I call Committee of the Whole to order. We have one item before us, Tabled Document 2-17(1). What is the wish of committee? Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It is the wish of the committee to continue with Tabled Document 2-17(1), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2012-2013. We’d like to commence with the departments of Human Resources and Justice and, if time permits, MACA.
Thank you very much. With that, we’ll take a short break and reconvene. Sorry. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Okay. We will have a short break.
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Alright, committee. We will reconvene Committee of the Whole. We have agreed to start with the Department of Human Resources and Tabled Document 2-17(1). I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Human Resources if he has any witnesses. Mr. Abernethy.
Yes, I do, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Does committee agree that we bring in the witnesses?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please bring in the witnesses.
Thank you. Minister Abernethy, would you introduce your witnesses, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is Ms. Sheila Bassi-Kellett, the deputy minister of Human Resources; and on my left is Michelle Beard, who is the director of strategy and policy. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. I would like to now open the floor to general comments on the Department of Human Resources. Are there any general comments on the Department of Human Resources? Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to ask the Minister, in the proposed infrastructure for this purpose, the department now is going into an electronic era of doing their business and they are going to be shortly going through phasing out the existing manuals or manual for the government department. Just like us in the Legislative Assembly, we have these iPads now, not so many of these big 4 or 5 inch binders.
I want to ask the Minister just for a very backup to the security. You know, sometimes our satellite system, our electronic system is not as reliable as we hope it would be. You know, there’s always a chance that sometimes things go down and information gets lost or there are organizations or people out there that love to explore systems and that. I just want to ask very quickly if he can give me a brief response to the security of what we’re doing here with the infrastructure that’s being planned for this department to improve the efficiencies with the staff to do their business. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to the digital aspects of our GNWT human resource systems, we have been moving in that way for some time. We have PeopleSoft, which is our main human resource management system, and we, in the last couple of years, have added some additional modules to that. One of them was eRecruit, which is now used for all staffing actions in the Northwest Territories and has proven to be quite effective.
In this capital plan what we’re proposing is putting in our ePerformance module into PeopleSoft, and it’s kind of the perfect time to do it, because we are updating PeopleSoft in ’12-13 and it fits as sort of the perfect time to bring in ePerformance as well. We’ll have the staff on site to do the upgrade of the PeopleSoft and they’ll be able to do the ePerformance as well.
ePerformance is kind of an interesting module. Right now all our performance management is done by paper. It’s all tracked on paper and it’s really hard when you’ve got as many departments as we do and as many staff, to ensure that we’re getting the performance appraisals in on a regular basis and tracking them. This ePerformance module will give us that capacity to provide greater statistics, greater monitoring and greater use, which will benefit our employees in the long run.
You also mentioned manuals. We’re not getting rid of manuals. We’re still going to have policies and procedures that we have to follow and utilize in the Government of the Northwest Territories. We may print less copies. We’ll be able to display more of them on-line than we currently do. All of them we’ll be able to put on-line, so we’ll probably get away with a little less paper, which I think is good for the environment, good for the department and good for the people.
With respect to reliablity and data security, I’ll pass that on to Ms. Bassi-Kellett to provide you a little bit of information on the reliability and security that we do employ within the department on our data.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Certainly, the Department of Human Resources works very closely with the office of the chief security officer within the Department of Finance that looks at governing the access and the limitations to access that are required for security purposes. It’s very important for us to make sure that all of the security processes are built in. We take very, very important care of that function, given the sensitivity of the information that the Department of Human Resources deals with. We make sure that information is encrypted, it’s backed up, it’s securely managed, and we do that in collaboration with the office of the chief security officer. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Is committee ready to go to detail?
Agreed.
Alright, committee. If we would turn to page 2-2. The infrastructure investment summary page. We will defer this page until we have considered the whole department. Does committee agree that we will defer this page?
Agreed.
We’ll turn to page 2-4, Human Resources, activity summary, human resource strategy and policy, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $300,000. Mr. Yakeleya.
Madam Chair, I see the numbers are quite substantially reduced to the actuals in the main estimates in 2011, 2012, 2013. Is this the final asking of this department on this specific initiative? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The previous year’s estimates, I understand, are for the shift scheduling software that we put in previously. That was an item that we worked on in ’11-12. The ’12-13 item of $300,000 is specifically for ePerformance and there will be $300,000 next year as well.
Thank you, Minister, for the explanation. With some of these future expenditures, are the regions also being upgraded in their computer capacity to be in line with the ePerformance or eRecruitment? I think that’s pretty well, but a lot of the communities also do not, and I appreciate the sensitivity. A lot of our communities also of Members do not use their computers or operate on their computers. Sometimes, for some odd reason, they still prefer the good old post a notice on a billboard and read it from there. But sometimes this hasn’t always been the case here. I just want to ask the Minister to ensure my residents in the Sahtu are aware of some of the challenges that they come into. Thank you.
This is part of a corporate IT system. PeopleSoft runs across the entire Government of the Northwest Territories to all communities. All employees enter their time in the Northwest Territories and utilize the system, so wherever the system is available now, ePerformance will be able to be used. As far as increasing capacity, that’s something that we’re always trying to work with our Public Works and Services colleagues to make sure that we have the bandwidth and the IT IS/IM resources we need to continue to run systems of this nature in all communities.
I have one more question, Madam Chair. Because of the technology we are entering into and the support, I hope, and a larger, bigger picture from the federal government, are we receiving any type of federal funding to help us with this change to the electronic era of doing business within government? Thank you.
We haven’t received any federal money to help us with our internal human resource management system, no. We haven’t received any money federally to help us with our human resource management system. It’s an internal system to the Government of the Northwest Territories and we fund it with GNWT dollars.
Thank you. Anything further from Members? Any questions on this page, 2-4? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to follow up a little bit on the questions about the ePerformance module that will replace the existing manual performance evaluation process with an expectation of efficiencies. I know that there are concerns about performance appraisals and, certainly many of us have spent time in government and know that the frequency of appraisals and so on were not very reliable, that the results of the appraisals didn’t follow through to appropriate action and, you know, whether good or bad, appropriate action or recognition and so on. I just can’t help but wonder if we’re relying more and more on expensive software where it is really a people issue. PeopleSoft takes away from people.
Can the Minister tell me what we are doing to ensure that people are dealing directly with people, and that there is a real human approach and solution to dealing with those issues? I just can’t imagine how an automated process and performance evaluation is in any way a benefit, except if it is a voice recording that can capture what you are saying and your discussions with your employee. What can the Minister tell me to explain why we are going to this automated route when what we need are people dealing with people? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. An ePerformance module is a tool that an employee and an employer can use when they are assessing the performance. This in no way, shape or form should take away from two people talking about progresses, and steps they can take to improve performance and start talking about where they want to go in the future by way of succession. But it does give us a way to formalize them in a standard document that we can use and track over time and compare to each other over time.
When we are talking about a paper system, often it was hard to track these over time to ensure that there was consistency. This system will also give us some indication as to how many are being done and how often, so that we can, as managers in the departments, go out and encourage their staff to actually complete these with their supervisors. For more of the specifics I will pass it to my deputy, Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Minister has pointed out, effective performance management does integrate a number of different things. It is people talking with people, absolutely. Effective management is supported by tools like performance management tools such as this one. We really know that in doing an effective performance management system, we really need to integrate individual work planning and goal setting to make sure it aligns and supports corporate goals of the department and the Assembly overall. We look at performance objectives as well as the ability to recognize excellent work that is done by many members of the public service and also to identify developmental needs and opportunities should they arise as well.
ePerformance is a tool that will help us to standardize a lot of this, to give the guidance to managers as they are working with their staff to be able to look at this. It provides a template that does have flexibility for managers to be able to build in some of the unique needs that they may have in managing their staff, but also does provide for that standardization and for the greater efficiency that will come from having this on line. In turn, the Department of Human Resources is able to track and analyze a lot of the information that comes in, to ensure that we are aligning the supports that are in place for members of the public service with a lot of the needs that are out there, whether or not they are developmental training needs or others. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Mr. Bromley.
Madam Chair, I appreciate that is a good description of the system, but the key weaknesses have been identified. It doesn’t seem to deal with the frequency of the performance reviews. Once reviews are complete, they are not given the attention they deserve and a strong performance is unrecognized. Those need to be dealt with.
Again, it is no surprise in the House that I am becoming increasingly skeptical of our huge investments in software, especially when we need people jobs and we are continually bringing efficiencies that supposedly reduce personnel costs here. What will this bring us over and above a good word processing program and a bring forward system that any individual could set up? I use, and I’m sure we all use, some form of that. Thank you.
What this system does is it is a module of ePerformance that builds on the current system that GNWT employees and members of the public service are very familiar with now, which is the PeopleSoft system. It enhances and builds onto that practice that people have currently a good, sound knowledge of.
The support for managers in doing and completing meaningful performance appraisals is something that we continue to support, that we continue to always seek to improve. There is a lot of great work that is done right now in recognizing and tracking the positive work of staff by managers, and certainly staff see these as being important developmental opportunities as well. We want to continue to enhance the way staff see those.
There are a number of different things that are a complement through the ePerformance to the existing PeopleSoft system right now. We know there will be reduced paper use. We know there will be better and much more informed tracking of the documents as they flow through the system. We want clarity around that. We don’t want duplication of performance appraisals being held, for example, in a file in a manager’s office, in a program department office as well as in Human Resources. We are able to streamline the way that that information is held, maintained and utilized so that we will be able to build on it, then to look at compiling this information factually so that we can do the analysis to look at where our needs are in the future for the development of members of the public service. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Chair, I have no further questions. I would just ask the Minister to be alert to possibilities for some common sense approach that will avoid these high IT costs that the government seems to be generating. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Any further comments or questions on Human Resources? Human Resources, activity summary, human resource strategy and policy, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $300,000. Are we agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will turn to page 2-2. Human Resources, department summary, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $300,000. Does committee agree we have concluded consideration of the Department of Human Resources?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. I would ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses out of the Chamber, please.
Committee, we will move on to Department of Justice, page 7-2, section 7 in your document. Does committee agree we will start the Department of Justice?
Agreed.
Okay. Does the Minister have any witnesses he wishes to bring into the House?
Yes, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Does committee agree to bring the witnesses into the House?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Minister Abernethy, would you please introduce your witnesses for us.
