Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If an individual is seeking employment and finds a job on-line that they would be interested in and they don’t have a computer and can’t do the eRecruit, they are still welcome to take their resume in, a hard copy, to anyone in the regional service centres that we have or also into headquarters here in Yellowknife.
Thanks to the Minister. I’ll use an example, which may be a little exaggerated, but if I’m in Colville Lake and there is no regional centre in my community, what do I do then? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. With that, we’ll go to Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We’re very mindful right now and very proud of the eRecruit system that we have. We think it’s a very good system; it’s a very efficient system. We’re also mindful that not everybody in the NWT does have access to the Internet. So, as the Minister mentioned, we still will continue to accept hard copy resumes and cover letters.
What we do in communities where we anticipate people may not have access to go on-line to eRecruit or to our careers website to see about job openings is that we ensure that if there are job openings coming up, for example that the Member used in Colville Lake, our regional office of human resources will send to the band office, to the hamlet office, to any other Aboriginal government office, the Northern Store, to government services officers, career development officers and the health centre, we will send out postings of jobs that are coming available in those communities. One-page advertisements that can be faxed out, put up on a bulletin board around the community so that people are able to see the jobs that are available coming open in that community.
Again, we will accept applications that come through resumes and cover letters that are provided to us in hard copy, so we would welcome people providing those to our offices or using the services of a government service officer or career development officer to get them to us. Thank you very much.
Thanks to Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Just a comment, and I haven’t studied the ads that have come out, but I don’t know the option to do hard copy of resumes and apply that way is really out there as an option. I think the focus of the ads that I have seen is all on-line via computer.
I guess I would just ask the department to think about their advertising. I appreciate that they’re doing what they can to try and get jobs around in communities where there is no access or where people likely don’t have access to computers and so on, but I don’t know that that’s well publicized. I would just encourage the department to think about their strategy and maybe put a little bit more effort into telling those people that don’t have access to on-line and computers that they can still apply for jobs and how they can do it. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I’ll treat that as a comment. Committee, we’re on 3-11, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $3.817 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, 3-12, information item, directorate, active positions. Any questions? Seeing none, I’d like to move to 3-15, activity summary, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $4.337 million. Is committee agreed? Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question here and I couldn’t find a reference, but some time ago I wrote myself a note and I put “client service centre versus regional service centre.” The two centres have been referenced, I don’t know if it was in the Minister’s opening remarks or elsewhere, but I’m struggling to understand what the difference is between a client service centre and a regional service centre. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll just have the deputy minister explain the difference between the two quickly.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I’ll be quick about that, and I’m sorry if there was any misunderstanding created by the use of our terms.
We see all of our client service centres in Yellowknife and the regions as being places where potential applicants are able to walk in and ask questions about a potential job or get some general advice from us. We see them as client service centres, really the ones that are located in Fort Smith, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Norman Wells, Inuvik and Behchoko are our regional service centres. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks for the clarification. Maybe the term should be regional client service centre, so one would understand that they’re the same.
I wanted to just emphasize – I don’t know if I’ve made this comment, but I know it has been made to the department – in terms of regional recruitment, I think it is the intent of the department to try to mentor some people in the regions and fill vacant positions, and also for people who are retiring, to make sure the role is filled when they do retire. My understanding is the department is looking at either long-service employees or senior level employees. I would suggest that the department also consider mid-service employees and/or maybe even people who are newly entered into the job or into the department or office and people who don’t maybe necessarily have the amount of knowledge that is totally required but that they can work themselves into the job. I guess what I’m trying to suggest is we don’t limit ourselves by saying we are going to use long-service employees. That totally eliminates anybody who isn’t considered a long-service employee. I would encourage the department to look beyond maybe what the words say. If we’re going to mentor people, that we look as wide as possible and ensure that we get somebody who is backing up the position of somebody who is going to retire or try to fill a position that is currently vacant. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Again, I’ll treat that as a comment. Committee, we’re on page 3-15, activity summary, management and recruit services, operations expenditure summary, $4.337 million. Committee agree?
Agreed.
Page 3-16, information item, management and recruitment services, active positions. Any questions?
Seeing none, page 3-19, activity summary, strategic human resources, operations expenditure summary, $9.943 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to follow up a little bit on succession planning, which I think this division is largely responsible for. This has been highlighted for a number of years now and our workforce has been aging, basically, as I understand it. I think we had a significant proportion of employees, something like 20 percent or maybe much more than that that were within five years of retiring. What is the current trend on that measure, whatever it is? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member refers to a knowledge transfer for succession. We have a strategy to do that. We work with all the departments. It is part of our Workplace Planning Strategy. The idea is to look at the individuals who are working for the government that are in the twilight of their career and we would ensure that their knowledge is being transferred to individuals that would be taking their positions. So, we are actively engaged with the Department of Human Resources to ensure that happens.
I was aware of that. I probably wasn’t clear with the question I’m asking. I’m asking more specifically on where we are at in achieving our goals. What are the statistics that indicate the trend in our succession planning? It used to be X percent in five years are going to retire. What’s the change? Thank you.
For more detail, I’ll ask the deputy minister to provide that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. This is something we are very mindful in the organization. We look at eligibility for retirement within the next five years as an indicator for us in terms of when we might envision that people leave the workforce. However, having said that, we know economic times change and that is often no longer the reality of what’s happening. We are very mindful of that and try to pave the way for smooth succession planning when the time comes.
Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the deputy minister for that information. I didn’t get my statistic again, but I think I heard that it’s not a reliable statistic anymore. Perhaps we don’t have any statistics that indicate our succession with all these tools to deliver succession planning. Forty years is great in one way, but in another way people may not be able to retire, and I think we are hearing that across this great country, and there’s a possibility that the types of policies we are putting in place are failing people and their interest in retiring early and moving on to other productive pursuits in their retirement. Obviously a big concern potentially. It would be nice to know what’s happening there.
One of the things was double filling positions in the last six months when people indicate that they are going to retire. How much are we using that tool? How many instances? I believe it was proved as a tool or certainly emphasized in 2011-12. What’s our experience to date? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll go to Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don’t have the numbers of the overall corporate numbers for the GNWT on the succession planning on who’s matched up with individuals who are soon to retire. We will be able to provide that information to committee.
I appreciate the Minister’s offer. I think we’ll take him up on that.
My last question is, just looking at the budget, it’s increased substantially, about 50 percent or more since 2012-13. I think we’re putting a lot more emphasis on employee development and workforce planning.
What is the evaluation of these investments, this additional 50 percent? What is the evaluation of the effectiveness of those investments showing? Thank you.
That will require a bit of a detailed response. I will have the deputy minister provide that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We track in a number of different ways how we look at the results, longitudinally over time with some of the programs we put in place. Very important to have the evaluation framework overall. Members may recall that each year the Minister tables a results report for 20/20, Public Service Strategic Plan, which describes the progress we’ve made in the past year in the five different thematic areas within the Public Service Strategic Plan overall, and that we table every spring and that gives an overall high level snapshot.
At the same time, the funding that’s in this area is used to implement a lot of things that are corporate in nature. For example, some of the funding that’s included in this budget, and part of the other O and M, is the funding that supports interns across the organization. We have a pot of money that departments apply to us for to support up to $40,000 per intern per department. Departments then top up the rest.
We have funding for progressive experience and relevant experience programs for summer students, as well, that’s in this pot of funding, about $500,000. We also, out of this area, do a lot of the work, support the work for occupational health and training. We do our Leadership Development Program, which we have done in partnership with the University of Alberta, where we put a lot of people through this program to be able to develop overall leadership skills that will be useful to them as they progress in their career either within the public service or elsewhere.
We also have our Associate Director/ Superintendent Program as it was formerly referred to. We are now calling it our Aboriginal Management Development Program, which supports two year developmental positions for priority 1 indigenous Aboriginal candidates that departments apply to us for the funding. We provide that funding to the departments and they implement a very rigorous development plan for indigenous Aboriginal candidate to be able to step into management within the public service and into a permanent position after their two years.
We have other work underway like our Regional Recruitment Program and our competencies that are all covered through this and we are seeing long-term incremental development in each of these areas as we report out in the results report. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those are all the questions I had. I appreciate that information. I guess I would note some of these things are meant to be funded I think out of the vacant positions. Obviously, we have over 600 vacant positions to be staffed and inactive that are funded on any one day. That’s a lot of moola. We know that those dollars are being used for many of these things, so if they are funded specifically on top of that, as well, I think there needs to be some real clarity in reporting and evaluation on those fronts. I will leave it at that comment. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Comment noted. Committee, we are on 3-19, activity summary, strategic human resources, operations expenditure summary, $9.943 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 3-20, information item, strategic human resources, active positions. Any questions? Seeing none, 3-23, activity summary, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, $2.721 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 3-24, information item, regional operations, active positions. Any questions? Ms. Bisaro.
Mr. Chair, what page are we on? I think I might have got ahead of myself.
Page 3-24.
Mr. Chair, there are no questions here.
I will read it out again. Information item, regional operations, active positions. Any questions? Seeing none, 3-27, activity summary, labour relations, operations expenditure summary, $2.818 million. Does committee agree? Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple questions here. I’d like to know from the department, at one point we had a great number of grievances and the department was diligently working their way through the grievances and trying to bring them down to a reasonable number. Between last year and this year, projected budget year, can I get some kind of an idea of whether the number of grievances we have had has gone up or down or has it stayed steady? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will have the deputy minister respond to that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We have worked in collaboration with the Union of Northern Workers and the NWT Teachers’ Association very closely through regular case management meetings to really try to tackle some of the issues that come up to us through grievance. We recognize it’s in our mutual best interest to be able to work to resolve issues in a way that are going to make sense for both parties and for the employee involved.
Through the case management meetings, we’ve been able to bring the number of grievances down. I believe we have actually dipped under into two figures from three figures earlier this year. That was quite astonishing for us. A large part of that is due to having the regularity of the meetings and having the issues that are dealt with in a really relevant and timely way. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Ms. Bisaro.
