Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That number is a fluid number. As of October 31, 2013, 35 positions were used between the departments and the agencies to cover other O and M requirements.
I want to ask the Minister for, quite simply, a clear and simple answer. We have 35 positions, which probably roughly works out to about $3.5 million, which were originally intended for human resource money that could actually put that nurse in Colville Lake, whether it can put that maintainer back in Paulatuk or other types of plumbers or those types of critical jobs that we always talk about.
My next question for the Minister of Human Resources is: We often hear about the fact that, for example, Stanton runs a deficit, the Beau-Del runs a deficit, all of these organizations run deficits because of unfunded positions. For the record, how many unfunded positions does the government run in the Northwest Territories and how do we come up with the funding of those types of positions, because I’m trying to grapple with how much money are we talking about?
We looked at the dormant positions with most of these positions. As an example, when the position is covered off by a casual, it’s funded. When a position is covered off by a contractor, it’s funded. If there’s money to be moved from a position to O and M, it’s funded. We looked at the other category where we’re trying to staff. Those are funded positions, so we looked at the categories that were inactive, and we looked at the 161 inactive positions to see which one of those were not funded, and we’ve come up with the fact that 125 of those positions are not funded.
I’m not going to take the compliment back from the first one, but I can tell you the answer from the second question was not that clear. The simple question is we run a lot of unfunded positions in the government and often we hear about these could add up to several hundred positions in the government that are not specifically funded. I want to know how many positions are unfunded but operational, whereas we have a body in them doing something that’s meeting the goals and objectives of the government.
How many positions are we talking about and how do we pay for those? I want to know how much money is being diverted from other things to fund these positions this Legislature hasn’t approved.
On unfunded positions across the GNWT, there would be some positions that are unfunded and there are also vacant positions that are unfunded. We have been working with the departments, as the Department of Human Resources, to determine which positions in our system, whether they are filled by casual, contractor or indeterminate positions, which ones are funded and which ones are being carried by the department as an unfunded position. I don’t have that information here with me, but we are very close to gathering all that information now from all departments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister should resign himself to the fact that he should know this.
Next question. We know many times with historical values of vacant positions, which is approximately 14, 15, 16 percent, but if we use it as a rolling number, to be fair, that’s approximately $15 million passed in this House that are human resources compensation and benefits dollars each and every year.
So, what does the Department of Human Resources do to track that money, the $15 million that nobody knows where it’s going? How do we follow the money? The department may say that this is micro-management. I say it’s public accountability.
The department follows the positions. It’s a service department that provides a service to the departments in hiring, recruiting and retaining positions for the government. The departments make decisions on which ones to move forward with.
I’d like to give an example of positions. We have quite a few casuals for a variety of reasons. We have 208 casuals working as of October 31, 2013. For various reasons when we can’t sometimes fill the position because of the requirements, we aren’t able to find an individual that fits the requirements of that specific job title, but the job still has to be met. So we find a casual that can do the job with support from other staff because the job has to be done. That would be one of the examples in small communities where there are positions where the requirement could be of a university degree and we don’t have the housing in the community to bring someone else with a university degree in from another area to live there, so we take a local person, put them in a casual position and continue to try to do the job. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today to address to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to follow up on my statement and ask the Minister some questions with regard to the abilities or lack of abilities of our naturopathic doctors in the NWT. I know that the naturopathic association has been talking to the department. I know that they have made some suggestions to the department to try to advance the naturopathic profession. I know they have met with some resistance to a certain extent, but specifically with the ability for naturopathic doctors to prescribe drugs and tests for their patients, I would like to know from the Minister, is there anything on the radar, anything in the works in the near future that will allow naturopath doctors to do prescriptions. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have received a letter from the NWT Association of Naturopathic Doctors and I have agreed to meet with them to discuss their concerns to see what kind of forward direction we can develop working together. Obviously our goals are the same. We are interested in the best interest and safety and well-being of our patients and residents. So I am going to have that meeting with the association. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am very pleased to hear that the Minister is willing to meet with the association. I know there were some meetings held in the previous Assembly with naturopaths and they thought they were advancing somewhere, so I hope we can go back to moving forward.
I’d like to know from the Minister, in order to allow naturopathic doctors to prescribe medicine and tests, what kind of change do we need? Is it changes to regulations or is it change to legislation? Thank you.
I’m not actually 100 percent sure. I believe it’s changes to legislation, but I will confirm that for the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks for the commitment from the Minister. One of the concerns of the naturopathic doctors is that in the recently passed Health and Social Services Professions Act, there is no intention on the part of the department to include naturopathic doctors in the near future. I think they are probably 19 or 20 on a list of 19. So I’d like to know from the Minister, in your discussions with naturopathic doctors and their association, are you willing to move up the regulation of naturopathic doctors from the bottom of the list to very close to the top. Thank you.
We haven’t passed the Health and Social Services Professions Act. We are doing that work now. Our focus to date has been completing and drafting the bill, as this is critical in advancing profession-specific regulations. This legislation will identify and include criteria for the development of regulations, which is what we are talking about here.
As the Member knows, the top priority for regulations under Health and Social Services Professions Act, which we will move forward immediately after conclusion of the bill, is emergency medical services providers, licenced practical nurses and psychologists here in the Northwest Territories. I have talked to the department and I have asked the department to move naturopathic doctors into the number four spot. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for correcting me. My brain is too full of information, obviously, so my apologies for thinking that was passed.
I am extremely glad to hear that there’s a desire to move the priority of naturopathic doctors forward. The Minister said what the priorities are and listed a number of things. That may be the priority of the government or departments, but it’s not necessarily the priority of all Members. Since the Minister knows more than I do, I will simply ask him whether or not naturopathic doctors are covered under insured services in the NWT. Thank you.
With respect to the priority, it may not be the Member’s priority, but we do have financial and potential liability implications with the professions I have identified, which must be addressed for the safety and security of our residents. Therefore, they continue to be at the top of the list. I have directed the department to include naturopathic doctors into the fourth position, so that regulation will happen soon as opposed to later after the bill has been completed.
It should be noted that the lack of regulations does not prevent naturopathic doctors from practicing in the Northwest Territories and does not create any barriers for residents who want to seek their services. Just to be clear, licensing of naturopathic doctors does not mean they will become an insured service and they are not currently an insured service in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The time for oral questions has expired. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the Order Paper.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity. I wanted to follow up with my questions for the Premier on the liability and of very grave concern, obviously, if not managed properly. Again, I cite our final agreement where Appendix 7, Part E lists our operating sites that we will become responsible for, and as both the Premier and I mentioned, there’s the opportunity to modify that list, but it’s over 200 sites, so it’s a very substantial list. We’ve mentioned the Norman Wells pipeline and the diamond mines and so on, we are taking those over as per our agreement.
All we have is this list of 200-plus. So I’m asking, will the Premier provide us with the updated list as of March 1st, recognizing that these are still possibly being modified? I can hardly believe that these are confidential. The list was fully revealed in the agreement; it’s been made public, so I’m looking for an update on that list. Will the Premier commit to providing that? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in the previous questionings, this was information that was made public, and as soon as we have an updated list from the Government of Canada, we’ll follow the same procedure. Thank you.
Thanks to the Premier for that. As soon as possible will be great.
I will take the high road here. Will the Premier also be adding transparency – I’m not sure he and I have the same definition here – on what our liabilities are in relation to the securities that we hold to cover those as soon as he can on this list of operating sites that we are taking over as per Appendix 7, Part E? Mahsi.
Our government has financial procedures for identifying environmental liabilities and I also know that the mining legislation also has some provisions for confidentiality. We share information with the Regular Members, so we’ll continue to do so, recognizing there’s some confidentiality involved. Thank you.
You wouldn’t happen to have a crowbar I could use, would you? Sorry, Mr. Speaker.
What I’m looking for maybe is a commitment from the Premier to provide to the public everything that is not confidential as it was provided in the final agreement, and will the Premier also assure the public at this time in this House that we will not be assuming substantial new liabilities without holding securities to cover them? Mahsi.
Thank you. I don’t know how many times the Member wants me to assure him. I’ve already told him in a previous line of questioning that we would provide that information, subject to confidentiality requirements. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
I’m not asking for information here or details or any prior commitments. I’m asking the Premier to state unequivocally here in the House to our public and to this Assembly that we will not assume substantial new liabilities in this process without assuring that we have the financial securities to cover those liabilities. Thank you.
I can assure the Member that that’s what we’re negotiating for and that’s our ultimate objective. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use this opportunity to ask some questions to the Minister of Health. Now, he may not be specifically aware of the typical issue, but I want to find out what his authorities are within his purview of being Minister.
Recently a constituent has approached me on the fact that they’re applying on this medevac contract that’s out right now for bids and tenders and the packages are just coming together. My understanding was their BIP was pulled with no discussion with that particular business. It was just a random hey, you no longer qualify for BIP. They had to step in, ask me, I talked to the Minister, the Minister talked to the constituent and it seemed to work out. Then they further did an audit on this business, wanting taxation and other things to still qualify for BIP. Finally, now that that’s worked out, fortunately, from my understanding I should say. Now, apparently, they have an anonymous random audit through the Nursing Association for their qualification, now again all linked to this medevac contract that they’re trying to bid on, and I believe it closes in a few days. So, this all ties down to one focus.
What authority does the Minister of Health and Social Services have in working with the fairness commissioner on a type of contract bid like this to find out and investigate this type of problem, and what authority lies before them in dealing with this type of problem? Do they have the authority to dismiss this particular proponent? Do they have any types of understandings like that? That’s the type of information I want to know, because this constituent is tired of being put through the ringer. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An RFP is currently out for air ambulance services in the Northwest Territories. It is being overseen by a fairness commissioner. As a result, I will not speak publicly about this tender at this time. Thank you.
There must be some authority that the Minister can answer in the House today that the fairness commissioner can do and investigate. It’s not about deciding about the contract. I’m just saying when we’ve got corporate espionage in some form or fashion, if that really is the case, I don’t know, and I want to give them the chance to review it properly because they are the experts.
What type of remedies and options lie before this person providing this? What’s the point of having a fairness commissioner if they won’t review the situation? I don’t know; I’m trying to bring it to the Minister so we can get a solution, provide direction to this type of constituent who, in my opinion, is being taken to task. Why, I don’t know.
The air ambulance contract is currently out for a request for proposal. It is being overseen by a fairness commissioner. That fairness commissioner has an obligation to make sure that all aspects of this process are fair, transparent and equal for all. As a result, I will not talk about this contract or this proposal at this time. Thank you.
So the Minister is unwilling to provide a solution in the public here. What use is having a fairness commissioner if we have no solution for a particular proponent who wants to bid on this potential contract and is being sandbagged behind the scenes?
Is the government willing to sit by and allow this without providing any options or remedies or just say let it play out? Are we going to hear the same answer, and you might as well just table the answer if that’s what he’s going to do over there. Thank you.
The services for air ambulance in the Northwest Territories are currently up for a request for proposal. It is being overseen by a fairness commissioner. The fairness commissioner will ensure that all aspects of this process are fair, transparent and equal to all. As a result, I will not talk about this contract or this proposal at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Clearly, justice isn’t being served.
What options lie before this particular proponent who wants to bid on this contract and yet they have people who go out there and sandbag their potential credibility on this, which could cause them not to be in a position to qualify as they bid for this.
You know, we can only hide behind the fairness commissioner answer so long. The fact is, what options lie before them, what authorities fall under the ability of the fairness commissioner, and again, why have a fairness commissioner if the Minister is just going to keep saying over and over again the same answer? Give us some answers and give us some options. That’s what the public wants.
The air ambulance services for the Northwest Territories are currently out for RFP. They are being overseen by a fairness commissioner, who if individuals have concerns with the process can file complaints with. As this is being overseen by a fairness commissioner, I will not be talking about the current RFP. Thank you.
