I hereby table the "2016-2017 Annual Report of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories"; and, pursuant to section 5 of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I wish to table the "Summary of Members' Absences for the period October 17, 2017 to February 6, 2018."
I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. I want to thank our visitors in the gallery for sticking with us. It has been quite a day. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee would like to consider Tabled Document 63-18(3), Main Estimates 2018-2019, continuing the Department of Education, Culture and Employment followed by continuing the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, time permitting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will consider the document after a brief recess.
I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to discuss Tabled Document 6318(3), Main Estimates 20182019, and continue where we left off with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The last time we discussed the department, we went through opening comments as well as comments from the Minister. I will ask the Minister if he has witnesses he wishes to bring into the Chamber. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I do.
Thank you, Minister Moses. SergeantatArms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses for the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right, I have Deputy Minister Sylvia Haener, and on my left, Assistant Deputy Minister Olin Lovely.
Thank you, Minister. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment begins at page 25 of the main estimates. As I have stated, we have already done opening comments, so we will proceed to consider the detail. The departmental total can be found on page 29, but as is our practice, we will consider the detail in the document before considering the departmental total. There are five activities in this department. The first activity is corporate management and begins on page 33.
What we will do is we will consider each activity at once, and some activities have more than one page. They include the expenditure summary, as well as information items. If committee has comments, they can speak to each activity once. Please reference the page that you are discussing. I will open the floor to comments on corporate management operations expenditure summary or the active positions found on the next page. Comments or questions on ECE corporate management? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am looking at page 33, and I am seeing that there is a slight increase in planning, research, and evaluation, and I am wondering what the additional funds are being used for. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those are for the three positions that we are using for the case management system.
Thank you, Minister. I would just like to remind everyone to end your statement with a "thank you" or some way so that the sound crew knows when it is time to change the mic. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wonder if the Minister could just refresh my memory about the case management positions. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The case management system is the system we use to provide payments for income assistance clients and to track expenditures and a number of other programs and services that we offer. As part of the support for that system, we needed to add three positions in order to bring more services in-house rather than contracting it to a company that we have a contract with down south. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Further, Ms. Green?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the witness please say what kinds of services are being brought in-house that were once contracted? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those are going to be IT resources. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we talk about three positions for case management, we are talking about IT positions for case management. Is that correct? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and yes, that is correct. Thank you.
Thank you. Nothing further from Ms. Green. Anything further to the activity of corporate management? Seeing none, I will call this activity. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 33, contract services went down to $780,000. Can the Minister explain what the change is between 20172018 and 20182019? There is a difference of $107,000.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of bringing more services in-house, we are going to use fewer contracted services from the company that I had previously mentioned. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to clarify, if the company is coming in and we are going to save some money, why aren't we hiring more people to save more money if we are trying to reduce this area? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Ms. Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. These resources were contracted with a consulting firm that specialized in IT services for our case management system, and we, in looking at that, determined that it was actually cheaper to hire people and employ them in-house to perform those tasks. That is why we are looking at the three resources and less expenditure in contracted services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Nothing further from Mr. Thompson. Next, it's Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am looking at the operations expenditure summary, the compensation and benefits line. There is this decreasing trend from 20162017 where it was $8.1 million down to $6.9 million anticipated for 20182019, but when I look at the next page, which is the active positions, we see that there is actually a three-person increase in this activity area for the department. Can someone explain to me how we are adding staff, but the money for compensation and benefits is actually going down over time? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Each year, as part of our accounting process, we have to accrue an amount for employee leave and termination benefits. Part of that actual dollar amount of $8,102,000 includes that, plus we had also run through a couple of senior managers, and we were paying one while they were in their retirement process, so that cost also is incurred as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just so I understand, there were some extraordinary costs related to personnel or human resources issues back in 2016-2017. It was like a one-time thing in one year? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that's correct. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. On the contract services line, the main estimates for last year were $887,000 but only $396,000 was expended. Can someone tell me what happened there and whether any of that contract work has now been carried forward into the new year 2018-2019? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, this relates to the senior manager positions. As part of a reduction exercise that we undertook in 2017-2018, we reduced the contract services by $400,000. That's largely attributed to that. We were trying to bring most of those services in-house, as the deputy minister had indicated, but we were unable to find the number of qualified applicants to undertake a full in-source of that service, so we are blending that service and bringing part of it in-house and part of it through contracted services, hence the increase in the next year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Nothing further from Mr. O'Reilly. Next is Mr. Testart.
