Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the short sitting time we have here – we only have two weeks and we can only do so many Members’ statements and questions – one area that I wanted to focus on was human resources and some of the issues that have come up with human resources. I know I asked questions back in our winter session about the Regional Recruitment Strategy and how we were taking some of our employees and giving them 80 percent of their salary and 20 percent goes to training.
Can I ask the Minister of Human Resources what the progress is on that? Last I heard, there was one person that went through it when we were supposed to have numerous individuals in the program early in 2014. We’re about halfway through the year. I just want to see how many people who have gone through the Regional Recruitment Strategy are new employees or employees with advancement in their jobs.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Regional Recruitment Strategy is one where a position would be identified by a department. Of all the vacant positions that may be in the region, the department would identify a position and then determine that that position would be one that can be filled by an individual that does not have all of the skills necessary to do that function at this point but can be trained up.
We are having some difficulties finding the key positions in the department; however, we have found some. We managed to put one individual on, like the Member said. We have five more individuals where we’re developing training plans and those ones are underway, so we’re looking at that. We have four more applicants where the department is developing a job description type of thing, one in management, so we’re looking for an individual with certainly some schooling and some skills that can be brought into a management level. We’re actually looking at a nursing position, as well, with one of the health authorities, an officer position, and a clerical position as well.
That’s definitely something that’s good to hear about. It’s a lot better update than the one we received during the winter session where there was just one individual in the program. Should an employee of the GNWT or somebody looking for a job would want to get into this type of program, how is the person able to access the department rather than the department recognizing these positions and just looking at filling them.
How can an individual approach the department, their manager or even the Department of Human Resources? What steps would an employee of the GNWT need to take to get advancement in their career under the Regional Recruitment Strategy?
A good point of contact for us has been the government service officer. The government service officers who have worked in the communities that they’re responsible for put a list of individuals in the community that they feel that have achieved Grade 12, and from that list the government service officers have talked to the regional directors. It’s a standing item with the regional directors at the regional management committee meetings and they’re communicating that back to the Human Resources department. In Human Resources, we have a regional recruitment specialist, and that individual then works with the department. Once the position has been identified and potential candidates have been identified, then we work with the human resource specialist to draft job descriptions and then we move forward with the department on that. That would be the good point of contact. You can also just contact the human resources division through our employment website.
Thank you. I’d just like to ask the Minister, under this Regional Recruitment Strategy, he mentions that managers look at filling positions.
Have any of these positions resulted in direct appointments from the managers or from the department position that didn’t go out for public contest? Have any of these positions been direct appointments?
Mr. Speaker, the reason for the whole thing would be direct appointments; it’s a direct appointment process. We go through the regular direct appointment process. The individual managers, unless they’re dealing with a person that’s affected, cannot direct appoint. Individuals affected through layoff would be the only way where an individual can go through the process back to the Minister as a Human Resources direct appointment. Otherwise, all direct appointments go through Cabinet. So there have been no direct appointments through the Regional Recruitment Program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the new program, I was hoping that we’d see more of these jobs being filled by people that aren’t employed in the GNWT or ones that are already at GNWT and can advance to management positions. I understand that we’re also reviewing our Public Service Act that reflects these direct appointments. The reason I’m getting into direct appointments is because I have had concerns of our P1 residents of the Northwest Territories not getting jobs and losing most of the jobs to people that have been living in the North not very long.
I just want to ask the Minister, what is he doing to address that issue where our P1s are being overlooked for jobs when we have a program here that’s supposed to promote and enhance and train and develop our northern residents? Thank you.
Thank you. A representative public service is a priority of this government. We have asked, through my office I have talked to the deputy minister of Human Resources and advised the deputy minister of Human Resources that I wish to see all of the human resource plans from all of the departments, that she was to talk to all of the deputy ministers across the GNWT to look at the human resource plans and determine how the departments are going to raise the level of Priority 1 candidates in each of the departments. So we are doing that. We’re examining that to determine how the numbers look now so we have some department-by-department, community-by-community statistics. From there we will look at where we see the key issues being or the key areas where there are issues and we’ll be approaching those issues within the various departments across the GNWT.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
