Debates of August 15, 2007 (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in early July, the Department of Human Resources implemented an upgrade to the Government of the Northwest Territories’ human resources information system. The older version of this system, also referred to as PeopleSoft, required upgrading as support for this version is no longer available.

While the upgrade has provided some benefits, the upgrade did not go as smoothly as had been anticipated. I recently sent a letter to all MLAs explaining the issues with the upgrade; however, on behalf of the Department of Human Resources, I would like to apologize to all GNWT staff for any inconvenience the upgrade may have caused them.

There were problems with processing pay for July 13th and 27th. Some employees did not receive their pay at the usual time; while some employees received an incorrect amount of pay. Letters of apology have been sent to these employees. This letter also offers a letter to financial or credit institutions for employees who are concerned that their credit rating may have been adversely affected. In addition, it offers to reimburse employees for charges incurred as a result of the delay in pay due to the system issues.

Although there were still some problems with processing the pay for August 10th, many of the previous issues had been corrected. HR determined that many of the problems with the system stemmed from the Absence Management module. The contractor, Answerthink, has been unable to correct the problems, and the Absence Management module has been turned off for the foreseeable future. Self-service is now fully operational again. Work is being done to ensure leave balances reflect the time taken through Absence Management. Revised leave balance sheets will go to all employees later in August for their information.

Once again, I would like to apologize to GNWT staff. Their patience and assistance have been very much appreciated by the staff at Human Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bell.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 34(6) to allow Ministers’ statements filed with the Clerk to be delivered today. Thank you.