Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Human Resources. I’d like to ask some questions about the policies that I referenced in my Member’s statement.
I’d like to, first of all, ask the Minister in regard to the Human Resources Manual. I found it extremely difficult to get information when I was researching policies in HR, and I found the HR Manual had absolutely no information on voluntary separation. I had to then go and find a number of policies elsewhere, which I did find but took a little digging.
I’d like to, first of all, ask the Minister why do we not have all HR policies in the HR Manual so everything is in one place?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of HR, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The section on voluntary separation, the Staff Retention Policy and so on are in the Collective Agreement that we have with the UNW. The voluntary separation is also a policy that we’ve discussed with the UNW as per the Collective Agreement, and it’s in Section 27 of the Public Service Act. However, why they are not all consolidated, if they are not all consolidated in the HR Manual, I don’t have the answer for that at this time. But I will ensure that if there are policies that are scattered around in the act or in the agreement and not all in the Human Resources Manual, I will ensure that they are put under one consolidated manual.
I couldn’t quite hear the Minister at the end but I thought he said that he was going to encompass in the HR Manual all the policies, all the various policies that we have, the one for voluntary separation, the one for affected employees. I can’t remember the names, but there are two or three other ones.
Is that what the Minister said, that he is going to encompass all policies in the HR Manual, and if that’s the case, when will that be done?
Anything that should be appropriately reflected in the HR Manual, if we have to take sections of policy out of the act and so on and incorporate them into the manual, we will do that. I will have the department begin work on that as soon as it is possible for them to begin work on that.
Thanks to the Minister. There are specific policies that are listed, so I don’t think we have to take anything out of an act. I heard him say when we’re going to start but I didn’t hear an end date, so that will be interesting.
I’d like to ask the Minister another question about it. I don’t believe this is a policy, but it’s something that has come to my attention. I do believe that we have a fair number of GNWT employees who work for the GNWT but do not live in the NWT. They have moved out. They may be contracted on an annual basis but they are not living here. They are working from home in Calgary, in Montreal, in Edmonton, any number of different places.
I’d like to ask the Minister, do we have a policy or is there a policy that governs NWT employees, GNWT employees who do not live here but work for the GNWT?
There are individuals who would work for the GNWT who would have their jobs specifically in a down south location; however, employees who work for the GNWT who have their jobs here should be working here. I’ve only heard of one employee who was working at a distance, and that was an individual who was working in Alberta for the GNWT, and I was looking into that to see how that was possible and why that was happening. My preference, of course, and the preference of this government is that if the individuals are working for the GNWT, then they be located at their job sites in the NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
I would ask the Minister to look into this a little further. I think he ought to check with managers of every department and find out. There are, from what I understand, a number of people who work from home and their home is not in the NWT.
I’d like to ask the Minister, if he says that he’s looking into this and he thinks people should be working here, if we do have employees who live outside the NWT, I find it very hard to understand how that fits in with our policy of 2,000 people in the NWT in the next five years. How does it fit in that we allow this to happen?
I agree with the Member that people working for the GNWT who have their jobs in the NWT should be living in the NWT. If we have situations beyond the one that I am currently looking into where there are other people who are working for the various departments at a distance from outside the Northwest Territories, then I would immediately have our deputy of HR start discussions with the heads of departments where these employees may be employed and find out why that situation exists and how we’re going to find a way to remedy that problem.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
