Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke on how people receive income assistance on the reserve. My question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Can the Minister provide assurance that he will personally look into the treatment of clients at the Hay River Reserve by the income assistance officer? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Through the Office of the Auditor General, this has been earmarked to our attention. We need to deal with the personnel within our income support office, especially the client service officers. We have implemented some changes already. At this time, we are developing a competency-based training program for our staff and it’s going to be developed through initial discussions with CSOs and we are having a trainer come up. This is an area that has been earmarked by the Office of the Auditor General, so we are moving forward, along with the Hay River Reserve and other communities that may have faced these types of incidents in the past. It’s been brought up in the House, so we are seriously looking into that. Mahsi.
I think the Minister reminded me of the significance of the Auditor General’s report, in terms of program service delivery of his department in terms of meeting the needs of people.
Once again, can the Minister outline and explain to this House the immediate steps in terms of improving that service to clients? Mahsi.
Part of the plan is, again, a competency-based training program that is going to be broad across the Northwest Territories that the client service officers deal with, so we can develop a professional base dealing with the clientele. There’s also going to be a work-based training program that will be introduced, exchanging information and so forth. Also, there will be a conference for CSOs in January 2014, enhancing staff and knowledge so they’re aware of who is working, skills and abilities, and also on-line discussion and information sharing. These are just some of the key areas that we are implementing within our department to enhance our client service officers, the professionalism that they should be delivering to the clientele. Mahsi.
Thank you. The Minister indicated that he’s taking measures in terms of ensuring that workers received competency-based training and at the same time ensuring that the people are treated with a little respect in terms of receiving department services.
What is the priority at this point? Is it ensuring that the employees receive competency-based training or client satisfaction? Mahsi.
Mahsi. My belief is that it is a combination. We need to satisfy both. We need to have individuals that are working, client service officers that are providing dignity and respect to our clientele and also having those individuals that we have to deal with clientele. So we are developing programs that will capture that, providing competency-based training and identifying caseloads. We have some of the communities that have a high number of caseloads, so we are currently reviewing those caseloads. That will capture the attention of client service officers, especially in the small, isolated communities. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand each GNWT employee is bound by a Code of Conduct. I wanted to know how can the Code of Conduct of any GNWT employee ensure that, indeed, GNWT employees work in a professional manner and, indeed, provide services to clients in a manner that’s respectful and dignified. Mahsi.
Mahsi. That’s the very reason why we have this competency-based training program. There is a Code of Conduct within our Education department, within the income support division, and at the same time we have to work with other departments as well. They do have their own disciplinary procedures, as well, the social envelope departments. We work with MACA, Housing, Social Services, Health and other departments. When we deal with the clientele, it’s not only income support. There are other departments that we have to work with. That’s the whole reason why we developed this competency-based, based on the Office of the Auditor General. We want to make it work. We want to make it work for our clientele and that’s what we’re doing. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
