Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s going to be no surprise that I’m going to be asking my questions to the Premier, and they are going to be about senior management bonuses in the Northwest Territories. I seem to ask this question every time we come into a new session.
In light of the fact that we’re proposing all sorts of potential tax increases and we are looking for money to help run programs and services, I am wondering why we are still giving bonuses out to senior managers with no rationale. It seems like every senior manager gets a bonus.
In the last session I asked the Premier about how many of the senior managers are getting bonuses, and I got a written response that indicated that all senior managers who were eligible in ’04–05 got it. All seniors who were eligible in ’05–06 got it, all but two in ’05–06, and all but one in ’06–07. I guess my question today is: have we given bonuses to senior managers for the ’07–08 fiscal year, and if so, how many got it? Of the ones who got…. Actually, I’ll stop there and let Mr. Roland answer.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The fact is that as the Government of the Northwest Territories we hear about the challenges that we face in recruitment and keeping our staff. The merit pay system is something that has to be taken into consideration. In our life, as the 16th Legislative Assembly, that has not occurred as of yet, but we are undergoing a process of reviewing that scenario now.
I acknowledge that bonuses are in fact important. I just don’t think everybody should get a bonus. I think bonuses should be earned for exceptional performance, or performance above and beyond, not for doing your job. That’s what you get paid for. If you look at the number of individual senior managers who are getting it, it’s clear that virtually every senior manager gets a bonus every year.
Last session I talked to the Premier, and we talked about the possibility of putting in a process where bonuses would be based on exceptional performance. Has the Premier made any progress in putting in a policy related to ensuring that bonuses are based on exceptional performance?
Mr. Speaker, through the Department of Human Resources along with the Executive, we have been looking at, for example, the federal initiative that was undertaken regarding merit pay. We are working with that program. As I said, we have not concluded the process yet. We are almost a year into our mandate. So it is something that is under consideration, and we will be coming up with a decision very soon here. It is something that we have to recognize, though. Yes, we need to be doing something based on merit, and we have to also recognize that we need to try to be competitive in a whole lot of areas, along with wages. Thank you.
I am not sure I understood that exactly. Does that mean that yes, something is being done or a policy is being put in place to ensure that all senior managers who are getting bonuses will have deserved it through exceptional performance?
Mr. Speaker, the process we are involved with right now is one we’ve looked at in the federal system, and that would be a substantial increase in salaries, and then reduce the merit pay. But we are not prepared to give a substantial increase in salaries to our senior staff, so we are looking within our existing framework to put something together. I would be prepared to sit down with Members at the appropriate time to go through details of a review. Thank you.
Oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
