Thank you, Mr. Chair, and excuse my hesitation. I am unsure where to bring this one up, but I’m wondering, with regard to direct appointments, what role does the department have in direct appointments that departments might decide to do? Do we have a policy on that and is it within this department or do we advise other departments on it? Does HR advise other departments? I could use a little help with that. Thank you.
Minister of HR, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a directive that lays out the criteria for which would apply to direct appointments, and we do provide assistance to the different departments as to format, and it has to be approved by the responsible Minister, and all direct appointments have to go through Cabinet. Then once a decision is made and if that position is approved, then the Department of HR is the lead on implementation of the decision. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Bromley.
Thank you. That helps quite a bit, Mr. Chair. The last one is: is the directive a Human Resources directive?
Minister of HR, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you. It’s a directive that is approved by Cabinet and it’s updated from time to time. We do keep track of the number of direct appointments and we do review the criteria to make sure that it’s fulfilling the objectives of what it was intended to do and we do have direct appointments for a number of reasons. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the last one is: is that a publicly available document or is that an internal?
Minister of HR.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s one that’s approved by Cabinet. So it’s a Cabinet document and I’ll check to see whether that’s available or not. I expect that if it is, then we can share it with the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
That’s great, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that offer and that would help me become more informed on that and then the reasons that you can do direct appointments. If the document can’t be made available and that can, that would also help me. I’ll let it go at that. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
We’ll commit to providing that information one way or the other. Thank you.
Okay, we’re on page 3-12, Human Resources, information item, active positions, directorate. Any questions there? Agreed?
Agreed.
Moving on to 3-15, Human Resources, operations expenditure summary, activity summary, $6.257 million. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is the proper place to talk about this; somebody can direct me to where the correct place is if this one is not the right place. So in the Minister’s opening remarks there’s a couple of comments, one on page 2 about an Advisory Committee on Employability, the next page then talks about a sensitivity training project and then about tracking and reporting on employees, and all of these have to do with employees with disabilities or in and around employees with disabilities and accommodating them and encouraging employment of them and so on. I think it’s well known that I have some difficulties with the Affirmative Action Policy the way that it’s currently written. I’m a little confused on some of the information that’s in the Minister’s opening remarks and I would appreciate a bit more of an explanation, first of all, on the Advisory Committee on Employability. I realize it’s supposed to help, but what’s the composition of this committee and what’s the intention of the actions of this committee to try and encourage the increase of the number of persons with disabilities that we employ? Thank you.
Deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The GNWT Advisory Committee on Employability, the composition of this committee will be six members, public servants and we’re also having a membership open to the various NGOs, such as the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities will have a seat on that committee and provide advice. We see it as certainly doing it in partnership with the NGOs that have expertise in the area in dealing with disabilities, and the role of the committee will be strictly an advisory committee. It’s how do we remove barriers that exist in the system today for persons with disabilities to enter the public service. How do we support individuals that come into the public service in terms of accommodation in the workplace? In the area the MLA mentioned, sensitivity training, how do we deal with individuals, co-workers in the workplace that have a disability? So that awareness is a huge issue in our consultation with the various NGOs.
They thought that that was paramount to get the message out that the public service is open for business and we want to have a diversified workplace. We have to make sure our employees understand how to deal with people in the workplace that have a disability. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for that to the deputy minister. Maybe it’s the language in the Minister’s opening remarks, but it talks about the sensitivity training project; the training will be focused at directors, managers, officers, administration staff and persons with disabilities. So I’m wondering why persons with disabilities need to have sensitivity training. So maybe I could get an explanation of what’s intended with that statement. Thank you.
Minister of HR.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess a large part of that is in determining what approach our government should take to increase representation of persons with disabilities in the government workforce. We looked at other provinces and territories and we thought that we could learn from what they were doing. So we had a session with the Yukon division -- that was seen to have been the most successful -- and they briefed us on what they saw as being critical to being successful in this area, and a very large part of it is sensitivity training for our management and also to interact directly with persons with disabilities so that they become more aware of the work environment and so that we can become more successful in addressing some of the issues that could be potential barriers to employment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I guess I’m still not quite understanding the value of providing sensitivity training to somebody who already has a disability and is employed. So are these people taking the training? Are they there as a resource to the people who are giving the training? Again, I don’t quite understand the value of providing sensitivity training to somebody who is already identified as a person with a disability. Thank you.
That is not our intention to train persons with disabilities on sensitivity training. We are involving them so we can learn from them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks to the Minister for that clarification; I now understand. I just wondered, the Minister’s statement about increasing our ability to track and report on all employees with disabilities who require an accommodation, could I get a bit of an explanation as to what that action is intended, what it is intended to do, I guess, and how it is going to be done? Thank you.
One of the issues that has been identified early on is the question of self-identification, and so this is... We want to be able to deal with that and be sensitive to that, because one of the things that are used when people look at how successful we are or how successful we aren’t in attracting persons with disabilities to work in our workforce is statistics. I think that our intention here is to have a better idea and a better tracking system. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks to the Minister. I just wanted to comment on Mr. Ramsay’s comment. I do agree with him that things seem to be improved and the number of complaints coming forward to us as Members with regards to the HR department have been less, so I do think that the department is doing good work, I just wanted to echo Mr. Ramsay’s comment. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, I am done.
That is more of a comment. Did you want to respond, Mr. Minister?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate those comments and we are going to continue to work hard to continue to improve. Thank you.
We are on page 3-15. Human Resources, operations expenditure summary, human resource strategy and policy, operations expenditure summary, $6.257 million.
Agreed.
Moving on to page 3-16, information item, human resource strategy and policy, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Moving on to page 3-19, activity summary, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $8.075 million. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I asked a question yesterday with regards to recruitment and retention and I have received an answer that suggested that there is going to be a government-wide effort to put in place some recruitment and retention strategies for hard to fill positions. One of the ones that I am concerned about is within the Department of Justice, lawyers particularly. I just wondered whether or not the department is developing an across government strategy if it is going to include, for instance, lawyers, legal aid lawyers that are required by the Department of Justice and areas such as that where they have difficulty filling their staffing requirements. Something which the Health and Social Services department used a number of years ago, I guess, or may still use, was a return of service agreement and I wondered if the department is considering that in terms of recruitment and retention strategies. Thank you.
Deputy Minister Tom Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Certainly in the area of recruiting and retaining hard to fill positions is a high priority for us to resolve that issue. There has been a lot of work under 20/20 to develop an overall strategy to Government of the Northwest Territories Recruitment and Marketing Strategy to help in this initiative. We have undertaken consultations with all the departments to identify those hard to fill positions, including the Department of Justice where we certainly have heard from the Department of Justice about their legal positions. This strategy, we have to look at all initiatives. I know Health and Social Services has looked at this return for service contributions. We may have to investigate that as well in these cases. But certainly looking at the old days of just putting an ad in the paper aren’t there anymore. We have to be innovative in how we find and recruit people to come to the North. I think we had a good take on Northern House, having screens put up at Northern House. I think we got some phone calls from that, people want to move to the North, they are excited about the North and I think that is the way we have to proceed in the future, being innovative, thinking outside of the box and how do we fill these positions. Thank you.
Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is all I have.
We are on Page 3-19, activity summary, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $8.075 million.
Agreed.
Moving on to page 3-20, information item, management and recruitment services, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Moving on to page 3-23, activity summary, corporate human resources. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I am right, I think this is where the Brilliant Future document is being implemented and I am wondering if, first of all, is that the budget under strategic initiatives. I see there is a doubling of that cost this year under program delivery details. I assume that is for the delivery of that program A Brilliant North. Am I correct there or are there other initiatives I should know about there? Thank you.
Minister for Human Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct; it is where it is provided for and that is where we have funding to be able to invest in a public service. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
One of the things that I am particularly interested in, of course, is the Government of the Northwest Territories Green Team that, I believe, Environment and Natural Resources has had for a while and perhaps is spreading to other departments. I believe the Minister mentioned in his opening remarks, that was spreading to other departments. I am just wondering, if that information is at hand, what those departments might be and is there a schedule to get the others signed up and going on this. I think this was wise to include this in the strategy. It is one of the things that attract young people these days, young professionals, is the ability to be green and participate in it. If those details are handy and you know if there are also what sorts of things these teams will be doing, green teams will be doing, I would appreciate that too. Thank you.
The Member is correct in his observation in that younger people, how green the place of employment is, is a factor in their decision-making. So the Government of the Northwest Territories does have a departmental Green Team. The terms of reference have been developed and the following departments are represented on the team: Environment and Renewable Resources; Industry, Tourism and Investment; Public Works; Municipal and Community Affairs; Justice; Housing Corporation; Human Resources; Aboriginal Affairs; and Transportation. So the team is right now finalizing a comprehensive inventory of current Government of the Northwest Territories green initiatives. We are also drafting a proposed set of environmental conditions and this interdepartmental team will advocate and assist the development of internal departmental teams. Maybe I will ask, through you, Mr. Chairman, the deputy to further update us on how well we are doing in that area.
Deputy Minister Williams.
