactive positions. We are undertaking an analysis with all of the departments to determine if any of these positions are funded and with the ones of the inactive, dormant positions that have funding attached to it, what is happening specifically with that funding and for what other personnel use is that money used for.

The job evaluation process is used to determine what qualifications are needed to do this particular job, so if this particular job is out, has certain qualifications that are required, those are the qualifications that must be met. So if there is a priority 1 candidate that meets the qualifications, then those are the individuals interviewed. Once we have a number of priority 1 candidates or even one priority 1 candidate eligible, regardless of whether or not priorities 2 and 3 have higher qualifications, we do interview the priority 1 candidate and attempt to try to increase the affirmative...

Mr. Speaker, in the Deh Cho, which includes another riding in the Assembly, there are 34 positions that we are trying to actively recruit for. Seventeen of those positions need a university degree and 10 of those positions are college or trades. Very few of the 34 positions are entry level positions, so I hear what the Member is saying.

One of the things that we are looking at with the regional recruitment is to see if individuals who have a high school education with some training for over a year can fill one of the positions that has a greater education requirement, combining experience and...

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation is now providing residents with the option to access driver and motor vehicle services from the comfort of their homes, workplaces or from anywhere else with an Internet connection. On-line driver and motor vehicle services are part of the government’s Service Innovation Strategy. Effective and efficient government is achieved by reducing red tape and connecting NWT residents and businesses with the information and services they need.

It has taken over five years of dedicated work to modernize the Motor Vehicle Information System. Now we have been...