Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask Mr. Premier some questions about the devolution consensus agreement that we have signed. Devolution is mostly known for decision-making and control of resources. However, Chapter 7 has a big human resources component, more specifically with regard to transfer of jobs. I’d like to ask the Minister… Well, just quoting from Chapter 7, it says, “We want to have a knowledgeable, experienced and stable workforce as of April 1, 2014.” I know there are roughly 150 jobs in Ottawa. I just want to know how our government is working towards that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the big number in the Devolution Agreement is the amount of money. Obviously, we want as many people or federal incumbents that are in those jobs to come over. But at the end of the day, we make the decision of how many jobs we will have. Obviously, we will be making job offers and the agreement requires us to make sure that every federal employee that comes over is no worse off than they are now financially, and we are required to adhere to that for three years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m a little concerned about the human resource plan to fill these positions. I know that the agreement speaks about offering the current federal incumbents and in Ottawa, six months prior to April 1, 2014. I’m concerned that I’m hearing that not many of them will actually come here. So how are we planning to fill these positions?
Also, I’d like to hear the Premier’s experience when Arctic Airports transferred in 1995 and, as well, when Forest Management was transferred to us in 1987. What was the experience there of transferring federal employees north? Thank you.
I think we’ve had very good success with devolution in the past. As I’ve mentioned, we’ve had about… I think every program that’s with the Government of the Northwest Territories was a federal program at one time. At every instance we’ve been very successful at getting the incumbents to come over. I think the airports transfer was very successful as well. I think we’ve got some of the best airports operating around. The reason we’re using six months is so we can get an early indication from those who are not intending to come as part of the devolution, so we can either go out to competition or fill from within. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
A lot of these jobs, of course, are in lands and resources. I imagine most of them are technical and specialized positions. We haven’t seen the list. We’re still working, of course, with our Cabinet colleagues to pay attention to this.
What is the current strategy to look at these positions? Is there a plan B for those positions that people don’t want to transfer north? What is the plan B for our government to fill those positions? Thank you.
We also learned a lot from division of the Northwest Territories, where Nunavut had transition agreements with the Government of the Northwest Territories. So we are looking at the possibility of doing that. We are also fully committed to decentralization. I expect that we’ll be able to handle the human resource requirements during the transition so we can continue to function without missing a beat. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think that’s my concern, is we don’t want to be missing a beat on April 1, 2014. What is the strategy for our government to ensure that these positions are filled from anybody from Ottawa who doesn’t want to come over? I know it’s the Northwest Territories; in fact, I would encourage them to come over. But in the event that does not happen, I know a lot of them have families and they’re entrenched in Ottawa. So what is that plan B? What is our strategy and is there a team set up to review this and come up with a good plan to fill those positions here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
We do have quite a number of committees that are working on all these different issues and we’ll be providing that information in the very near future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses
