Mr. Speaker, this is a response to a question asked by Mrs. Marie-Jewell on December 13th, regarding re-advertisement of job competitions. In 1991-92 eight competitions were cancelled and re-advertised. Of the eight, five competitions were cancelled as the only qualified candidates declined job offers, one competition was cancelled due to an irregularity in the screening process and two competitions were cancelled after a decision was made to reclassify the jobs.

Of the two cancelled for classification reasons, the first resulted from an inability to find a qualified applicant in the North. The description was rewritten to allow qualified Northerners to apply. The second was due to the discovery after the competition was advertised that the job description being used was badly out of date and did not describe what was actually being done. There were no situations identified where reclassification was done to suit a particular applicant.