Agreed.
Moving on to page 12-37. Again, information item, work performed on behalf of others.
Agreed.
With that, can we go back to the department summary on page 12-7. Department summary, operations expenditure summary, $53.326 million.
Agreed.
Does the committee agree that we’ve concluded the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment?
Agreed.
With that, I’d like to thank the Minister and thank the witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, could you escort the witnesses out. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move we report progress.
---Defeated
I believe the next item we agreed to move into was HR. If that’s agreeable, I’ll ask the Minister if he has any opening comments.
Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.
---Defeated
Mr. McLeod, you have the floor for opening comments.
Mr. Chairman, I’m pleased to present the Department of Human Resources 2011-2012 main estimates. The department’s mandate is to provide leadership and direction to departments and agencies in all areas of human resource management. In doing so Human Resources is guided by legislation, policies, and strategies; in particular, 20/20: A Brilliant North, the Northwest Territories Public Service Strategic Plan. As Members know, this comprehensive framework sets out a 10-year plan for the development of the public service in the Northwest Territories.
The focus for 2011-2012 will be on fixing the foundation through strategic business process redesign, learning and development for all employees, and human resource planning.
The department’s main estimates propose total operational expenditures of $42.421 million. This represents a budget increase of 5.8 percent or $2.348 million from 2010-2011. The increase in the main estimates includes:
forced growth funding of $645,000 for compensation and benefits costs associated with the collective agreement;
$491,000 to re-establish five payroll positions. The payroll office was reduced in 2007, however, efficiencies were not fully realized and the support service stabilization, the resource shortfall, must be addressed;
$338,000 for planning as the collective agreements with the Union of Northern Workers, the Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association, and Northwest Territories physicians contracts all expire in 2012;
$167,000 investment to improve the government’s capacity to deliver French language communication and services to the public under the Official Languages Act. One new bilingual human resources facilitator position will be hired to ensure that bilingual human resource requirements will be met and supported.
The Department of Human Resources looks forward to supporting the provision of French language services to the public in a manner that supports our relationship with the Northwest Territories Francophone Committee and the Federation Franco TeNOise.
The government, like other employees, is faced with significant challenges including an aging workforce, rising labour costs, and a competitive employment environment. Maintaining a sustainable, vibrant public service requires us to strategically invest in our workforce through 20/20, the Public Service Strategic Plan, in a manner that recognizes corporate pressures including the need to remain fiscally prudent.
The main estimates include a $1 million investment for continued implementation of 20/20 recruitment and retention strategies. Specifically these additional resources will be used to ensure effective workforce stability through human resource planning including succession planning and performance management. These resources will also be used to upgrade the Human Resource Information System in order to increase efficiencies and support user accessibility. In addition, this upgrade will ensure compatibility of the financial system for accountability and management with the Human Resources system.
The work that is taking place as part of 20/20 recognizes the long-term nature of this strategic plan. Building upon the productive pilot project undertaken by three departments to develop human resource plans, align with business plans, a second set of departments will engage in the process to develop their human resource plans by the end of 2011. A draft succession planning framework will be developed during 2011-2012 as outlined in the 20/20 three-year action plan.
The Department of Human Resources, working with departments and agencies, will continue to invest in the Associate Director/Superintendent Program. In 2010-2011, the first intake for this program, two Aboriginal individuals were the successful candidates and are in their new positions. We are in the process of confirming the third Aboriginal candidate. These new opportunities under this program are located in Inuvik with Education, Culture and Employment, Fort Smith with Municipal and Community Affairs, and in Fort Simpson with Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority. The three associate director superintendent positions are included in the department’s position count.
Finally, to strengthen employee learning and development, resources will be designated to implement the research and planning work completed in 2010-2011. These include:
The Competency-Based Performance Management Framework that’s under development and will be piloted in 2011-2012. Competencies form the basis for performance evaluation as well as learning and development programs.
Aboriginal cultural awareness training will be rolled out in 2011-2012. Recognizing their expertise and knowledge, Aboriginal governments and other communities of interest have been consulted in the development of the curriculum outlined for Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training.
We will continue to focus on increasing employment and participation of persons with disabilities within the government’s labour force. Expanding on the sensitivity awareness test training session held in 2011, sensitivity training will be available in 2011-2012 along with the disabilities framework and information campaign.
The Government of the Northwest Territories Advisory Committee on Employability continues to provide expert input and advise on diversity and inclusivity within the Government of the Northwest Territories human resources strategies. Work is underway to attract persons with disabilities into the Government of the Northwest Territories workforce and ensure appropriate partnerships are in place to support employees with disabilities.
I look forward to providing Members with a full update on year two implementation of the Public Service Strategic Action Plan in May 2011.
The department continues to move forward with fixing the foundation through business process redesign work intended to stabilize the core transactional human resource services that the department provides. This will be Human Resources’ main focus in 2011-2012 as the department works to provide excellent service to our clients, the departments and agencies across the Government of the Northwest Territories, as well as the current and prospective employees.
As Northerners we need to continue to build a strong northern public service that provides quality programs and services to the people of the North, generate employment opportunities for all, and attract and retain the best and the brightest people who are committed to their professions, their communities and the people they serve.
I would like to thank the Members for your ongoing guidance and support in sustaining a strong public service.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. With that, I would like to ask the Minister if he will be bringing in any witnesses.
Yes, I would, Mr. Chairman.
Agreed?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, escort the witnesses in.
Mr. McLeod, for the record, could you introduce your witnesses?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left I have Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister of Human Resources; to my immediate right, I have Sheila Bassi-Kellett, associate deputy minister; to my far right is Michelle Beard, director of finance and administration.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Welcome, witnesses. Any general comments? Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll be brief in my comments. Again, I mentioned this last year and I’ll mention it again this year. In the time I’ve been here, there have been a number of issues with Human Resources going back five or six years. I believe in the last three years under the guidance of the Minister and the management team in the department, as an MLA we don’t get as many calls or complaints from the public or the public service. I appreciate that. Obviously the public and the public service that you serve appreciate it as well. I think people are getting a much more fair shake when it comes to their dealings with Human Resources. I appreciate that. I’m sure they do too.
Going forward, if I could say one thing, I think, and I’ve mentioned this a number of times, I really think we need to start planning long term and doing some work with how the Aboriginal governments in the Northwest Territories are going to advance, draw down their authorities, and how it is that our public service is going to come together with the needs and requirements of Aboriginal self-governments around the Northwest Territories. We can’t afford to be stepping on one another’s toes down the road. I think the more planning and foresight we have on how that’s all going to work is going to pay dividends down the road.
Comments are brief, I know it’s late. Just a few comments. Thank you.
General comments. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you. I’ll keep my comments very brief too. The positions within the GNWT are growing each year. It seems like we’re adding new positions to our workforce. I’m not too sure what the plan is. Is there a time when I’m going to say we need to cut back on positions or hold it or to put a freeze on it? Also to continue to support the Aboriginal people into the government’s senior management into those type of positions.
I look forward to some of the initiatives that the Minister has embarked on. I think there are some real good ones. Laying out a plan, there are the baby boomers that are going to be retiring, the aging workforce. Of course there’s a new generation of young workers that have a little bit different work ethic sometimes and we have to train them. That’s part of what my upbringing was too. In my generation, we had a job and we kept with the job and learned from our parents. I look forward to some of the challenges that the Minister and staff are going to be coming up with and how to resolve them. I hope that we do well and that we continue to treat our people well within the GNWT. There are a lot of good people working for us; really good people. We continue to support them and encourage them to bring on other people into our workforce. I do want to say that we have good people working for us. I do want to say that they do a lot for us. I just want to leave it at that.
Thank you. With that, I will allow the Minister to respond to the general comments. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the comments. We put a very concerted effort into reducing our backlog and focusing on our workload and moving to a client service department. We require all of our employees to take client service training. I think we’re starting to see the benefits of that.
Planning long term, we know that 40 percent of our workforce will retire within the next five years so it’s something that we have to plan for.
Aboriginal governments drawing down their authorities, we are very cognizant of that and we have been looking at that, their requirements for successor rights and so on are areas that we have been exploring and we have just started meetings to look at what devolution will entail and so we definitely will be planning for that.
In terms of the increased workforce, we have taken some action, in terms of our staffing, so that we don’t staff as quickly in order to save costs. We are working with our Affirmative Action Advisory Group to look at ways to increase our affirmative action statistics.
In my opening comments I talked about our pilot project on associate directors and superintendents, we think that will help. We also have other ideas and initiatives that we will be undertaking. The cultural awareness will be a big benefit and we always say that our workforces are the most important asset and I think that I agree that we have a lot of good people working for us and we need to keep them and make sure that we also attract new people with fresh ideas. We recognize that the younger generation have a different approach to work ethics and what keeps them staying longer and we are trying to factor that into our recruitment initiatives and efforts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. I don’t see any more general comments. What is the wish of committee? Detail?
Agreed.
So maybe we can refer you to department summary page 3-7. We will move on to page 3-8, information item, infrastructure and investment summary. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to page 3-9, information item, revenue summary. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to 3-10, information item, active position summary. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to 3-13, activity summary, directorate operations expenditure summary, $607,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to 3-14, information item, directorate, active positions. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to 3-17, activity summary, human resource strategy and policy, operations expenditure summary, $6.830 million. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe if I could, I believe the Minister has talked about the backlog and that was a big issue years ago. Just a quick question, is there still a backlog and if there is, when might you be finished dealing with the backlog of files at Human Resources? Thank you.
Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we have to change our terminology. We are still calling it a backlog, but we recognize that every pay cycle it adds to our backlog. But from the original, when we consolidated Human Resources into one department and all the files were turned over, I believe there was something like 2,500 transactions that were backlogged. There probably has been another 2,600 transactions, what we call adding to our workload, but having said that, we have been able to deal with all of that and what we are still calling a backlog is about 936 now, so we are going to change our terminology and we are going to call it our workload, not a backlog anymore.
Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s good, thanks.
Page 3-17, activity summary, human resource strategy and policy, operations expenditure summary, $6.830 million. Agreed?
Agreed.
Moving on to page 3-18, information item, human resource strategy and policy, active positions. Agreed?
