Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for Human Resources some questions about this government’s succession planning.
Our public service workforce is always aging. I guess we’re always all aging.
---Interjection
I don’t know, I got an e-mail from somebody the other day who told me they saw me on TV and said I should go see a hairdresser. Seriously.
---Laughter
Oh, the feedback we get.
Anyway. Our public service is aging. It is prudent for us as a government to do succession planning to find out how we can take people who are interested in careers in the public service and provide them with the professional development, the training, and the opportunities they need to advance in the public service. I have had an inquiry from a constituent who was concerned about an individual who was direct appointed to an associate deputy position, but I believe this person may have been a part of some kind of a program to make sure we have adequate senior level bureaucrats in place for these positions. I thought it might be helpful if the Minister of HR could describe for us what programs the government has in place to create opportunity for people to advance themselves in our public service.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government, our greatest resource, our greatest asset is our human resources and it’s very important for us to make sure that we have a qualified public service in order to do all the work that we need them to do.
The Member is correct that our public service is aging. The average age is 44 years old. That’s the average age of our public service. Sixty-three percent of our employees are over 40 years old. Obviously we need to pay a lot of attention to succession planning. Specifically in the senior management category, over the next five years 40 percent of our senior management cohort is eligible to retire, and over 10 years 54 percent of our senior managers are eligible to retire as well. Obviously, we have a big job ahead of us.
Our Human Resource Strategic Plan identified the need for our government to develop a Succession Planning Strategy, and we're working very hard on that right now.
In years gone past there were programs that were well known to people in the public service. My colleague Mr. Beaulieu, for example, entered the public service under a trainee program, where a trainee for a position was paired up, so to speak, with somebody in senior management and was sent out also for professional development to enhance their skills to become managers in various aspects of government service. What programs exist today? That was called a trainee program. I understand there’s been a MAP program in more recent years. What other opportunities are there that public servants can access now if they want to advance their career with the public service?
Several years ago, when the Department of Personnel was decentralized, the training money was allocated to the departments. There are a number of programs. Right now we have a leadership program with the government. People can apply to be part of this program. Generally they need some support from the department and we have regular training modules that have been established through the University of Alberta. We also have an Associate Director Superintendent Program for aboriginal people whereby we’re trying to increase the number of aboriginal people in senior management positions. We have been working through utilization of transfer assignments whereby we can allow people to obtain experience in different levels of management so that they can move on to higher levels as they progress.
Our Human Resource Strategic Plan 20/20 recognizes that we want to encourage government employees to take advantage of lifelong learning so that they can advance their careers within the government. We are developing a draft succession planning discussion paper. We will be introducing a pilot program and we will be developing a succession planning framework for the government to follow, and we expect that next year. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Before I go on, Members, I would just like to draw your attention to the rules that we have. Half of the Members haven’t asked a question yet and we only have 15 minutes left in question period, so both questions and answers, try to maybe shorten them up. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The concern I had raised to me by a constituent was someone who had entered into a certain government department at an associate deputy position. Is it the position of this government that skills at the deputy minister/associate deputy minister level are transferable between departments without any really specific experience or having worked their way up in the ranks in that particular discipline or area of program delivery? Thank you.
Our government operates on the basis of merit, so employees that progress through different promotions and different employment opportunities either compete for the jobs and get them on their own merit or if they are direct appointed or on a transfer assignment. It’s based on merit. Senior level positions like deputies and associate deputy ministers, my experience is that the senior management skills are transferrable; that if you’re working with one department, generally you should be able to manage different levels of departments, and we recognize that in our deputy minister cohort where we have different levels of deputy ministers. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How are people in the ranks of the public service made aware of these types of opportunities that the Minister has outlined? How do they access information to that if they want to get the candidate that’s going to advance into some of these programs? Thank you.
As I’ve indicated many times, the authority for staffing has been delegated down to individual departments, and the majority of competitions are filled through the staffing process and they’re posted on our websites. We are moving to e-Recruit and all of the jobs that we advertise will be on e-Recruit.
With regard to the deputy minister level positions, that is under the authority of the Premier. The Premier decides if he wants to put it out to competition or if he feels that we have sufficient people who are qualified to do it within the public service. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
