Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I have questions. I am not sure who they should be directed to because I’m talking about something that probably doesn’t really even fall under the purview of any Minister. I’m talking about the idea of how we manage our public service in the Northwest Territories.
Our territory has very many remote and far-flung regions, and as we sit here in this House today, there are people, public servants out in the communities all through our territory that are performing the functions of delivering programs and services to our constituents.
I think it would be safe to say, given the size of our public service, that at any given time there are areas of our public service, areas of different departments that are in need of review. I think that some indicators could tell us whether there were problems or not, and I’m talking about sometimes things that are slightly intangible such as morale. I think you could probably tell a lot about the efficiency of certain activities if you knew how many people working in that division or that area were off on stress leave, for example.
I’d like to know what is currently in place. What vehicle do we currently have in place for assessing this, other than the deputy minister, who would be located here in Yellowknife, having to follow up and monitor all of those activities and potential problems? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The morale of the GNWT workforce is very important to the Government of the Northwest Territories. We do surveys with the staff and usually there is quite a tremendous uptake. I know that the Department of Health did their own survey with the authorities in the past. We do surveys with GNWT staff and ask those questions about whether individuals consider their jobs to be rewarding, if they’re satisfied with their supervisor, if they’re happy with the way things are at work. If there are any areas where they have concerns, those are the types of things we try to capture in these surveys. As a result of these surveys, then we will initiate some changes to make things more positive for the employees. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, who conducts these surveys, how often are they conducted and who reviews them? That wasn’t three questions. Thank you.
The surveys are conducted through the Department of Human Resources. I don’t have the frequency here with me, but I do believe they do it fairly frequently.
---Interjection
Every two years. Thank you. My understanding is they occur every two years. The evaluation is done by the Department of Human Resources, working with the various departments. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, is there a standardized survey that goes out to every public servant in every department, and what kind of uptake do they get? Obviously, these are voluntary. Responding to this survey would be voluntary, and I would like to know what kind of uptake there is on a survey such as that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, they are voluntary. They go out to every public servant. They are done across the country and we have about 80 percent participation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to know if the Minister would be willing to table, in this House, a copy of the survey that goes out to the public servants, and also if he could tell me here today in the House who reviews these and what kinds of actions do these surveys precipitate. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we would have no problem tabling the survey in the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
