Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister at the Department of Human Resources is made aware by other departments if other departments are considering reducing the amount of PYs in any particular community, especially the small communities. I would like to know if the Ministers have an obligation to advise this Minister or the Premier when they are reducing PYs, not necessarily people, but the position in various communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. I am going to recognize reply. Our time is up.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to change a PY in the Government of the Northwest Territories, it is a funded position. It requires us to go through the mains process that we are going through today, which means the Members do have an opportunity to see any funded positions that are being moved from one region to another or being eliminated. As with our policies and procedures, we have policies and procedures with respect to staff who are affected. If a position is going to be moved or eliminated, we have a very thorough process we follow in an attempt to retain our staff as best as possible. We really want to keep our staff, as opposed to having our staff leave. Ultimately, position changes are brought to the attention of Human Resources, especially if an incumbent is involved. Ultimately, changes to established positions do come through this House so we all get to see them at some point.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. I recognize the next Member, Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Ministers have in front of them how many students have been hired. I was wondering: would you be able to tell the committee the number of summer students hired in Hay River over the past couple of years compared to a similarly sized Inuvik and Fort Smith?
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't have the numbers in front of me for previous years other than last year. I can tell you last year was one of the highest number of summer students that we were able to hire. Fort Smith, this year, as of June 2nd, we have 23 students hired. Last year at this time, we had 33 students hired in Fort Smith. At the end of the summer student season, we had a total of 41 summer students hired in Fort Smith. In Hay River, between the Hay River and the Hay River Reserve, we have 21 students hired as of yesterday in Hay River/Hay River Reserve. Last year, we had 21, so we are a little up from where we were last year at this time. In total, we only had 25 summer students hired during the whole summer student period last year compared to the 41 in Fort Smith. I believe the other community you asked for was Inuvik. As of yesterday, we have 21 summer students hired in Inuvik. Last year at the same date, we had 25. We are a little down in Inuvik. Our total hire as of August 14th, which is basically the end of the summer student period, last year was 38. We are a little behind in Inuvik from where we were last year, but we are still working. Was that it? Was that the communities the Member wanted?
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Minister. Yes, and I see that traditionally Hay River has far fewer summer students than either Fort Smith or Inuvik, despite having a larger population, significantly larger, especially including the reserve when it's compared to Fort Smith. Why is that? Is it a reflection of the fewer number of overall government positions or is there some issue that needs to be addressed regarding summer student hiring in Hay River specifically? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a good question. I couldn't say 100 per cent what the reason is. But I can say that in all the other community and region numbers they do include numbers for Health and Social Services. Whereas, in Hay River and Hay River Reserve, they don't because the Hay River Authority currently is outside the public service. They're bound by the same terms and conditions of our collective agreement and, I mean, we don't crack their summer student hires, so we have no numbers here for any summer students being hired within the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. That might account for some of it, but I don't know. I will get in touch with the Minister and Health and Social Services and see if we can get some information from the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority to see what kind of numbers of summer students they've hired. I will certainly provide that to the Member and committee.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think, overall, the health and social services authority accounts for a relatively small number of overall hires, so I don't think that would account for the quite large difference between the communities. Just a concern… I've had lots of people in Hay River concerned about the lack of jobs for summer students. We, know, like the other Members have elaborated on, we're trying to bring students back and we're trying to do the same thing in Hay River. I'll just leave it at that and I'll follow that up with the Minister at another time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Mr. Minister, comments?
Yes, thank you. In August 2014, Yellowknife Health and Social Services hired 17, Stanton hired 17 summer students, Beaufort-Delta hired eleven, Fort Smith hired seven, Deh Cho hired one, Sahtu hired one, and the TCSA hired one. There is actually a fair amount of hiring of summer students happening in the health authorities. I will get that information for the Member. I will just point out that I mean, yes, our numbers are lower than they were last year, but in some places we're doing a little bit better. In Hay River… It happens to be one of the communities; we're actually doing a little bit better than we did last year. I do take the Member's point on the number and how it doesn't compare to other communities of similar size. I will get the numbers on the health centre to see what kind of hiring they're doing, and we'll have a bigger picture of where we are in Hay River.
Still time for follow-up, Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Human Resources, are they in contact with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority regarding summer students? Is there any sort of encouragement to hire summer students? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Mr. Minister.
No, we have not. Technically, they are outside the public service. They have their own collective agreement; they have their own terms and conditions of employment. I'm happy to reach out to Hay River. I'll talk to the public administrator to see how they're proceeding with summer student hires. If they want access to our database, I'm certainly happy to allow them access to our database.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you for that offer. I look forward to some collaboration on that front. Thank you, Mr. Chair. No further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Closing comments, Mr. Minister?
Thank you.
Questions. Seeing none. Human Resources, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $3,799,000.
Agreed
Page 222, Human Resources, regional operations, active positions, information item. Any questions? Seeing none. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, during question period I asked the Minister of Human Resources just briefly on the human resource plans. The strategic human resources, I'm kind of reading a bit of the activity here and I'm seeing workforce planning as a part of it. I just want to ask a question maybe about the human resource plans that the departments would have. I want to know: what the status is of the human resource plans from the departments? I just want to know roughly the percentage of departments that actually have human resource plans for their staff.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, all departments either have them or are developing them, and I can't tell you the exact number of the variance, which ones are done and which ones are still in process. I will commit to getting that information and sharing it with the committee.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask the Minister who's responsible, which Minister or is it the Premier, that's responsible to give direction to the Ministers to ensure that their departments do have human resource plans?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, ultimately the Ministers do have some responsibility encouraging their departments to complete and prepare their human resource plans. The deputies report to the Premier who also is responsible for giving the direction to them to meet those conditions. It's kind of a shared responsibility, Mr. Chair. I mean, I work with both the Department of Health and Social Services and Human Resources to make sure that they are developing theirs, and I know the Ministers are doing the same, but it's a shared responsibility.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairperson, I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister can provide a status report on that particular item and provide it to committee.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Minister.
Thank you. I've already committed to providing sort of an update of where we are, which ones are completed, which ones aren't. Is the Member looking for something different than that or is that what the Member is looking for?
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Beaulieu, on clarity.
No, that's what I'm looking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Minister.
Yes, absolutely, I'll get it.
Anything further, Mr. Beaulieu? Strategic human resources, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $7,254,000.
Agreed.
Page 225, strategic human resources, active positions, information item. Any questions? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister explain? There's a loss of two jobs. What were those two positions and are they currently filled or what? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of the reduction exercises and looking into how the department is doing or providing services, three positions in total were eliminated; one in the directorate, two in the strategic human resources division, for a total of three positions. The positions within the strategic human resources division were the director of strategic human resources and an admin assistant, strategic human resources, both of which were vacant.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly? None? Questions? Seeing none. Agreed?
Agreed.
