Yes. Of course, we follow the direction of the territorial government with respect to affirmative action programs. I understand that, of the 329, which includes relief workers, there are 119 Indigenous Aboriginal, 57 Indigenous non-Aboriginal, and 153 non-Aboriginal. Yes, we would like to increase the number of Indigenous Aboriginal corrections officers. We do make efforts to encourage them to apply.
I don't think we are too much different from the government as a whole. We follow the same policies. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the individuals who are in corrections, the inmates, the majority of inmates, I believe, are in Indigenous inmates. I felt that it would be a good opportunity for Indigenous employees who will be working in the corrections facilities, and even in as far as coming from the communities where the individuals are incarcerated, as they would know each other, and so on.
Aside from just following the Affirmative Action Policy, which has been basically a program that has just failed all the time forever, it's been, I think, the numbers that are around 30 per cent. That roughly sounds like about 30 per cent from what the Minister just said, although I didn't calculate it. It sounds like it's about that area. I know that they have a program where they bring correction officers into the mix, but a more interactive approach to trying to actually work on getting the numbers up, other than just following a policy that has been failing this government for years.
I'd like to know if there's anything other than saying we follow the Affirmative Action Policy at GNWT to fill positions, if there's anything other than that from corrections from this section. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I did mention, we do follow the lead of the territorial government and our numbers are probably somewhat similar to their success rates, if I can put it that way. Overall, certainly we would be always interested in looking at new approaches to increase those numbers, but as I say, currently we're following the general lead of the territorial government with respect to its Affirmative Action Policy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one of the, I think, important maybe objectives or goals of the government should be to try to reduce the rate of repeat offenders. I recognize that, in the past, from my hometown we have had quite a few correction officers, many of whom are retired at this point, working in the system. I found that they have lots of discussions with the individuals who are serving a sentence in corrections and trying to have those discussions so that those guys don't return.
I'm asking the Minister, I guess, other than just following the regular process, which is failing, a process that doesn't work, we could do nothing and have numbers of 30 per cent in the GNWT who are individuals who would be considered priority one. Other than doing nothing or following the GNWT Affirmative Action Policy, is this department doing anything to increase the number of correction officers who have priority one status? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister, you've already noted that the GNWT follows the Affirmative Action Policy and you are on par with the rest of the GNWT. Do you have anything further to Mr. Beaulieu's questions?
Mr. Goldney does.
Thank you. Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can say that we wholeheartedly agree with the importance of having Aboriginal corrections officers and the value in having corrections officers to serve as models for our offenders. That's something that we do recognize and one of the reasons why we wholeheartedly endorse and encourage the following of the Affirmative Action Policy when we're looking at hiring, when we're looking at intake for training.
A further recognition, and I think the Member noted the value of having those role models serve and the ability for offenders to connect with the people who share their values. We also have traditional liaison workers in our facilities to try and encourage that connection even further, so it's not just upon the corrections officers. We do recognize that need and do invest in that effort. We do hope to see the numbers continue to improve on the Affirmative Action front. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering if corrections has anybody in the associate director program, the development program set up by GNWT to try to increase the number of senior managers with the priority one status in the GNWT. I'm wondering if this department, I'm not talking about the whole department, but particularly the section, whichever directors or managers or wardens, whatever the positions may be called, I don't know, but there is a program. The program development where they have associate directors.
Does this section have any of those positions placed in any of the corrections facilities that we have or the corrections headquarters, the people responsible for corrections who are not actually working out of the facilities, if any of those individuals exist in the department? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
I'm not certain whether we have any employees in the program that was referenced by the Member, but I know there are people on transfer assignments. I don't know whether Mr. Goldney wants to add anything to that. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't believe we have anybody in the associate director program at the moment. We have taken advantage of opportunities to further the careers and development of our Aboriginal employees through transfer assignments to build their experience and allow them to gain experience at more senior levels. That is something that we actively encourage and will continue to do so. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Nothing further from Mr. Beaulieu. Seeing nothing further, I will call this activity on page 281. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm sorry I didn't put my hand up earlier. A few questions. Again, I'm going to go back to aspects with regard to training. I don't think that the department takes this lightly in any way, shape, or form. I recognize that they understand the importance of matters that have gone on recently in terms of concerns raised by inmates as well as officers with regard to particularly the North Slave Correctional Centre. I'm going to make some degree of assumption in saying that there are some similar challenges in maybe some of our other facilities. In my view, it comes down to really how strong we're doing on our communications and on our training.
I don't think that my honourable colleague from Kam Lake went so far as to ask what types of training we actually undertake for our officers. I know that could be vast, but I mean can the Minister maybe start by explaining to us what the basic forms of training our officers require, and are our officers currently all up to date on that training? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Of course, training is an ongoing concern and a lifetime occupation. Some of the areas that in particular we have concentrated on recently is training in the area of de-escalation techniques, violence prevention, and responsibilities around the use of force. This training is ongoing. Of course, there is always regular training going on, but those are things that we've been concentrating on in addition to the regular training of late. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I appreciate hearing that there is some training going on as it relates to arrest training and the use of force. I recognize that was a concern, that some officers were recognizing that there just seems to be kind of a culture to want to take an aggressive approach first rather than taking the verbal approach. How about verbal judo? Is this something that the officers undertake? Is that a form of training that is required? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand that verbal judo, as it was referred to, would be a part of de-escalation techniques. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are all of our officers first aid certified? Thank you, Mr. Chair
Thank you. Minister.
I am not certain of the answer that. I don't think they would all have to be first aid certified, but I can get back to the Member on that. I don't have any exact information on that. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe the better question is: on a per-shift basis, how do we deal with first aid response? Is there medical staff there, or is there a dedicated supervisor who has first aid training, something of that nature? How are we making sure that first aid is being addressed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, not getting into too much detail on the staffing component, I can provide the assurance that there is always somebody available with the training necessary to respond to first aid situations and recognizing that, for a good portion of the day, there are also nursing services available. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is good to know. I want to move maybe a little bit into asking a bit about, from maybe a supervisory role or a managerial role, how we actually observe our officers' performance. Are there annual reviews? Are there some means by which we assess potential deficiencies or shortcomings amongst our officers and make sure that they are all brought up to the proper level of training? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the supervisors are responsible for ensuring that performance is maintained and for the identification of deficiencies. I will note that we have struggles in getting our completion rate for the annual required performance reviews for employees. Some of this is just a reality of the shift work and the nature of our operations being dissimilar from other government jobs that have the benefit of easy computer access. It is something that we are working with the Department of Finance to improve. Absent the formal performance assessments that are required, the supervisors do keep track of the performance of those under them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of that, do we have any kind of identification of where someone might have, let's call it, a shortcoming of sorts? Is there an internal mentoring-type program of any kind where we have officers with more experience who are going to spend a shift with those with less experience? Is there any kind of that kind of mentoring, for lack of a better term, going on? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is a factor considered in the design of the shift team. We do try to maintain that level of experience so we can have employees benefit from working closely with those who have had more experience. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can officers request training? If an officer feels that they have particular shortcomings and they want to upgrade themselves, improve their skills, is there a way for them to make official requests, and will the department pay for them to have their training undertaken? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we do allow officers to identify areas where they might want the benefit of additional training. That is provided as appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now, let's talk for a moment about the amount of staff available with respect to what you can tell us. There have been concerns that there have been a number of folks who have had to work double shifts, maybe in some instances even triple shifts. There should have been or could have been times when call-outs could have been made to have off-duty officers come in and take on some of those shifts. Are there reasons why we ask people to do double shifts when we have officers in waiting who might be able to come on with fresh minds, feeling rested, could come on and do a shift? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes. Certainly, we have identified that as an issue, which, of course, led to, apart from possible employee burnout, a bit of a jump up in our overtime amounts. We are trying to address that. We are hoping that is in process right now. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
