Question has been called. Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Social Services Administration Act, has had second reading and is referred to committee.
---Carried
Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the orders of the day.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize my constituency assistant from Lutselk’e, Mr. James Marlowe, in the gallery today.
I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee today? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We would like to continue with consideration of Tabled Document 188-17(5), the Department of Human Resources to be continued, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, NWT Housing Corporation and Justice, time permitting. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
We will proceed with that after a brief break.
---SHORT RECESS
I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. I would like to ask Minister Beaulieu if he would like to bring witnesses into the Chamber. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I would.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.
Minister Beaulieu, for the record, could you please introduce your witnesses again today. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right is Ms. Shirley Desjardins, deputy minister, Human Resources; and to my left, Ms. Michelle Beard, director, corporate affairs, Human Resources.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. We are on page 247, strategic human resources, operations expenditure summary, $8.339 million. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have one question for the Minister with regard to the percentage of senior management or Aboriginal employees within the government sector. We are hearing that there is a different percentage in each department. Are we getting closer to representing the population that we serve with our government employees? I know there was some type of discussion, and with the time we have left in this government, are we moving the bar up a half percent or a percent or something where we can say yes, we’re getting closer to the number of representation by the population that we serve in the Northwest Territories with our government employees, especially senior management and the Aboriginal people in our government? Thank you. That’s the only question I have.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Our affirmative action numbers are around 32 percent across the public service. Representative by population would be about 50 percent. We have an Affirmative Action Program designed to bring that number up more so that the public service is more representative. At the senior management level, the percentage is lower than that. I do believe it’s around 20 percent of our public service that’s Aboriginal. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I don’t know if the Minister wants to confirm those numbers. I thought our senior management was a lot lower than that. I don’t know if he’s speaking specific for Human Resources that the upper management was 20 percent. I thought HR and Finance were having problems staffing from the Northwest Territories. Perhaps the Minister can clarify that.
As I go along, too, the 20/20: A Brilliant North, NWT Public Service Strategic Plan, I’m not too sure if this is the activity that’s rolling out the Regional Recruitment Strategy. I noticed that the Minister’s opening remarks didn’t talk about the Regional Recruitment Strategy. I know that it’s certainly an initiative of the Executive to get to the regions and say, look, you start hiring our people first, and I think many MLAs on this side of the House want to see that, because constituents are coming to us and saying, look, it’s so hard to get in the door, to get interviews, we don’t get feedback on our applications, and they really come to us complaining about getting a job or even getting an interview for a job with the Government of the Northwest Territories. If the Minister would please respond to that, the Regional Recruitment Strategy, as well as the senior management statistics. I don’t know if it’s for Human Resources, once again, and/or GNWT as a whole.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The exact numbers as of December 31, 2014, across the public service was 31.1 percent indigenous Aboriginal persons. In senior management, it is indigenous Aboriginal persons in senior management, 18.2 percent of the public service. Specifically in Human Resources, indigenous Aboriginal persons, 34.2 percent, and indigenous Aboriginal persons in senior management, 30 percent.
On the regional recruitment, it’s a program, I believe, that does have merit. We felt that it would be a program that would increase the Aboriginal content of the public service for sure, but the way in which we rolled it out, I think the uptake was not what we thought it would be. The responsibility and the way that the hiring process went, it seemed like once we identified a position for competition and then we went into a competition and if we felt that there was that specific job could have potential for regional recruitment, it was after we had gone through all of the steps and then we would consider looking at a regional recruitment process.
What we’re doing now is up front, at the screening. Where we think we’ll achieve success is that up front we’re now deciding prior to going through the recruitment or interview process. Once we go through the screening and we’re finding that the Aboriginal candidates are very close to screening into the job, instead of now saying, well, this number is 60 percent and if you go below 60 percent you fail the screening, what we’re doing is going back to the department as the HR people, going back to the department and asking the department to look at regional recruitment for this position, and individuals that may have screened lower than what the requirements are could still be eligible to get into that position with an element or a portion of their salary going to training them up to meet all the responsibilities within that position. We think we will have success.
We have the Aboriginal Management Development Program. We use direct appointments. We have an advisory council, Aboriginal Employee Advisory Committee, and we have just completed a survey, working with, I can’t remember the name of the organization at this time, the Aboriginal Human Resource Council. We also have Aboriginal and cultural awareness training in the public service. We’re hoping that many of these programs and initiatives across the government led by Human Resources will increase our numbers.
To answer the question of both the Members that we do anticipate that once the accountability framework rolls out in all the departments at all levels that we will see an increase in the Aboriginal content in the public service.
Just with the Regional Recruitment Strategy, I’m glad that the Minister was able to explain it a bit. I’m really curious why he didn’t reference it specifically in his opening remarks, because it was a significant initiative by the Executive to say, look, you’ve got to start hiring our local people and our Aboriginals. I don’t know what the number is at now of empty positions, but I’m sure my colleagues must have asked that earlier as they deliberated this department.
A lot has to be said about some of these entry level positions being over-qualified. What happens there is that as our people look at the job requirements, they get, I don’t know, apprehensive, so it seems overbearing, and in reality it’s just entry level positions there. Has the department begun reviewing some of these entry level positions and making it easier for our Northerners and our Aboriginal people to apply for these positions, because I think that’s a huge part about these positions. Because I know that a lot of people don’t know that there’s training behind these positions.
A classic example that I use, I think it was in the Justice department where there was an entry level clerk position. They wanted them to have a legal terminology course and a few other things when in fact it was about being in the front line, about setting appointments and that kind of stuff, and a legal terminology course, that’s something that can be done afterwards. You know, let’s hire the people. I’ve always found that once people learn the job, learn the organization, they’re the ones that become the longest lasting employees of any organization. It’s just a matter of getting in the door.
I’d just like to ask the Minister again about, I don’t know if it’s part of the 20/20 plan or is it part of the Regional Recruitment Strategy, when and how will they be reviewing a lot of these job descriptions?
We have worked with that as a department, Human Resources. We’ve reviewed all of the vacancies to be filled. We’ve looked at the qualifications of those vacant positions and we’ve looked at if any barriers at all were placed in any of those positions, barriers that would make it difficult for individuals of a priority group to get into those jobs.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Next on the list I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate this opportunity to ask a question here. I have an issue that comes up frequently with constituents with a variety of backgrounds. Many seemingly very qualified people don’t even seem to get interviewed, and these are long-term residents, Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal, quite a variety of people from all walks of life. I know I’ve talked to the Minister about this and I know he’s aware of this.
What sort of monitoring is done? Like, do you monitor the number of complaints about this and requests for appeals or however people might respond? What are the plans to try and dig deep into this one and perhaps give it a little study or research to see if there’s something we can’t do to respond? These are long-term residents and they’re being forced to leave in some cases when they can’t get employment. I know that’s not consistent with the goals of this government.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Many of the items that I spoke of, the qualifications review, the barriers, would help in some of these cases, but I know what the Member is referring to when the individual is clearly qualified, has the experience and has all of the education requirements to do a job that’s listed and the individual doesn’t succeed either at the screening process or the interview process. Each time those types of things occur and an individual, whether it’s to the Members here or directly through our department of HR, launches a complaint of that type, we do follow up and check. So I guess it’s a matter of providing a response back to individuals that would come to us, but I’m going to have the deputy minister just touch a bit on how we’re trying to address that specific issue.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Desjardins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Right now we’re currently working on a human resource management framework, accountability framework. That is a strategic tool to look at measures with our stats on these kinds of things that you’ve raised about the number of people that have applied that haven’t been receiving jobs. We’re going to be looking at the deeper issues to why they’re not receiving jobs. Is it their resume that requires working, or is there a job match for them? So we’re starting to look at those kinds of things to be more proactive into any issues that we have, regardless if its applicants that are applying on jobs, but as well as for the tools that we have in place such as the appeal process is going to be assessed, as well, for any of our recruitment measures as part of our Workforce Strategy as well.
Thank you, Ms. Desjardins. Mr. Bromley.
Thanks for the response from the Minister and his deputy. It is concerning. I mean, the Minister knows, and staff I’m sure, in several cases or many cases where this has been raised, we have worked with individuals. Staff have helped the individuals tune up their applications and so on, but in every case there’s still no resolution. So I hope, as you do that internal look, that you will contact people that have had this experience and they’re maybe on record as appealing, or perhaps ask MLAs to suggest constituents names that have been through this if there’s not a privacy of information concern there. I have many that have said yes, put my name forward, I’m happy to talk about this. So there are some opportunities there to speak directly and get that perspective, one perspective and the department will have a perspective, but it would be nice to capture those.
So I guess I would ask if the Minister will commit to making sure that those who feel like they have been frustrated can have some input into that review.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will commit to contacting the Members to obtain a list of individuals that may have been faced with being qualified and not being able to get into the public service.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank the Minister for that commitment, and that was just one suggestion. I’m sure the Minister has others on how to find people, but I appreciate that.
Just looking at the budget, I just had a question. It seems like we took quite a jump up in ‘14-15 and we’re maintaining that. Compensation and benefits are actually down. I have to congratulate the Minister on that. I’m not sure how he has managed to do that, but that’s a rarity, but the rest is up. I’m wondering: is there an explanation and is this a temporary blip that’s expected to go back down? I imagine maybe we were working on 20/20: A Brilliant North, NWT Public Service Strategic Plan or something that bumped it up, but I’m just wondering why there’s a $2 million increase there. Thank you.
Thank you. I’d like to have the director explain that jump that occurred between ‘13-14 actuals and the mains from ‘14-15.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Ms. Beard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The overall decrease in strategic human resources, so for the employee development and workforce, planning is due to the passive restraint. So the department took $322,000 out of that program area for passive restraint. The compensation and benefits, the increase there is for each of them are for the collective bargaining increases. So that’s, for the year, four collective bargaining increases. So the only movement in this is the decrease of the $322,000 for the passive restraint and then the increase for the collective bargaining for year four.
Thank you, Ms. Beard. Mr. Bromley.
Yes, somehow that’s not fitting with my perception of the numbers here. I appreciate that explanation. It looks like the Minister is on it. I’m talking about the jump from ‘13-14 about $5.5 million to about $8.5 million nowadays. I’m looking for an explanation of the increase. It hasn’t been through compensation and benefits and renewed contract with employees and so on. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In the ‘13-14 actuals it was a process where we didn’t spend the money that was in the budget. So if we go back to the mains from the previous year, the mains of ‘13-14 would be more in line with the mains from ‘14-15 and the mains from ‘15-16, but the actuals indicate that we didn’t spend all the money. There was an opportunity in that area where we had passive restraint, so we didn’t spend the money. That’s why it reflects the difference, the large difference there.
I obviously don’t have that number in front of me so I’ll leave it at that. But if the Minister does come up with any further information on that, I would appreciate it.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Next I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to just follow up a bit from where I left off yesterday. I had asked about a retention strategy. The answer that I got from Ms. Desjardins talked a lot about recruitment but didn’t talk much about retention. So I’d like to ask again, what are we doing? Do we have a retention strategy, was my first question, and what are we doing to retain employees? What retention efforts are we putting in place? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Deputy Minister Desjardins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I did focus a lot on recruitment yesterday. We are also looking at different initiatives on our retention strategy and into looking at engagement and supporting the capacity for learning and knowledge share. That’s all part of 20/20. So we’re looking at different initiatives that would support retention into the workforce that we currently have, and we’re doing a lot of research right now on best practices and we will be incorporating that into our tools to support clients.
