Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to let you off where the Member for Hay River North was going on here with the efficiencies in our public service sector. The Minister of Human Resources left off on the program review office as being an outside review means of the process.
Can the Minister of HR indicate by what virtue would the program review office be considered an outside source? This is manned by internal personnel. Can the Minister clarify that, please? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t indicate that the program review office was an external, I said it was a means of view and that’s what it is. The program review office is designed to review or intended to review programs and services delivered by the GNWT, and it is a source for review. So that was my statement, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister now clarifying, because I think I was a bit perplexed that this was an outside review. Coming from the private sector, we look at things a little differently. We look at efficiencies and scales, and you look at actual savings and design. The question that I need to ask is: Why can’t the public sector look at outside review to find efficiencies in our public service sector, especially in the city of Yellowknife? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think we’ve got highly competent professionals within the public service. We’ve got HR professionals, we’ve got technical analysts, we’ve got people who understand the business of government and do a regular risk, review and assessment to the services that we provide. Deputy heads are accountable and, at the end of the day, we bring the budget before this House, which includes all position counts, and the MLAs and the Ministers have an opportunity to talk about the positions, where they’re located and the types of works they do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t think the competency of our public sector or senior management is the question here. What we’re looking for, and the question, is the impartiality and the unbiased reporting structures. For example, time in motion studies is a baseline used in a lot of businesses to find efficiencies in design. The question to the Minister of HR here today is: Why are we reluctant to look at an outside source?
The program review office is no different than the police monitoring the police. That’s the question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in the history of the government, we have used external resources to help us review program areas and we will do that again. We may not have any currently happening, but it’s not something we’re adverse to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At least we’re getting down to the heart of the matter, and I think the Member for Hay River South said it, is will we look at an outside review process that we can look at finding efficiencies in design in our public sector?
I have indicated that we have no problem doing that; however, doing one for a public service of 5,400 employees might be a little excessive. We might be more interested in doing certain program areas. That has been done in the past and we’d be happy to do that again. On top of that, we have competent staff that are doing it on a regular basis, we have the program review office and we have the Legislature. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
