Thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We'll take a fiveminute break and get started with Finance. Five minutes.
SHORT RECESS
I now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we've agreed to consider Tabled Document 81319(2), Main Estimates 20232024. We will now consider the Department of Finance. Does the Minister of Finance have any opening remarks?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to present the 20232024 Main Estimates for the Department of Finance. These estimates support the mandate objectives for the Department of Finance, while continuing to meet the Government of the Northwest Territories' fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.
Overall, the department's main estimates propose an increase of $16.29 million, which is 5.1 percent over the 20222023 Main Estimates.
Highlights of the proposed main estimates include:
A $927,000 reduction to contract budgets in order to better align funding with actual expenditure levels the department has experienced in prior years;
$4.42 million in forced growth, mainly driven by a $2 million increase to interest expenses to accommodate the yearly interest on the longterm bond issued by the GNWT. This is in addition to a $2.3 million increase to medical travel funding associated with an increase in public service as well as growing travel costs;
$1.104 million to fund a health recruitment unit initiative as the GNWT works to alleviate staffing pressures in the health care system through increased focus on health professional recruitment and retention; and
$10.27 million in other adjustments, which include an $8.28 million increase to the carbon tax offsets provided by the government, coinciding with the increase in the carbon tax rate along with the new proposed methodology under which rebates will apply.
Additionally, there will be a $3.99 million increase to the contribution amounts provided to Housing NWT to support their efforts in addressing housing needs across the territory.
These estimates continue to support the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly and vision of Budget 2023, by:
Supporting strategic investments to expand the economy and reduce the cost of living in communities across the Northwest Territories through the development and improvement of reliable broadband services;
Continuing to deliver and improve procurement services and contracting opportunities; and,
Ensuring that GNWT departments have the support they require to manage both human and financial resources appropriately.
That concludes my opening remarks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Do you wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes, please.
Thank you. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses in.
Minister, please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, on my left is deputy minister Bill MacKay. And on my right is deputy secretary to the financial management board Terence Courtoreille.
Thank you. Welcome. Does committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Committee, we will defer departmental summary and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with directorate, starting on page 154 with information items on page 155 and 156. Are there any questions under the directorate? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. On page 155, there's a line item that says social justice fund. That sounds pretty cool. Can the Minister tell us what that money's used for? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This was negotiated as part of the collective agreement some years ago, and it goes to the Public Service Alliance's of Canada social justice fund, and 50 percent of that goes to United Way Northwest Territories.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. So the remaining 50 percent stays with the PSAC social justice fund, and they disburse that; is that correct? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Madam Chair, I'm going to have the deputy minister describe the fund, please.
Thank you. Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So as the Minister said, there's matching contributions made by the Government of the Northwest Territories to the social justice fund with 50 percent of the contributions allocated to the United Way Northwest Territories and 50 percent are allocated to different causes that the union chooses but I don't have those exact areas that they go in at hand. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
No, thanks. Okay, that's good. The housing corporation line just above that, I probably asked this before but how is that kind of actually calculated? Does the housing corporation present a budget to the Department of Finance or FMB, then it's approved or reviewed somehow? Yeah, let's start with that. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, essentially the main estimates that would have been seen by the House earlier in the Committee of the Whole process is what comes through financial management board and gets approval. So it's a similar process, although because the corporation not housing another department, that's why it the money shows up here going through the Department of Finance. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay. So I'm just trying to understand, does the housing corp just say this is our budget, or is there any review of that by FMB and/or Department of Finance? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. So it goes through the same process as every other department would in terms of going to FMB and being analyzed by management board secretariat. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, thanks, Madam Chair. Just over on the previous page 154, there was a rather large, back in 20212022, line item for financial management board and then it came down pretty dramatically. So could I get an explanation as to what that spike is all about? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I certainly can sorry, yes, so that's the difference there. That, Madam Chair, was positionally well, a couple of things, Madam Chair. There were some changes in terms of compensation and benefits back at the time. There was unfunded positions and underfunded positions that have been that have adjusted over time. And then also, Madam Chair, there was an unfunded donation this is where there's a donation that was made, $150,000 to United Way, to deal or to support flood relief came out of there as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, thanks. I don't think I have any other questions. I'm just...
Thank you. All right. Are there any further questions from Members under the directorate? Seeing none, please turn to page 336 or sorry, wrong. To 154.
Finance and directorate, operations expenditure summary, 20232024 Main Estimates, $89,303,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. We will now turn to page 158. Human resource with information items on page 159. Questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at page 159, and I see that human resources unit within Finance is adding eight new positions. Can someone just tell me what those positions are? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, these positions are for the human resources health recruitment unit. There are really is a I can certainly actually provide the detail breakdown of where they are but let me just mine I'll turn it to the deputy minister, please.
Thank you. Deputy minister
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the that's a new initiative funding to provide to the management recruitment services for the establishment of a health recruitment unit. So the function of the establishment is to the unit already exists. It was to enhance that unit. So there's eight positions that are being added to that:
One manager based in Yellowknife;
Two human resource officers in Yellowknife;
One HRO in Inuvik;
One HRO in Fort Smith;
And then two junior HROs in Yellowknife; and,
One human resource assistant in Yellowknife.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can someone just try to explain to me whether there how this unit has changed over time with health hiring? My understanding is prior to the amalgamation, the health authorities were doing all of their hiring themselves and they had their own HR officers. That's no longer the case. And I think now we have we still have a bit of a hybrid model where there are some hiring being done in health with the assistance of this unit? Can someone just try to explain it to me. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, so there is a joint initiative between the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Finance. And I will speak specifically to the health area though, really, Madam Chair, at this point the department of health mirrors more closely what happens in other departments in that there are still management roles for the department's staff that then work with a human resources officer or client services officer who can support the work that goes on to hire someone into an individual department or division.
The health recruitment unit, though, is a little bit different. So understanding that this may be the focus here, this is really meant to address, firstly, the mandate item that we have to increase specifically health professionals in the Northwest Territories but also arising and focusing on the challenges of recruitment of health professionals right now specifically given labour market shortages across Canada. So this began under again under the mandate item and has really been refocused and given even more attention in light of what's going on.
So there are some with the specialized efforts to support the Department of Health and Social Services, the health recruitment unit can undertake extra and added work to focus on what's going on in the health services labour market to initialize specific campaign drives to try to recruit nurses to spend extra efforts to, you know for instance, attending focused conferences. And perhaps I'll stop there, Madam Chair, and make sure I've answered the question adequately. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess I don't fully quite understand it. One of the complaints I know we have heard is that a manager over at the health authority will identify a candidate and want to hire them and then they have to quick it over to, I assume someone in HR I don't know if it's actually specifically the recruitment unit and then there's this turnaround time. And I believe, you know, we've actually been improving it so perhaps that is the question. Can someone just tell me how quickly HR is now processing, especially for health and I know there's multiple different timelines, you know, from advertising to maybe even to actual contract. But whatever data we have available of us, has this been sped up and we're making some progress on this area? I think it's usually postinterview to contracting and thank you, Madam Chair
Thank you. Minister.
