Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions, as I said, are for the Minister of Finance for whom human resources I guess falls underneath her.
How many GNWTs are working outside of the territory? Because according to my Member's statement, in the news article there were 29, and I just want to know if the Minister can confirm if this is accurate? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as of January 31st, there are 31 employees on active duty working outside of the territory. That represents about .4 percent of the total work force. The majority the vast majority of those, of course, would have been approved by their supervisors prior to this policy taking effect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the concerns that I brought forward in my Member's statement is that if these positions are, you know, outside the territory, they could be taking away from residents that are in the Northwest Territories. So of these now 31 positions, can the Minister confirm have they moved away or are they just temporarily away, or is this a precedent that we're setting that could potentially lead to more people leaving the Northwest Territories to work remotely and become residents in other territories and provinces? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the ability to work outside of the territory is meant to be for exceptional purposes only, and "exceptional" is really just that. It's, for example, if you have a child who has to get medical care, specialized medical care for a period of time that is not available here and you need to go care for your child, well, that's pretty exceptional. It is not for people who simply prefer to live somewhere else, who might have family that they'd like to see. It's not a matter of convenience. It is for exceptional purposes only.
And you know, I don't want to preempt where the Member might be going, Mr. Speaker, but I would also note that with respect to being outside of a community other than Yellowknife, the policy's actually quite express that this is not a that people are not being authorized to have a worm out work arrangement if they live if they want to live in Yellowknife and their position is located outside of Yellowknife, that is not authorized under this policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So thank you to the Minister for her answer and yes, she's reading my mind because she has my questions, but. So I know the intent of this is not to fill GNWT positions with nonNWT residents. It was pretty predominantly, you know, a recommendation made by the government OPs committee too to establish this remote work policy for instances of a pandemic where everybody gets sent home, because we didn't have it.
But what steps are being taken to put in place that, you know that people aren't moving out of the territory and that employees that are in positions and getting approval that they haven't taken up residence and they actually live and their primary residence is the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, the Member's quite right. This certainly speaks to the experience we've all had during COVID19. But this was something that was considered even before that. It's a direction that a lot of the public service sorry, the human resources experts are starting to look at across Canada. We want to be a workplace that is keeping up with the direction of human resources approaches. We want to be a workplace that is considered attractive to bring people here and not so that people will leave and want to have that flexibility for folks who may be outside of a headquarters region or a regional position and who can now work in their home positions. It's the policy and the guidelines that go with it are structured to do just that. People have to be providing their addresses of where they're going to be living, providing photographs of their work site for as much to ensure that they're in a safe position to work with in that position, and that is going to be monitored. If anything, by putting the policy in place like this now, now there actually is some guidelines. It's not a matter of one person or a another who prefers to work down south might get a oneoff approval. That's not going to fly anymore because now you have to actually be applying whether or not you fit within this policy as being directed from human resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the potential impacts of this policy, I believe there needs to be more transparency and oversight.
Will the Minister commit to publishing statistics on remote work policy in the public service annual reports? I'd like to see the reporting on the number of jobs done in a different community and the reasons for it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the public service annual report certainly is one place that we might be able to report on this. I have no concern in saying that we will definitely be able to report back, just as we are today, about the total number of residents who might be working either outside of the territory or who are working in some sort of remote arrangement and whether that is in the public service report or whether somewhere on our website. I will see that it does get published somewhere and inform the Members when we've made that decision as to what's the best place to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
