Tom Beaulieu

The money remains there, the money is there to perform the tasks that are the responsibility of the individual that is now on a transfer assignment. Those are some of the priorities that are assigned to the department that would be a part of that. So that’s what the money is used for. I don’t know what else that money could possibly be used for other than to perform those tasks in this particular case. Thank you.

The money to hire employees for the GNWT is there and we use that money for that purpose only. We don’t spend it on other things. Tomorrow morning we will be able to demonstrate in committee the full program of vacancies, hires, and we can do comparisons with the main estimates. We are prepared to do all that. We had promised committee we would do that work and we are doing that tomorrow morning. Thank you.

No, I cannot guarantee that all of those 571 jobs will be on the career website and advertised soon; however, I will guarantee that we will be doing a full presentation to committee on exactly what the issues are with the vacancy rates and our complications with filling all of these positions and why these positions are vacant, where they are vacant and where we are having difficulties recruiting. I will assure the Member that tomorrow morning we will be putting a full presentation together and talking about all of the vacancy rates. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The career fair in Ottawa was one method that we were using to try to attract individuals to the North. They come to the North; they would be subjected to the same type of infrastructure and housing deficiencies as anyone else here.

We are also trying to advertise in the North. We have open houses. We’ve had one in Simpson. We’re going to continue to have open houses the next couple of months in all of our centres where we have career centres. We are going to have these open houses to try to bring people from these communities to the open house and talk about their...

Mr. Speaker, I know that we need some infrastructure in the communities where the employment rates are low. Some of those positions can’t be filled unless individuals are brought into the community to fill those jobs, because some of those positions need some qualifications that are not easily attained in some of the smaller communities. The jobs that can be filled in the smaller communities with individuals that have the qualifications in those communities will be filled, but when we have to bring people in…

As I indicated in my response earlier, of the 570 active positions that we are trying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is our mode of communicating with individuals. A careers website is what we’re using to advertise for the people that are looking for jobs in the NWT. The departments, various departments are constantly trying to advertise the jobs on the career website. If there are 100-and-something jobs on there, I can check with the department to just determine why there are not more jobs on the career website at this time.

The Department of Public Works will advise the group of areas where spaces would be available for art display. Like I indicated, there will be a policy developed, and I think that’s going to guide us on whether or not we are displaying art, in which buildings and what pieces of art that we will be displaying. As I indicated, at this point it appears as though the group, the NWT Arts Council, that we’re working with were happy with the display appearing on the television and the TV display system, but because the policy is not finalized, it would be difficult to indicate at this point what art...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. After the commitment was made to do this work, a working group consisting of four departments, ECE, ITI, Transportation and Public Works, was put together to work with the NWT Arts Council on making this display of art in GNWT buildings possible.

Mr. Speaker, even though the position is vacant, the job still has to be done. Often the positions are filled with a casual, and also when we have some vacancy rates, we create some money for summer students so we are able to hire summer students. It is very important to us as a government, when these kids are out at university or college, when they come back to the Northwest Territories that we try to employ them so they have a better chance of success when they go back to school. Last year we employed 308 summer students. If we had every position filled to the max all the time and there was...

Mr. Speaker, they are not a secret, so it would be difficult to answer a question that leads with why is it a secret. Thank you.