Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we enter phase 2 of Emerging Wisely, I would like to know if the Minister has plans to end the hiring freeze and hire more summer students this year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Human Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's not so much that there was a hiring freeze, but the program that is administered by the Department of Finance certainly did put a hold on new offers to students. Any offers that were in place, those ones have been honoured, and those students have been employed. The reality was, Mr. Speaker, that bringing on several hundred potentially new employees at a time when our own employees are struggling to adapt to the current conditions and now are having to be asked to find a way to slowly return back to their workplaces, this is not a time to be bringing on a large group of new students. It's not only about supporting them financially. We want to ensure that, when they are coming to work as summer students and interns for the GNWT, they are getting a meaningful and positive experience. Right now, Mr. Speaker, the priority has to be on ensuring the safety and well-being of all of our own staff, ensuring the safety and well-being of the people who we serve, and it's not a time, unfortunately, when we can bring on a large number of students.
That said, if there are departments, boards, and agencies who have the capacity to hire a student and want to hire a student, they can come to the Department of Finance and indicate that. There's not a set freeze, per se. If there is a match that can be made, then the student can still be hired. It's just that, at this point, as far as a formal program, this isn't the time. There is also the casual pool and, to the extent that students want to apply to the casual pool, there certainly are positions available, frankly, as a result of COVID, that can be filled from that pool. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Would the Minister commit to prioritize the hiring of summer students wherever possible across the Government of the Northwest Territories?
I know it's not popular, but I can't make that commitment right now. I can't make the commitment to hire students specifically. What I can say is that, again, there is the casual pool that I would certainly encourage the students to apply to. There are positions that need to get filled. There are tasks that need to get done, in large part arising from the needs of our COVID-19 response. While that's not exclusive to students, those positions are there, and we would certainly want the students to put their names into that casual pool, if available. At that point, the hiring process undergoes the usual processes that it does within Human Resources.
I think a positive message is important to the students of the Northwest Territories. What message does the Department of Human Resources have for the territory's students who have missed out on potential job opportunities by the Government of the Northwest Territories this year?
I share the view that there should be a positive message in all of this. COVID-19 has been a very unique and unprecedented challenge. At the risk of saying what is being said department after department about the nature of this being unprecedented, for the students who aren't going to be getting the positions that they wanted or hoped for, again, if they are able to get a position through the casual pool, they will undoubtedly get an experience unlike anything they were otherwise going to get prior to the pandemic. If they don't get hired, again, we do have a number of strong programs in place to hire students when they do return to the Northwest Territories after their schooling.
The federal government does have a program in place right now to encourage students to go out and, firstly, to have private hiring with companies, but also to go out and do work and public work and volunteer-type services. I would encourage students to go and look into that. The last option, again, as someone in human resources, is go out and build your resume in a way that maybe doesn't involve a formal employer. There are a lot of people out there who need help right now, and I know that's not the kind of funding that students want to get, but it's just not the right time for the Human Resources to be rolling out those programs. However, we are still going to be here looking for students to come back to the North as this pandemic passes us by.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Mr. Speaker, as our government prepares for the second wave of COVID-19 and for future pandemics, will the Department of Human Resources commit to making a contingency plan for the future that is more mindful of summer student employment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I can certainly say that the Department of Human Resources will be looking at all of the programs that rolled out, looking at the way in which we supported our employees and looking at the returning to work plans that we have. Frankly, it's beyond simply looking at students, but looking at the way in which Human Resources was responding to the pandemic. We will undertake that project in order to be even better prepared for whatever emergencies we may face going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
