Based on the MLA strategic plan that we put together earlier in the year, the government’s response is to develop some committees and have those committees go out and work on some strategic initiatives. One of those committees is refocusing government, and the role, at least as far as I understand, is to identify avenues for improving the public service and deciding how we can do business more effectively. To me that means or suggests that they’re going to be responsible for putting in initiatives related to training and development.
What types of initiatives and/or programs is the Minister intending to put in place that would help bring, into government jobs, people in communities who may lack education but who have skills and qualifications that might be related to the positions they’re applying on?
The Government of the Northwest Territories currently has a number of programs that we’re using for bringing people into the public service. We have the Management Assignment Program, we have the summer student program, and we have an internship program. We’re relying on the N.W.T. Apprenticeship Program and the education system and adult education to bring more people into the workforce.
The Management Assignment Program is for employees who are already in the G.N.W.T. public service. The intern program, although it’s a very good program and does have a significant amount of value, does actually focus mostly on Yellowknife, as most of the people want to come back to Yellowknife. I’m more interested in a program such as the PSCTP, when it did exist prior to the cuts in ’96, that gave people from the smaller communities and the regional centres an opportunity to get into the public service — where they didn’t have the education necessarily to allow them to be screened into competitions, but they could demonstrate skills and abilities in other ways that, with minimal training, they would be able to take on more advanced roles such as officer-level jobs or management jobs.
To the Minister specifically: can I get the Minister to commit to reviewing a program like the Public Service Career Training Program with the intent of implementing something that would benefit those potential employees who are not already working for the G.N.W.T. public service — those individuals from the communities who will work up and stay in the communities once they complete their training?
I am familiar with the on-the-job training program that the Member is referring to. I’m also familiar with the on-the-job training program that the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development had back in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Both programs were very successful in getting people to work for the government at the community level. As the Member correctly stated, in most cases these types of training programs usually fall prey to budget cuts. But this would be something we’d be prepared to look at as part of our strategic planning.
Specifically related to the Public Service Career Training Program, it was never cut completely. In fact, after the budget cut there was still a significant amount of money left that was sent out to the regions specifically; it was going to be delivered at a regional level. Since then the program has just faded from the books.
I’m curious if the Minister could tell me where those dollars have gone. Can those dollars be re-profiled back into re-establishing the Public Service Career Training Program in the interest of residents of the Northwest Territories in smaller communities with the desire to get into the public service?
If I recall correctly where the money went, it eventually went into the regional departmental budgets, because the expectation was that training would be paid for as part of the normal course of doing business. So that’s where it went. I don’t think it’s an area where we can go back and track exactly where it went, to dig it back out and resurrect it. It would have to be looked at as part of the overall budget planning, strategic planning process.
