Thanks to the Minister. So I need to ask the Minister now then, what will be the pupil-teacher ratio for grades 10 to 12, what will be the PTR for elementary, what will be the PTR for primary in the budget year ‘14-15 coming up? Thank you.
I did highlight the actual numbers of the pupil-teacher ratio for year one, year two and year three. The PTR is still above the legislated mandate, so we are working towards that. We just have to be mindful that we are beyond the legislated mandate. I can also provide to the Members the breakdown with the actual numbers of the phase-in approach for year one, year two, year three, starting this fall. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I think I heard the Minister say we have those numbers. All I have in the written response is the current ratio is 13 to 1 and the legislated ratio is 16 to 1. I would like to know what we are moving to, and if that’s what the Minister said that he will get for us, then I very much look forward to that information, if he could confirm, please. Thank you.
Those are the discussions we’ve had with the superintendents. They were very mindful of our legislative mandate, the 13 versus the 16. So, I can provide Members with actual numbers that we have currently. Dealing with this $7 million over a three-year period, working with the school boards, how is that going to reflect on PTR, I can provide those actual numbers to the Members. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The time for question period has expired.
Before we go on, colleagues, I would like to welcome back into the House today Mr. Ernie Bernhardt; his wife, Beatrice; his daughter Donna Bernhardt, my executive assistant; and his son O.J. Welcome back to the House.
---Applause
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance.
Please list all examples for the last 10 years in the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs, Public Works and Services, and Transportation where approved human resources dollars, typically listed under the main estimates category “Compensation and Benefits,” appropriated by the Legislature of the day, where money or monies have been transferred from the intended human resources activity to an operations project, program, service or any other activity for which these funds were not originally approved nor intended.
Further, please list all detailed information by:
original job activity (by department);
original approved human resources financial allocation;
amount of dollars moved, transferred or spent;
where or to what activity these funds were transferred;
when the transfers occurred; and
who signed off or approved of these human resources funding transfer to initiatives other than those for which the funds were originally appropriated for and approved by the Legislative Assembly of the day.
That’s the first question, Mr. Speaker. The second question is considerably shorter.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, titled “Pathways to Wellness: An Updated Action Plan for Addictions and Mental Health 2014-2016.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, titled “Education Renewal and Innovation Engagement Update 2014.” Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, titled “Take a Kid Trapping and Harvesting Report 2012-2013.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 16, notices of motion. Item 17, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 18, motions. Item 19, first reading of bills. Item 20, second reading of bills. Item 21, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We left off yesterday on general comments on the main estimates. What is the wish of committee today? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to conclude general comments on the budget and start with opening comments on the Department of Human Resources. Thank you.
Thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed. We’ll take a short break and resume.
---SHORT RECESS
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are on general comments on the 2014-15 Main Estimates. Are there any general comments? If not, are we ready to move on to the Department of Human Resources?
Agreed.
Agreed, thank you. Page 3-7 we will stand down until the rest of the department has been considered. Oh, I forgot we have to have a Minister. I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources if he would like to make his opening comments. Thank you.
Yes, I do, Madam Chair.
Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
Please proceed, Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to present the Department of Human Resources’ main estimates for fiscal year 2014-15.
The department is proposing an operations expenditure budget of $23.6 million. This is a reduction of $18.5 million for 2013-14, a decrease of 44 percent. This reduction is largely the result of the transfer of employee-specific services such as pay and benefits, including regional roles, Helpdesk and human resources information systems to the Department of Finance. The transfer includes the compensation and benefits for 78 Department of Human Resources staff who are transferring to the Department of Finance, as well as GNWT-wide medical travel and dental plan benefits, and information technology assets associated with PeopleSoft payroll and shift schedule operations.
The transfer of functions to Finance will increase efficiencies by aligning the GNWT’s corporate finance and human resource information platform for SAM and PeopleSoft. It will frame payroll and benefits within official environment and it will enhance the Department of Human Resources expertise in providing quality GNWT-wide programs, services and strategic advice in human resource management.
The mandate of the Department of Human Resources continues to be to provide leadership and direction to the GNWT, its boards and agencies in areas of human resource management. The department’s leadership on human resource management supports all departments and agencies in effectively recruiting, managing and retaining their staff.
The department ensures that the public service is managed as a corporate resource in a way that promotes human resource stability, employee retention and maximum effectiveness. In turn, this supports the interests of the government and the vision of believing in people and building on the strengths of Northerners.
In our role as a corporate service provider, $4.7 million, or 20 percent of the department’s 2014-15 funding, is allocated for direct support to departments and agencies through programs to address hiring, training and development for anticipated labour shortages in the GNWT. Investments and support of our Workforce Planning Strategy and regional recruitment programs and ongoing initiatives under maximizing northern employment ensure we connect with Northerners to fill our vacancies.
The department is reconstructing two major activities post transfer. First, the human resource strategy and policy division have been amalgamated into the directorate and will be called Corporate Affairs. This change is consistent with the structure of other GNWT departments. Second, the Corporate Human Resources Division has been renamed Strategic Human Resources and the Business Performance Unit and has been re-profiled to this division.
This restructuring strengthens the foundation of human resource management and reflects the government-wide strategic focus of HR programs and initiatives. The department continues to focus on its major renaming responsibility for devolution by ensuring a smooth welcome for federal employees into the GNWT public service. Human Resources will continue to support departments and agencies in their ongoing recruitment efforts to fill positions to ensure the GNWT has a knowledgeable and experienced public service, able to provide service delivery responsibly as it acquires through devolution.
Our recent career fair in Ottawa, as well as our ongoing HR open houses in the NWT regional centres factor largely in our efforts to fill our vacant positions, particularly those related to devolution. Ongoing development of the public service through 2020, a Public Service Strategic Plan remains a key priority. The department continues to implement practical actions under 2020 through a four-year action plan for 2012 to 2016. Implementation of several initiatives intended to address anticipated labour shortages in the public service that focus on getting more Northerners into the public service and keeping them there is a priority in 2014-15.
The Workforce Planning Strategy, the Regional Recruitment Program and the Student and Youth Strategy are being incorporated into ongoing work for 2020 in support of the 17th Assembly’s priority to increase employment opportunities where they are most needed. At the same time, we continue to look at ways to attract employees to the GNWT from elsewhere when the NWT labour market cannot provide the skill sets that we require.
As positions become vacant, the GNWT faces a significant challenge in stabilizing our existing workforce through retention initiatives and continual recruitment. The Workforce Planning Strategy provides recruitment and retention efforts, which result in the public service that is representative, effective and ensures organizational stability to achieve our corporate and operational goals. It includes an array of such strategies for students and youth, hard to recruit positions, inclusion, focus on Aboriginal persons and persons with disability, bilingual persons, career fairs, and of course, regional recruitment.
Under the umbrella of the Workforce Planning Strategy, the Regional Recruitment Program assists in increasing regional employment opportunities by using unique approaches to recruitment that will link community residents with on-the-job training in order to fill our regional vacancies in a way that prepares northern residents to be successful in these jobs. The Student and Youth Strategy improves on existing student and youth programming to link anticipated job opportunities in the public service with studies of Northerners.
In addition to devolution, the employment strategies in the department’s 2014-15 main estimates supports the following key initiatives:
Strategies that enhance our ability to attract, retain, advance Aboriginal employees at all levels of the public service. Good progress is being made in this area and there is more work to be done.
Recruitment initiatives for persons with disability, youth, bilingual positions and hard to recruit positions to fill vacancies and promote GNWT as an employer of choice.
Occupational health and safety training will continue to be a priority in order to minimize the risk of employees to be injured on the job.
An array of corporate knowledge transfer initiatives will be rolled out to assist in the succession planning given that our public service demographic information projects a significant number of public servants who are eligible to retire.
Implementation of a memorandum of agreement reached with the Union of Northern Workers for safe disclosure and rest periods.
Continued support for our careers and Department of Health and Social Services websites, as well as social media sites both as a means of communication with current and potential employees and as a specialized tool for targeted recruitment strategies.
Continued training for managers and employees to ensure their understanding of human resource management including filling vacancies, labour relations, occupational health and safety and the duty to accommodate.
Aboriginal culture awareness and respectful workplaces.
As I announced earlier, for the second year in a row the Government of the Northwest Territories has been chosen as one of Canada’s best diversity employers. The selection for 2014 recognizes our many initiatives to develop and encourage a diverse, inclusive workplace and the investment into the public service through 2020. We are proud of this achievement. Based on our vision of believing in people and building on the strengths of Northerners, we are making the right investment.
In closing, I am proud of the good work the Department of Human Resources does which serves the interests of the GNWT thus the people of the Northwest Territories overall; 2013-14 has been a productive year with significant milestones accomplished, and I am confident that we will continue this momentum in 2014-15 and ensure another excellent year. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. I would like to ask Minister Beaulieu if he would now like to bring witnesses into the Chamber.
Yes, I do, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please bring the witnesses to the table.
For the record, Minister Beaulieu, could you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right, Sheila Bassi-Kellett, deputy minister, Department of Human Resources. To my left, Michelle Beard, director of HR, strategic and policy planning, Department of Human Resources.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. General comments. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to welcome the Department of HR, the Minister, DM and staff here today. I guess, first and foremost, I want to start off by congratulating the department for a well-deserved accolade for the second year in a row under the Canada’s best diversity employers. Again, congratulations. It’s always nice to read about that. I read it in the Globe and Mail the other day, so congratulations to you and your teams for continuing the good work.
I just want to do some general comments here, and some of them might be followed up in detail, but I think it’s prudent for us to talk about some of the areas of opportunity and maybe even point to some of the areas of good work. I’m going to refrain from talking about vacancy positions and things of that nature until we get more into detail or I’ll let my other colleagues dive into it more.
With that, I think, in no particular order, it’s nice to see that recent announcement, due to the fact that our occupational health and safety record was a bit dismal for a number of years. Some of our fines and penalties were in the area of about three-quarters of a million dollars, so it’s nice to see and hear earlier, I believe last fall, the introduction of a Safety Training Program. We didn’t hear very much of it since that initiative, so I’m hoping that the Minister might be able to enlighten us as to where we’re at in terms of the rollout, budget dollars and what priority this will have in this fiscal year in terms of prioritizing safety and minimizing risk to employees.
The other thing that has come up in our discussions a little bit and at least overview is, I guess, our overtime policy. I know committee was a bit concerned regarding the overtime policy, and more particularly, that we did see a substantial growth in overtime in this fiscal budget, albeit a small number, but one which does beg the question what are our policies, have they been reviewed, what are the interdepartmental agreements in place for banked hours, those types of things. I think the committee is asking for that information only to ask that we have some consistencies as we’re going from department to department.
I know that we did have some questions and concerns regarding the service partnership agreements between the Department of Health and Social Services and, I believe, Finance because of the fact we are transferring a lot of duties with the medical travel. I understand in your opening comments the rationale for it, but I think it’s important that people understand why and whether or not all the financial aspects have been taken care of with that transfer.
Now, you might want to correct me if I’m wrong through the Minister here, but I am going through the employee survey, and I believe the last survey results that we have tabled to the public was in 2012. I have to comment only because that’s what I only have in front of me here, which I am using as a tool as we, I guess, get our palate wet in terms of what’s happening in the Department of HR.
The 2012 GNWT Employee Satisfaction and Engagement Survey, for the most part, is a good survey. I want to say that for the record. However, as we are all aware that there are opportunities here they call the priority areas, and a lot of the priority areas where our employees have told us, as a government, they would like to see improvement. I have yet to see a substantial document or positioning statement or, I guess, action plan, per se, that would address some of the lower scores that we received in that survey, and again, if there’s a new survey pending please advise the Members here of upcoming results possibly from 2013.
As I said, in no particular order here, and again maybe we can get some confirmation here, we know that the legislation pertaining to HR under the Safe Disclosure Policy is hopefully imminent. We know that committee members have spoken quite at length in terms of its support and the fact that there is a requirement for doing so.
There is equal argument for, I guess, the private sector, as well, to have something of equal value within the parameters of a safety act of that nature. Again, I would ask that maybe the Minister could comment as to where we are with the Safe Disclosure Policy and whether or not the private sector would be part of this whistleblowing protection that seems to be on the mind of many.
Other than that, I am going to have more specifics as we go into the details here, but again I wanted to reiterate some of the positive comments that we are seeing in here and maybe if we can get a little bit of an update to some of those inquiries not mentioned in the opening address and somewhat embedded in the pages of the main estimates here, that would be great if we could get some clarity on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will attempt to respond to some of the information and then have the deputy fill in, the deputy or the director fill in with some of the areas that we may be able to provide more specific details.
I guess to the overtime issue, we don’t have any overtime scheduled in any of our business planning or in the mains, and I guess that is sometimes part of the issue with some of the discussions that have been continuing in the House over the last few days. At some point there are individuals that are not able to come to work, especially in the 24/7 operations of the hospitals, the corrections facilities and so on, but the positions have to be there. So sometimes people are called back to work and do perform overtime and this has an impact on the positions, or relief workers are brought in that may actually have other jobs, so they are paid overtime, or employees are kept on after their regular shift to continue to fill the position of the individual that may not be there.
The more detail, I guess, on the employee survey 2012 and what we’re doing to address the areas of concern, I am going to ask the deputy to respond to that and provide a little bit of an update on the Occupational Health and Safety Program that we have recently announced in the House and have contracted a private company here in the city.
The Safe Disclosure Policy, the safe disclosure is something that we have negotiated with the northern workers’ union, the Union of Northern Workers, and that is something that will be going to the legislation. It is an act that will provide safe disclosure to public servants that work for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Anything outside of that, any whistleblower from outside the government, a person that is not employed here, we’re not covering in this legislation. It’s outside of our mandate for this particular issue.
With that, Madam Chair, I would ask either the director or deputy minister, maybe starting with the deputy, to provide some more detail on Member Dolynny’s questions.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you very much, Minister. I will follow up on some of the comments that the Minister has made on the issues that have been raised by the Member.
Starting off with occupational health and safety, we are very, very proud that we have launched our overall Occupational Health and Safety Program. It comes on the tail of the Occupational Health and Safety Policy, which was approved by the Executive Council about a year ago this time.
What we wanted to do was put some meaningful action behind the policy itself and so what we did was we have worked extensively with the Northern Safety Association, and we have other contractors that we have engaged with, as well, to really provide a broad range of safety training to our employees, to ensure that we are upholding the safety of our employees, given the diversity of our workforce and the diversity of the kinds of work environments that we have.
I would like to note, as well, that we have made the offer available through our training calendar that if there are other Aboriginal and community governments that are interested in accessing this training, we welcome them to come and take part in this.
A lot of things that we’re doing that we’re really looking at on-line training to be as timely as we possibly can. We appreciate the pressures that are on our staff to deliver good programs and services, so we try to balance that with the amount of time that they’re away from their office or workplace to be able to take training.
I’ll go through some examples of the occupational health and safety training that we’re offering up to employees now. We have an overall course, Employee Safety Awareness, a one-day training session we are offering in all the regions, which is really intended as a broad introduction to employees who may not be familiar with what they need to be aware of in the workplace, what their responsibilities are and what our responsibilities are as an employer. We really look to employees to be the first level of, you know, being aware of their work environment, flagging any issues that may come up and being very cognizant of the fact that they are in partnership with us to make sure that we are able to support and uphold safety in the workplace.
Another one that we’re looking at implementing right away is supervisor safety training and we think that’s a very, very important one. For managers to really be aware, again in the diversity of the kinds of work environments that we have, it is very important for supervisors to know that they have a responsibility to look out for and oversee their employees and make sure their employees are very aware of safety on the ground.
After that, we have a whole range of different kinds of training and I will just name some of them off very quickly. So, for example, WHMIS training, that’s a very important one that many people want to take and we work very closely with the Northern Safety Association to make sure we’re able to offer that on-line. We think that’s a great advantage to our employees and to other people who may want to access it. So that e-learning is a great way to get on-line and be able to access that training at a time that really works for the employee himself.
We are looking at slips, trips and falls, hazard recognition control, driving safety, workplace violence, winter driving safety, proactive safety attitudes, prime contractor training calendar, back injury prevention, Emergency Response Plan training, fall protection, scaffold awareness, confined space entry, asbestos, transportation of dangerous goods, loss prevention and control for executives and senior managers, and Occupational Health and Safety Committee training as well. So we have a really diverse angle of things. We have worked with departments very closely to make sure we are really providing training that is very relevant and very appropriate for departments.
I will move on to the issue around overtime that the Member raised. As the Minister mentioned, overtime is a fact of reality in our workplaces. We really want to make sure that we balance out a work-life balance for our employees, but there are times when overtime has to be a reality. The operational need will come up, for example, if there is a heavy snowfall and we have to get the roads cleared. We know in 24/7 operations, like hospitals and correctional centres, there is often a need to be able to work overtime, to balance off shifts and make sure that there is that continuity of service.
We know that there are other important deadlines that come up throughout the year. For example, meeting fiscal year-end is an example that we use quite a bit, where people will have to work some overtime to be able to make sure that we meet the deadlines that are set for making sure that we have met the terms and conditions of legislation and reporting that we’re required to meet.
We really try to balance this though. We really exercise with managers a lot of process issues that we’ve implemented, using some of the systems that we have, and support for managers to make sure that as they work with their employees, the employees say overtime needs to be worked, it definitely needs to be approved by managers in advance. We have mechanisms and tools built into our PeopleSoft reporting system that allows for that. When time is entered into the system and when time is approved, managers and employees are able to really document what the overtime is for and why they’re doing it.
Again, it is a fact of reality in life, but we really work very hard to manage it closely and make sure that we’re not using it too much because, of course, that’s a pressure point both on budgets and on employees themselves.
We’re really recognizing, as well, through the rest periods MOU that we negotiated with the Union of Northern Workers, we’re very mindful of not wanting our employees to be working extensively long hours. That’s not in anybody’s good interest. So that’s something that we’ve been very mindful to make sure that as part of our rest periods, we are looking at the overtime factor in there as well.
The Member raised an issue around the service partnership agreements and we’ve been working very closely with the health system on really monitoring and implementing an approach to be able to support clarity around process when it comes to human resource management.
The Department of Human Resources, we provide the corporate supports and the tools and we add value. We really look to managers to be able to manage and we want to support them to the full extent that we can. We know that the Department of Health and the health authorities have taken that responsibility very seriously. They wanted to pilot with us the ability to be able to have a service partnership agreement that lays out roles and responsibilities, timelines for service levels that should be met and how we will track that information. So we’ve been working to do that and we’re feeling quite good about that. The information that we’re able to track right now, for example, we set targets for ourselves when it comes to staffing from the point in time that we have a job description ready to go where a departmental manager says I’m ready to start the staffing process through until we make a verbal offer. Our target is eight weeks, 56 days, and we’ve been coming in around 59 days on average around that. So, we have room for improvement but we are tracking and able to document that we know the timelines that are involved in being able to staff. So, we’re continuing that good work and our intent is, of course, to be able to roll it out across the entire GNWT overall.
The Member made some excellent points around the Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey. We are working to do this survey biannually, so the 2012 Employment Engagement and Satisfaction Survey is the last one that we have available. We made it available in 2013. We take that information very seriously. That is a very key data for us when it comes to indications around employee retention. We do a lot of good work around employee recruitment, but retention is very important to us, too, to keep the talent that we have, to really let people know they are valued in the public service and to really engage with them to say, what’s going to make a difference, where are the areas that we can improve to really keep your interest, keep you feeling like you’ve got some good opportunities to do meaningful work, to be supported, to advance in the organization.
We’re really proud of some of the top level scores that we have. I think we’ve got many of them in the high 80s that indicate that people have meaningful and challenging work, they have a good work environment and they get along really well with their colleagues and managers.
We track the other areas very closely where they are identified as room for improvement. A number of those we are looking at very closely and taking action on. For example, I just happened to scan very quickly here on page 8 of the Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey under the diversity and inclusion theme, employers responded in 2012 that they would like to see more information on cross-cultural awareness for employees. So we were very pleased to release in 2013 the Aboriginal cultural and awareness training on National Aboriginal Day. We were very pleased to have our disabilities awareness training that we’re publicizing and we are ramping up a little bit more.
So we’re taking each of these areas where we know they need to be a priority for action and looking if we do have tools in place to address some of those areas, do we need to be publicizing them more with our employees to make sure they are fully aware of them and make sure they can fully access them.
For other areas where it does need to be an improvement, we certainly look at trying our best to deep dive and see what was the root of the issue there and what are we going to do to tackle some of those issues to improve them.
If I can just finish off around safe disclosure, we were very, very pleased to work with our partners at the UNW to reach a memorandum of agreement on safe disclosure, which currently applies to all members of the UNW bargaining unit. So it came into effect last April 2013, and we have monitored very closely with the UNW. We are very eager, quite frankly, to see if there are any cases that come forward that are raised. To date, we haven’t had any cases raised.
The interest we have in having cases raised is that gives us an opportunity to test the mechanisms that we put in place through the memorandum of agreement because we want that to inform the development of our legislative proposal, which would then open up and expand safe disclosure to all GNWT employees.
The Minister mentioned that at this point in time, we are mandated to look at GNWT employees, but certainly in the development of the legislative proposal we will be looking at the policy issues behind the point about safe disclosure and allegations of wrongdoing have been defined, that people can feel supported in being able to bring those forward in a way that’s going to work within the public system that we have. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Next on the list for general comments on Human Resources, I have Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to start off, as well, by commending the department on their award for Canada’s Best Diversity Employer for the second year in a row. Good job on that.
With that being said, there are a lot of initiatives that have been happening since the onset of this government and one I’m pretty interested in hearing more information about – maybe we can get into detail or have further briefing notes – on the initiative for the Regional Recruitment Plan. I refer to it as the 80/20 plan, 80 percent salary and 20 percent training for any of our residents of the Northwest Territories that want to get into the public service. I want to know how that’s rolling out, how that’s been brought forward to the general public of the Northwest Territories and whether or not that was something that was discussed at the career fair in Ottawa or discussed in the regional open houses with Human Resources.
Other things that the Minister and his staff are well aware of are some of the things that have been brought up in this House this past week and last week. One in particular was job descriptions. Time and time again I have heard from constituents who have applied on jobs and didn’t get an interview, then seeing the job being posted again and wondering how come it wasn’t filled. There is an employee who wants a job but seeing some of these job postings being time and again without any filling of those positions. They want to know what’s the write-up in terms of standardized job descriptions, how they’re written. Mainly when we talk to post-secondary students trying to get into the job system, a lot of these job descriptions are asking for years of experience when we know full well that our post-secondary students are making the commitment to go to school. When they’re finished, they are caught in a catch-22 situation where they can’t get a job because we’re asking for years of experience in the field that they specialize in and got educated in. I think that needs to be addressed moving forward.
Getting into the vacant positions, news to me – and the Minister made comment to this yesterday in the House – that some jobs are deliberately left vacant. We can get into that in detail, but I want to put it down here for the record that that is concerning because if we have jobs that are averaging about $100,000 a year, that is money that we approved in this House and those are being left vacant.
Another program I wanted to touch base on was the PeopleSoft program, a good program to work with all our public service employees within the government system. I would like an update on some of the trends, some of the things we are seeing with PeopleSoft and even though we did get the award, how can we still better the system, working with our employees throughout the Northwest Territories.
Some concerns that are very common within my region and the communities is the ROE, record of employment, that some people are seeking. In some cases, I’ve heard six months for something to get done. I know there has been some concern from some constituents in our regional office that the staff in our regional office might be understaffed or overworked, one or the other. It does need to be fixed because people are having a hard time getting their records of employment when leaving their department. In that case, just leaving the department itself, there has to be a one point entry system when an employee from the GNWT wants to leave and get everything straightened out so they can move on to their next job or their next career. In some cases, whether it’s moving from sick leave or just a leave of absence or a transfer of some type, sometimes the paperwork and the working between the headquarters and the regional offices can be confusing for the individual and actually can even lead to prolonged stress leave as well. There have been some cases that I’ve heard within Inuvik.
The direct appointments, as a GNWT employee in a previous career, I did see some shuffling of direct appointments within some departments that were a cause of concern not only with me but people that were in the departments throughout the NWT as well. So making sure that any direct appointments are communicated with the department, with committee members, with the individuals that are in the ridings so that people don’t come to us, as MLAs, wanting explanations why a certain person got a direct appointment when there are other people that are qualified for the position in the community.
Also, I wanted to talk about the Safe Disclosure Policy. I think in our last update we heard that there weren’t any updates in the Safe Disclosure Policy. So how that’s rolling out and if we’re continuing to move forward on how we’re going to continue to implement that program and how we can get that information out a little bit more.
Those are just some general comments that I wanted to bring forth with the department, but I know it’s a challenge trying to manage all the vacant jobs, trying to get individuals into the positions that we’d like them to have. I’ve seen it working in the departments that I’ve worked with in the past and seen that this level brings a whole new insight. I appreciate the hard work that’s going on within the departments, but obviously there are still some concerns and, really, I do support the initiative of the and really want to see how that works out. I think that’s a great opportunity to make some changes and look at job descriptions that will make it easier for our northern residents to enter the public service system if we want to put in this Regional Recruitment Plan, but we’re still kind of not allowing our guys to get in there. So what’s the use of having it when we’re still writing job descriptions for years of experience when it’s not there? It’s kind of a holdback of trying to get our people into the system.
So just some general comments. I know these questions can be brought forth further through briefings or when we get into detail or brought into the House, but I’ll leave it up to the Minister if he wants to answer now. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The regional recruitment was something that the people from the departments have been talking about at the open houses. We’ve had one open house; we’re expanding to open houses in all the regional centres where we have service offices. We’re going to have two days of open house here to cover the city of Yellowknife and because regional recruitment is the intent of that, the strategy is to fill the regional positions, positions out there in the regions that could be also in the communities. It was not discussed in Ottawa. The career fair in Ottawa was not specifically to look at individuals that may not have all of the qualifications necessary to do a job. We weren’t looking for people down there that would be coming up here using 80 percent of their salary for the pay and 20 percent of their salary for training. So that wasn’t discussed at that Ottawa career fair.
Job descriptions are written by the various departments. The employing departments write the job descriptions, and all job descriptions are evaluated in the same fashion. They’re evaluated through the Hay system, then, based on that, the points and the qualifications that the departments think are needed for that to effectively perform 100 percent of those job functions are put in there and evaluated as such.
As far as experience goes, that is a bit of a dilemma where you have young people graduating from university and so on that don’t have experience and some of them call for experience in these job descriptions. So, many times we put programs in place to provide experience to students, such as the Internship Program, the Summer Student Program and now we’re looking at the Student and Youth Strategy. That’s all designed to attract students and youth into the public service.
The vacancy rates are something that we are going to put in writing to committee. The comment of positions being left deliberately vacant is not a situation where the government comes to the Assembly and asks for positions in the mains or through the business planning process and then immediately keeps the positions vacant. Often what happens is, as a management tool for budgeting, there will be vacant positions, as we know, throughout the system and a deliberate attempt is made to manage the human resources by each of the departments in order to make sure that they are not over-expending their budgets in any area.
I’m going to let the deputy minister speak on the PeopleSoft. The record of employment is something that has come to my attention. As I have information, last fiscal year we had just slightly over 600 individuals leaving the public service, GNWT public service and for each of those there’s a requirement to get their record of employment out to each of those staff members in the appropriate time. I guess I could also provide an additional number that up until 2014, I guess that would be the fiscal year ‘13-14, we’ve had 457 people leaving the government. So in situations where individuals need a record of employment to move on to other types of things where we are trying to meet the requirements on providing the record of employment to individuals, sometimes we understand it’s being extended a lot longer than it should be, but for the most part one of our objectives here recently, and I guess always has been, is to try to get their record of employment to the individuals that have left the public service as quickly as we can within the legislation that indicates to us how long and we have to provide that information.
As far as direct appointments and what we do for direct appointments often used as a development tool for different departments, various departments that present a direct appointment to Cabinet. Their direct appointment is used that otherwise would not really achieve any other result. There is no other positive results that could be gained by putting the job out for public advertising that we have a candidate within the system or just that wants to come into the system that is looking for a job that a direct appointment would be the best and most efficient way to bring the person into the public service. We know that we had 216 direct appointments in the first two years of this government. Of that, 193 of those positions were priority candidates, either priority 2 or priority 1 candidates, and if we have just a priority 1 candidate, 119 of the 216 direct appointments were priority 1 candidates.
I think we did talk a bit about the safe disclosure, but in case I’ve missed anything, especially the area of PeopleSoft as a tool for human resources, I’ll ask the deputy to provide some of that detail.
