Debates of October 24, 2006 (day 14)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask questions today to the Minister of Human Resources. It has been almost two years since the amalgamation of the HR departments. It is getting close to two years. I don’t see any improvement in the area of client service, Mr. Speaker. In June, I questioned the Minister in regard to the service levels. It is not good enough that employees or the public call various persons at HR and get three or four different stories about where their files are, what they can access, and what they can’t access. Questions go unanswered. E-mails go unanswered. Telephone calls go unanswered. Nurses new to town, whether they are married to maybe an RCMP officer or teacher, wait months without hearing a reply back from the Human Resources department. In fact, they have to deliver resumes to the hospital themselves. I do not think that is acceptable. The first question I have for the Minister today is, how can the Minister demonstrate that the client service levels have improved at the Human Resources department, given the fact that they have spent $475,000 last year trying to find a better way to do business? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 175-15(5): Human Resources Department Client Service Levels

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I must say the Member has a propensity to focus on the negative of how we do business in the government. We have listened to the Members in this Assembly about the concerns around HR. The Member himself stated he has been raising issues for three years. I think he has raised a number of issues in this setting right now referencing previous times he has raised issues on certain files within Human Resources. I think, instead of looking at the glass half empty, I want to see it half full and what we have done. The Member has raised the issue of a sole-source contract that we put in place to look at our practices within government. We can clearly identify that we have dealt with the backlog that came along with the amalgamation. It has not been two years since the last budget. Last year was when we officially kicked off Human Resources. There was planning before that as to how we would try to go about doing this. So we have done quite a number of things around clearing up our backlog on the pay and benefits side as well as try to do ongoing business; terminations, layoffs and pension data that is available. If there are particular issues that the Member wants to address, I would gladly try to work with him and deal with those specific issues and bring them to closure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 175-15(5): Human Resources Department Client Service Levels

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a propensity for standing up in this House and questioning the government in regard to concerns my constituents are raising like the honourable Minister had when he was on this side of the House. I just wanted to point that out for the record, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister what performance measures or indicators does the Minister employ when he is trying to gauge whether, in fact, service levels are improving in the Human Resources department. I would like to ask him that specific question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 175-15(5): Human Resources Department Client Service Levels

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since taking on this activity and putting human resources into one area, dealing with the backlog files, a number of things I’ve put in place to monitor the work that has been going forward. One, it is on the pay side of the equation on our backlog what gets done. The second piece, and becomes more critical, is the benefit side and the backlog there. In both sides, pre-September 2005, and post-September 2005, because that is when we really started pulling things together within the department to try and smooth them out and get the flow working. We do have work. I have said that in this House on a number of occasions. There is room for improvement. We are putting the pieces together. One of the big pieces around there is dealing with our PeopleSoft program going from 8.3 to 8.9 and coming with a clean version, as we call it, or the vanilla version, where we stick with a program and change our practice around that to make sure we are using it more efficiently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 175-15(5): Human Resources Department Client Service Levels

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do have a concern in the area of human resources. I know the Minister spoke in June of over 100 areas of concern in the Human Resources department. As a Regular Member, we haven’t had a briefing where we actually got to talk about what these concerns are and how we are going to address them as a government. I think that is fundamental and the communication has to be better between the Minister and the Regular Members on this side of the House in terms of where we are going with human resources and human resource planning. When does the Minister plan on sharing with us what exact work has been done from that active review? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 175-15(5): Human Resources Department Client Service Levels

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as soon as the AOC committee is going to give me some time that we can bring a briefing forward, I will gladly meet with them to schedule something and give the latest information on the work that has been done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 175-15(5): Human Resources Department Client Service Levels

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given what I laid out for the Minister in terms of nurses seeking employment and the staffing issues at the various health centres across the Northwest Territories, I am wondering if the Minister could give some consideration to, in fact, having a special team assigned to the recruitment and retention of health care professionals here in the Northwest Territories, because, in my mind, the current Human Resources department just isn’t fitting the bill, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 175-15(5): Human Resources Department Client Service Levels

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of recruitment of nurses for the Government of the Northwest Territories is, in fact, an area that we focused on. In fact, as of July this summer, we, within the human resource group, pulled a number of people together and their sole focus is dealing with the recruitment of nurses. Since July, we have been helpful, in fact, in pulling together and hiring 55 indeterminate or term nurses in that time period. So that unit is starting to work. We have had to make a number of those adjustments as we’ve moved along to fine tune HR and the way we do the work as well as try to focus on the more critical areas. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.