Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we will use this section to deal with some of the issues they have, but we will bill them back. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is this going to be managed on kind of a casebycase basis, or is there an estimate of how much MTS will require for labour relations support? Do we have an estimate at this point of what percentage of the $400,000 appropriation will be going to support MTS? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. It will be evaluated on a casebycase basis. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
When will this House be able to evaluate those casebycase bases? Is this something we are going to see in the public accounts? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
As we go through the business plans, the next set of business plans, we'll have some information for Members. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. So I will just reiterate that question. How will this appear in the public accounts? Does it appear in the public accounts? Let's put it that way. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when the Auditor General audits us, it will be reflected in the public accounts. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will just say for the record that I am always hesitant to appropriate money to MTS when it does have that established revolving fund, but I appreciate that this appropriation contemplates more than that in other labour relations capacities.
Our Standing Committee on Government Operations in its public accounts role will be taking a look at this and making sure the government is meeting its commitments to use the fund appropriately and to not use appropriations to support MTS, so I am putting the Minister on notice. I have no further questions apart from that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Would the Minister care to respond?
No. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was just a comment, and we'll take it as that.
Thank you. Anything further from committee? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am on page 148, and the contract services amount for 20182019 is a fair bit less than 20172018. Can someone tell me what's going on there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Stewart.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. There was a rebalancing, if you like, between contract services and fees and payments; but I will just let the Member know what's in contract services. The main bulk of the money for contract services under human resources is for the Employee and Family Assistance Program and for the Leadership Development Program that we get support from elsewhere. Under fees and payments, there is the regional recruitment program, the new training positions funding that the Minister spoke of, and an Aboriginal development fund that we use to support specific training for Indigenous staff, to help them move forward in their careers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some questions about the training provided through Finance via human resources, and I have had concerns that people outside of Yellowknife are disadvantaged in terms of training. I know that most of the training occurs in Yellowknife, and, while people from the regions can access training, there's a cost involved to the regional offices in terms of travel and nights in the hotel in Yellowknife and that kind of stuff. It seems like it disadvantages people from outside of the capital. So does the Minister have any statistics he can share with us on the people trained by type of community, basically the regional centres, small communities, Yellowknife, in terms of their proportion of the public service?
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am sure the stats that we have are: 50 per cent of those came from Yellowknife; 33 per cent came from the regional centres, Fort Smith, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Norman Wells, and Inuvik; and 10 per cent came from the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As far as the actual number, I have percentages, not the numbers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So 57 per cent of those who access training were from Yellowknife, where there are 51 per cent of the positions; 33 per cent came from the regional centres, where there are 32 per cent of the positions; and 10 per cent came from the small communities, where there are 17 per cent of the positions. So people from small communities are quite disadvantaged, especially.
Does the Minister know what type of training is accessed by people from the small communities, as to the regional centres? What I am getting at is that there's training that can sort of help you in your job, but then there's training that can help you get ahead, like project management training and that kind of stuff. That's what I am concerned about is that the people from outside Yellowknife do not have access to it. Am I sort of correct with those assumptions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Mr. Stewart.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. To address the issue that the Member has spoken of, one of the things we are doing is we are delivering more of our training programs with an online option to it. So recently, for example, we launched a fairly major set of technical training that is now available online, so anybody could take it at their desk and return back to the point in which they left off if work takes over, and those sorts of things.
That's not going to work in every case, but it does give another option available to staff. We do not have the data here for the types of training by position, but one the things we do try to do, for example, under the Leadership Development Program is to try to make sure we get a balance between regional folks and people in Yellowknife, etcetera. I think the online solution is part of the answer to making sure we get to staff in all communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Another reason I am concerned -- and I am not hating on Yellowknife, but it's a very transient population, and a lot of the people come to the South to work in the government and then head back down south. So my concern is that they're coming up here, working for the government for a few years receiving this training, and then leaving, and the people from the regional centres and the small communities who are more likely to be from the North and stay in the North aren't receiving that training, and so that is why I have raised this. There is a move for more online courses. Are those substantial online courses like the project management and things like that? I just want to confirm that, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minster McLeod.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I take the Member's point that, for a lot of folks coming for training, they come in to Yellowknife. I have tasked the department with trying to offer as many courses as they can in the regional centres so, some of the smaller folks, their costs to come down will not be as high as it is coming to Yellowknife, so we are working on that. Then the courses that are offered online, as the Member pointed out, project management, my understanding is one of those courses, so they are fairly substantive courses. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a separate issue with human resources that has to do with direct appointments: I understand the reason behind direct appointments; I understand that cabinet will agree to direct appointments. My question is, if there is a direct appointment, is there any sort of a recourse or appeal process that maybe a GNWT employee or anyone can take regarding that?
So, if there were two people, say, who wanted a position, and one was directly appointed over the other, I know that that is supposed to be looked at if there were any other people who wanted that position, but is there recourse for that person who maybe wanted it? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minster McLeod.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, first of all, I will just start with some statistics, and we have had so far in the 18th Legislative Assembly, we have had 220 direct appointments; 91 per cent of these have been priority from under the Affirmative Action Policy; 55 per cent of these have been Aboriginal persons. To answer the Member's question, though, there is no official appeal process once that person is directly appointed because that usually comes through Cabinet. Thank you.
Thank you, Minster McLeod. Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I recommend that maybe that is something they may want to look into because the direct appointment process can be a little controversial, and this is something else that sort of undermines its credibility, when there is no recourse for anyone else, so that is just something I would like to bring to the Minister's attention. Nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Reply to that, Minster McLeod?
No, I will take it as a note and that the Member has brought it to our attention, thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further on human resources? Seeing none, I will call the activity. Human resources, operations expenditure summary, $20,311,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Continuing on, liquor revolving fund. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions: I am wondering if at this point the Minister can advise us. Last year in the House he made a commitment to undertake a review of not the act but the policies in which the Liquor Board operates from, and I am just wondering if at this time the Minister can update the House on what the status of that review is? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there were three main components to the review that the Minister had directed us to undertake. One was looking at the enforcement and licensing capacity, and the first was to recruit a new board chair. We were very pleased that we were able to find a highly qualified board chair, Ms. Sandy Aitken, and she has certainly taken up the challenge and is working well with the rest of the board members.
We are working with the board now to look for some board training opportunities in areas where they feel that that could be helpful to them, and then we are looking at the board procedures to ensure that they are getting legal advice when necessary, that they are not overstepping bounds that maybe they would not be as familiar with. Although, with the board chairs past, that may be less of an issue.
The second area was around operations, and, again, we have done a couple of reviews on some of the operations of the board as well as looking at some of the policy gaps and those sorts of things. We are doing an engagement with the license holders. I have got a draft survey on my desk actually with the license holders, and we will want to make sure that we hear from them about the types of areas that they want to see us focusing on.
Then, finally, the third area was around transparency and accountability, and we are ready to launch the website, it may already be up, that has all of the decisions and the reasons for decisions, similar to what you can get for a court case, to ensure that the public has access to understanding what those decisions are and some of the background to that.
So those are the three areas we have been working on. The work continues, and there are other elements of it that we will continue to do, as well.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
