I was just wondering: has the department or does government have a rough idea about what regions may be getting jobs? I know that office space is an issue, and housing, but we’ve got a little bit of an infrastructure plan with housing. I’m not too sure about the office, but have they got a sense of what regions will benefit from these 50 positions?
The housing piece, the $22 million that is going to small communities, the actual location has yet to be determined, and of course, we’re doing some of the initial planning subject to approval in this House. The office space requirements, we’re looking at some communities where it seemed to be an issue, and as well, some communities may have other housing challenges, like the small communities, so that’s being looked at as well. We do know through our current process that’s now before this House, there are structural changes coming with the new departments. For example, we talked about, in the budget speech, a Lands department being set up in every regional centre. That’s underway as well.
I guess my experience has been that often when we’ve got lack of housing issues, some of those government department jobs do get sent to bigger, larger centres, and they often stay there only because citing, of course, that there’s no housing.
Is there a strategy in place where the new recruits, or whoever is being hired, are advised that at some future point they will be relocating to the regions and communities?
Where there are no incumbents, that is not an issue of concern. Where we are taking over responsibility with incumbents, there is a two year, I believe it is, guarantee of job certainty in the position in the community where they currently are, which in this case would be Yellowknife. After that, the opportunities for longer-term planning would kick in and potential decentralization opportunities may flow.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad for that answer, but I guess the key thing is that, well, just in the newspaper, as well, is that a lot of our regions and communities, it’s government jobs that is our sector only because of lack of industry at this point in time.
Once again, when will the government be deciding on which region, what kind of breakdown will these 50 jobs be slated for?
There is some certainty in regards to the Lands department and those kind of organizational changes where there’s going to be a Lands department in each regional centre. Those decisions are there. Some of the other components that may be decentralized, we’re still looking at what makes the most sense and what is available in terms of capacity in communities to absorb potential positions, and that will be happening over the next few months.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to throw a few single words out there that the government might want to consider when trying to recruit people for the 800 vacant positions and how we are going to get Northerners first and foremost into those positions and, secondly, how we could attract other people to come here. Let me throw a few of those out: mentoring, sponsorship, job shadowing, transfer assignment, succession planning, partnerships with the private sector, tracking our students when they’re out there, forecasting labour market trends in the Northwest Territories so we can tell students even when they’re in high school what kinds of positions we’re going to have a shortage of going forward, scholarship, loan forgiveness. If we lose $25,000 for every student that doesn’t come back to the Northwest Territories – at least $25,000 and probably more once they get established and start a family and so on – what are we doing with their loans, the debt? That’s what you hear down south all the time. The biggest burden for post-secondary, after people graduate from university with an education, is starting off life with these incredible education debts. We should get ahead of the ball here and try to think about doing something, knowing full well that if we don’t get our population up, that grant from Canada is just going to keep going down.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance, on the 800 vacant positions, how many of those are inactive and how many of them are we actively trying to recruit people into?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this particular moment, I understand we are recruiting actively for 571 positions.
I’d love to see where those advertisements are. You’re actively recruiting 571 positions in the Government of the Northwest Territories. Does the Minister have a breakdown of how many of those are in headquarters and how many of those are in the regions?
I don’t have that level of HR detail, and I don’t have the ability to ask my colleague from Human Resources to provide the statistics, but we have those numbers available, it’s just that I don’t have them before me here today.
Well, if the government is actively trying to recruit for 571 vacant positions in the public service at this time, you know, please include us in that challenge. We probably could have some ideas to help you out in filling some of those positions.
I would like to ask the Minister of Finance, on the 800 vacant positions, what kind of monetary dollar value does 800 vacant positions represent? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If you used the ballpark figure of, on average, $100,000 per position, the math would be $80 million. Thank you.
Is there a strategy or anything out of the ordinary in place right now to attract, recruit for those vacant positions at this time? I don’t know; if there are that many advertisements and that many posts out there on government websites, I haven’t seen them.
What is the effort that is being put forward at this time? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we are doing things like regional recruitment. We are looking at the way we are structured as a college and supporting post-secondary students. We are now doing things, as indicated in this House, like job fairs. We have the initiative that’s going to put market housing in the small communities, which we hope will allow us to staff long needed positions in the smaller communities. There are a lot of things being done not only by us but by industry.
The issue is, are we doing it, as the Member herself said, well enough. Clearly, when we look at our territorial population statistics, there is work to do. The fly-in/fly-out, as well, is a challenge. We also believe there is significant opportunity in the immigrant Nominee Program. The one political case that comes to mind is Premier Wall from Saskatchewan went all the way over to Ireland as part of a recruiting career fair to sign up Irish folks to move to Saskatchewan to fill jobs that are going begging. We are in a very competitive market to do those types of things in addition to trying to employ every Northerner that we possibly can. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up with my Member’s statement today. I have questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
In the budget address it mentions that one-third of our NWT children start school already significantly behind in their overall health and development. I want to ask the Minister, with the data collection, does he see those stats as per norm that we see in the small communities?
Would the Minister give us any kind of indication what those stats are in the small communities and how he plans to address those challenges, those problems that we have with children being behind in their health and their development? Does he have the stats for the small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We do have those stats from the small communities and also the larger centres in comparison and also southern jurisdictions, as well, because they do serve isolated communities sometimes.
We have done a lot of research in this area and we have been working with other provincial jurisdictions. We realize that a lot of our communities, especially the isolated communities, small communities, are not up to par on their educational paths. Through the Education Renewal Initiative it will certainly capture those areas, and even the Early Childhood Development Framework that we have been talking about. All those tools that we have been providing will offset and enhance the program that we’re going to be delivering as we move forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I agree with the Minister that we do have a lot of challenges in our smaller communities, especially ones that are isolated.
The Minister and committee have had the opportunity to work with the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority on their e-learning program that provides education tools and education to the small communities using teleconference.
Would the Minister agree that this new e-learning structure is working and is very successful in the Beaufort-Delta region, and is he willing to look at providing additional resources to this project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
First of all I would like to commend the Beaufort-Delta Education Council for working diligently on this particular e-learning initiative that they have embarked on. It has been very, very successful to date, even though it has been a short time frame. At the same time, we have been doing our research across our great country of Canada and there is other e-learning that’s happening throughout the other regions, but this particular one captures the most isolated communities.
I agree that this is an area that we need to invest in more and then how we can deliver that as a test pilot project through the Beaufort-Delta region to other isolated communities. Those are just some of the discussions we are currently having. Mahsi.
I appreciate the Minister’s comments on the work that’s been brought forth by the Beaufort-Delta Education Council, and just quoting him he says it’s “very, very successful” and that we have to start investing into this organization.
Right now the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority, through the e-learning program, provides opportunities for three communities to advance their education, higher education, meaning that there are other communities in the coastal regions that aren’t getting the proper, not the proper but the same education that they can.
Would the Minister be willing to invest funding? Knowing that the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority is using their old funds to fund this program, can new dollars be invested into the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority to fund this program so the coastal communities can also reap these benefits? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks for the Member’s statement, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for addressing this important subject. We are, as I stated, working very closely with the BDEC – Beaufort-Delta Education Council – exploring various ways on how we can expand on their initiative that has been highlighted as a success.
As the Member indicated, part of the coastal regions are not covered. This is our goal, to capture those isolated communities, reaching out to those isolated communities. We are discussing that at this point. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be pretty blunt about this, I guess, would the Minister be willing to fund the e-learning program with new dollars so that Beaufort-Delta Education can use their allocated funding for other programs and projects that other regions have? Is there new funding in the ERI Initiative coming down the pipes in the 2014-15 fiscal year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
E-learning will be a key component of the Education Innovation Action Plan, so as we move forward, evolve into action plans, this will be captured to reach out to the most isolated communities. So, yes, that is part of the plan. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Bouchard, Hay River.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance on his new release of this year’s budget.
I would like to ask the Minister, if he had done his tour of the Northwest Territories, how he can justify as the amount that we are supposed to put into the Heritage Fund when we have clearly heard other numbers such as 25 percent and 50 percent?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was an issue of choice and having to make disciplined choices to try to meet all the objectives that we have as a government and as an Assembly, in a way that allows us to be sustainable, stay within our borrowing limit and still move forward.
There was a very diverse range of opinion across the territory. For example, the community of Hay River, they were supportive of the 5 percent when we met there and when we did a wrap-up at the end of the day. In Fort Smith there was a significant debate, 25 percent at the end of the day. Inuvik said they thought it should be probably more, at least 10 percent. In Norman Wells it wasn’t that clear. In Yellowknife the range went from 25 to 100 percent. So there was a range. There was no doubt and you have to make a choice. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. That’s what we are required to do and that’s what we did in a careful, thoughtful way.
I know the Minister did attend Hay River and he indicated that Hay River supported the 5 percent. At the same time, the Minister indicated that we were reducing debt and he’s indicated in our budget here that we are looking at borrowing another billion dollars. So I mean, I think Hay River is supportive of 5 percent plus paying down the debt. I think the 25 percent that we’re looking on this side for is a cost-savings. The community of Hay River is looking to save more towards the future.
I wonder how the Minister justifies this when he indicated that we’re going to reduce debt but we’re actually taking on more debt, a billion dollars’ worth of debt.
As we went around the North and travelled to the regional centres, we talked about not only the Heritage Fund but we talked about the vision of the Assembly and of the government with the grid build out to the road completion from Wrigley to Norman Wells, the need to look at things like natural gas expansion, the need to put infrastructure into our communities. The only way we can do that is if we get a bump-up to our borrowing limit, which I would point out we haven’t had finalized yet and we haven’t borrowed a cent yet. We painted that picture for folks for the road ahead on what we need to do as a territory with devolution. We are currently, with our $800 million borrowing limit in the budget address, with the path that we’re on, we will be within $142 million of our borrowing limit. We’ve agreed that we want to keep a $100 million cushion on anything that could happen, a horrific fire season this coming summer, God forbid, but something of that nature.
So we had a fulsome discussion with the communities. We didn’t mislead communities. We didn’t just go in there and talk about the Heritage Fund. The Heritage Fund is actually about $45 million that we are looking at potentially out of a budget of $1.6 billion. We had the board discussion too. We have to make those choices. We can do both, the question is not what degree. Thank you.
I think we’re looking at terminology. The Minister indicated that we are looking to borrow a billion dollars. The indication that he said that we might have been misled is the fact that we indicated that we’re actually going to reduce our debt. This budget says we are going to reduce our debt and that’s what they have been selling, but in this budget they are also talking about borrowing another billion dollars. So I’m just wondering where the Minister sees the difference in that. We’ve talked to the communities about reducing the debt, but now in this budget we are actually taking on more debt.
We talked about if we park the $1 billion request to bump up our borrowing limit to the side which is going to be geared to major economic infrastructure, when we talked about the Heritage Fund, the resource revenue sharing, we talked about debt reduction, paying down the debt and we talked about investing in infrastructure. Those are the three areas and we are working to keep the debt reduced to within $100 million cushion of our $800 million borrowing limit. We’ve talked to people about that. We’ve talked to people about the things we need to do about the Stanton renovation at $350 million. When we did the consultation, we didn’t have the number, but we knew it was going to be significant. So we were clear and we do need, as we borrow money like we plan to do on the Stanton renovation, we need to be able to pay down that debt. We want to keep it within $100 million. To me, that’s debt reduction to keep it all affordable for people. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you. Another area of interest in the budget is the discussion of the regional positions. The Minister’s presentation indicated that there’s going to be 52 positions in the regions. I’m just wondering: how many positions are we putting into Yellowknife with devolution?
Thank you. I think there have been briefings with the Members. We’ve offered all the existing employees in Yellowknife that are in federal positions that are transferring. We’ve had, as the Premier indicated yesterday, nearly 100 percent take-up. So you’re going to be at 150 positions, roughly. I mean, I don’t have the exact number, but all the jobs that are currently in Yellowknife, job offers were made, all of them were accepted and they have a two-year commitment to their positions and stability here in Yellowknife. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I understand it, Bill 4, of course, is before the House and that’s the Health Information Act. What happens, as I’m learning a little more about this, actually it harkens to a question asked to me by a constituent who wanted to know more about electronic health records and how they’re managed from, say, a personal medical record position or perspective.
In the Northwest Territories, if I understand it correctly, we use a program called Wolf. So my question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is: How do we monitor access to this program to know that if you have technical access to the programming, how do we know the appropriate people are only using these files, and what protocols do we have in place to monitor these particular items? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Around the EMR we actually have a significant number of firewalls and protocols in place to ensure that only people who have access or need to see that information have access to that information. I do know that there are lots of different technical requirements that an individual has to meet in order to get in: passwords, fobs and other items so that the information remains secure and private only to those individuals who need access or have the right to access that information. Thank you.
Thank you. I’ve heard about a complaint that was only observed after the complainant brought it to the attention of Health and Social Services. So I guess what my question would be is: What protocols are in place to ensure that this is being done and monitored without someone having to figure out that their personal files were violated? Thank you.
Thank you. The Member hasn’t shared with me any information on an individual whose rights or information has been violated. I’d certainly like to hear that. We take these types of situations, if they occur, very, very seriously and we’d like to address them, but there are protocols in place to ensure that the information is secure with those protocols. Certainly, we can review them if there’s been an incident and I’d be happy to hear about the incident if the Member would be willing to share it with me. Thank you.
