Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to announce the launch of a new career website for the Department of Health and Social Services. The Department of Health and Social Services, in collaboration with the Department of Human Resources, has developed a recruitment and retention website, www.practicenorth.ca, aimed at current and potential Health and Social Services professionals in the Northwest Territories. Www.practicenorth.ca will become the central recruitment backbone of the department, complementing the department’s existing activities and acting as a content hub for existing and potential recruits.
Eighty percent of job seekers now use the Internet as a primary resource for employer information and to locate appropriate opportunities. We need to attract these on-line candidates and this new website will help us do so. We know that almost everyone has access to the Internet either from school, home, or work, public cafes, and libraries. Www.practicenorth.ca will extend the department’s recruitment initiatives on-line and communicate directly with candidates.
The career website will contain up-to-date dynamic information pertaining to living in the NWT and working in the NWT as health and social service professionals. Potential recruits and professionals across the NWT will have access to information about career enrichment, including bursary applications and professional development initiatives, and quick access to job opportunities and contacts within each of the NWT’s eight health authorities.
Www.practicenorth.ca will also use peer-to-peer stories to develop a clearer understanding about the work-life balance of a health and social service professional in the NWT. This section will provide potential candidates with an opportunity to hear first hand personal experiences from our health and social service professionals in the NWT.
The career website is an important step forward and it is an important part of responding to and recruiting today’s professionals. The career website applies relationship marketing that will pull potential candidates to the information they are interested in, rather than pushing the information out to non-segmented markets through traditional forms of recruitment.
As we continue to compete with all other provinces and territories in recruiting health and social services professionals, I am confident this new website will provide us with technological advantage that will complement our existing recruiting methods.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
