I came into this Assembly with rose-coloured glasses, thinking I could make a difference. After a week I left them outside. It’s frustrating, sometimes, Mr. Speaker, hearing from constituents who run into one road block after another. It’s equally frustrating because it seems like there’s nothing you can do about. You can bring your concerns to Members across the floor, who’ve all shared our concerns before. They’ve heard these before, and I’m sure a lot of them have spoken to our issues before.
I don’t know what’s changed. You’re in a position now to provide direction to the departments. You know what it’s like being on this side, so start providing that direction to the departments so the constituents will be the first people we look after, not the departments.
I’d like to direct my questions today to the Minister of HR. I’d like to ask him if the regional offices are the ones that determine the qualifications for job ads that go out.
The departments determine the qualifications for the job.
I’d like to ask the Minister if there are standard requirements across the N.W.T. so that an admin assistant in Hay River or Fort Smith would need the same qualifications as an admin assistant in Inuvik.
Our job-evaluation system and process does provide for that. At one point we had a great number of job-evaluation committees. We’ve now reduced the number so we would have more consistency between the different regions for similar jobs. We regularly undertake reviews and clarifying exercises.
I think that’s part of the problem. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would commit to looking into the review and having the standards…. I know there are a lot of jobs where the qualifications are different in each region or for each job. That’s not what I’m questioning. They are some where the standard requirements could be the same across the N.W.T.
I’d like to ask the Minister if his department would consider having the job requirements for certain positions standard across the N.W.T. so, like he said, there can be some consistency.
I would be pleased to do that. Also, it would help us immensely if the Member would make us aware of the job categories or positions that he had concerns with.
Final supplementary, Mr. Robert McLeod.
The reason we bring our concerns to the floor sometimes is because we’re not getting the answers we think constituents deserve. I’d like to ask the Minister… I’d be happy to sit down with all seven of you over there and give you my concerns as to what could be changed, what needs to be done. Whatever you do with them would be up to the department.
I’d like to ask the Minister if his office reviews all job transfer assignments and job applications or job ads.
This is a priority that we’ve undertaken. We review all job ads for consistency. We also try to reduce our costs as much as possible so that we can facilitate the hiring process.
