Robert Hawkins

Mr. Chairman, if I were to ask the Human Resource Minister, and I probably will…. Let’s assume this is an ask. Does the Human Resource Minister have any grasp on how many unfunded positions there are out there in the government and what it’s costing the government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the fact that DIAND owes this government approximately $100 million. That money could go a long way to fulfilling some of the needs that our Finance Minister’s often described, as our expenditures are certainly…. We’re not able to keep pace with them.

This is a problem that goes to the highest office of this Assembly. And I’d prefer it not be pawned off to a particular Minister.

I’d like to know what the deputy minister, who would be well-informed on this file, is doing to help play a role and to help negotiate these dollars...

I find it interesting that the Minister has, on a number of occasions, highlighted the fact that not just his department but a number of departments don’t fund positions at 100 per cent. That may be an extremely clever accounting process. I recognize that — I think he said earlier — we have a 14.2 per cent turnover. That may be the theoretic approach to not implementing full salary in the department, knowing very well that they’ll never use it. But yet, it does bring in the question about whether that’s a proper formula process.

I know the clock’s ticking now, so I’m going to squeeze two...

Mr. Chairman, I’ve said at least a couple of times that I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep, but I’m really curious on the creative accounting: how you could reduce $1.5 million from a non-existing budget. I’m not that tired.

Maybe we could work with it this way: with the historical figure that we’ve been spending for this locum budget over the last two years — because you would have had to take $1.5 million from somewhere, and how can you tell me that’s a reduction…? So you must have some estimate or be able to frame it up as an eligible cost you’ve been budgeting toward.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Other Members have started into areas I’d like to pick up on where I had questions as well. Maybe I’ll just work backwards. It sounds like we had the same organization showing up all at our similar constituency meetings. They showed up at mine last night, by the way, in force. Just for clarity, I think the Minister had mentioned, to some degree, there was a reduction in locum nurses and the funding being allocated for that program.

Now, I thought he said something to the effect that there’s been a $1.5 million reduction. If that’s correct, what is the total budget that...

Mr. Chairman, in this section, you do supports for human resources planning and employee recognition. I’m wondering how much work has been done in this section to date. I don’t want to go back to its fruition or over the last 20 years, but how much work is being done to identify employees who are in the twilight of their career? When I describe it that way, let’s make the assumption that they’re a short couple of years away from retiring, so that’s the type of people I refer to as “twilight.” How much work under the resource planning area are you doing to recognize that type of staff and that...

Mr. Chairman, I take the Minister’s numbers when he cited that in ten years we’ll have 40 per cent of our workforce retire. That’s approximately 1,920 employees. That causes you to wonder if we need to do 135 layoffs, although I know that the number is being significantly reduced through drives. Of course, I’ll recognize that. That was my issue earlier, which I never really got an answer to. I wanted to know how they’ve identified how many people are retiring in that bracket. So that said, it’s odd we can come up with a number now but couldn’t earlier.

Mr. Chairman, I’m trying to get a sense of...

I guess what I am getting at is the fact that you define a position by looking at dollar value and make an assumption that because it is an assistant position, maybe it’s not that important. And they ask themselves — well, whatever they probably do. And when I say “whatever,” I assume you know what they do.

I’m just saying I’m sure we could divide these up and make people pick up those duties, versus an analysis, which, in my interpretation, would be where they actually break down what this person specifically does and then try to put some time allocations behind it before they then saddle...

Mr. Speaker, this is a very important issue to me, as the Minister knows. This is the second time I’ve raised this, and I want to stress this isn’t just important to me; it’s important to many employers in our city, as well as to our territory. I would ask the Minister that he take the commitment to communicate to the NWT Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, about his intention to move forward on this initiative. Therefore, if they want any feedback or concern, or at least just be included in the loop on this possible step by this department, I would encourage...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer from the Minister, and I’m certainly glad to hear that the Yukon situation is now on our radar. I’m going to go in this direction with this problem, which is timing. Timing is an issue. I can speak of one business in particular that is closing, because they just cannot continue to work seven days a week without being able to find staff to work at their shop anymore. So timing is the issue.

Now that the Minister is aware of a possible framework program out there, will the Minister commit to working on this problem to see if we can get a person directed to...