Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I care deeply about the public service as a past public servant and active local union president. I also recognize that the public service makes up a lot of the working population of this territory. And, yes, the numbers of total GNWT staff have gone up dramatically in recent years. The increase incurs in critical functions that we all rely on like health care and education supports. But the other thing we don't talk about as much is that through collective bargaining, people in precarious employment terms or casuals were made permanent. The increase reflects employees that were given the security and benefits of permanent employment through collective bargaining. Those greater numbers of employees were always there. We just started treating them more fairly.
Compensation and benefits can be excellent, but if a work culture is failing to support its workers they won't want to stay on. We've seen this in health care most acutely. I'm afraid the frustration and malaise has spread to all parts of the public service.
This past July, the results of the 2023 Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey were released, and employees have said quite clearly throughout all metrics that they are less satisfied with their jobs as compared to 2021.
I speak regularly to the president of the UNW, and she tells me that employee morale is at rock bottom. Members are telling the UNW leadership that they are stressed to hear their employer constantly talk about ways to save money. Unfilled positions are being cut while operational bottlenecks are not being addressed. Usually after a collective agreement is ratified, Members feel a bit of positivity but the UNW is not hearing much of that right now. Unionized employees tell their leadership that they are still stressed about finances while at the same time feeling like an axe is sitting above their heads.
When I was involved with the union, I heard from folks across the GNWT who said that they felt stuck within a hierarchy that expected unthinking loyalty and did not reward creativity. I have heard my colleague from Frame Lake speak many times about looking to ways that we might flatten those hierarchies and have more program staff feel supported to propose new ideas or more effective ways of providing programs and services without getting shut down or shut out. I think the public service is full of creative people in all parts of this territory who want to feel vital and valued.
Mr. Speaker, I've spoken to the Minister of Finance about this very issue for many years predating my time as an MLA. Seen through the lens of possibility, the 2023 survey reenforces many of my hopes for the public service that we should be creating opportunities for staff to grow and feel excited to get to do trailblazing work while being supported through mentorship options that will enable them to get to their and the GNWT's goals.
The best managers I had in the public service treated me as a respected part of a team where everyone's input had value and was discussed openly. If we want to build a positive GNWT culture, we need to infuse that culture with cooperation and support within our workforce as well as for those whom we serve. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Finance at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Members' statements. Member from Yellowknife North.
