Screening is done in accordance with GNWT staffing policy. Screening criteria are established and agreed to by the members of the staffing committee which consists of one Human Resource Officer and one or two representatives of the division in which the position is located. All screening records are kept with the competition file which is subject to audit by central agency staff. In this instance, the then manager of the Iqaluit Young Offenders Facility who was a registered psychologist, a personnel services officer from Yellowknife and the warden of the Baffin Correctional Centre comprised the staffing committee. There is no specific staffing function located at the Baffin Correctional Centre beyond the specific involvement of the facility staff as divisional representatives on staffing committees.

All psychologists who wish to practice in the Northwest Territories are required to be registered with the Registrar of Psychologists located in the Department of Health and Social Services. This is often a lengthy process as the requirements are stringent. It is partially this process of ensuring appropriate registration that brought into question the qualifications of the recently dismissed psychologist at the Baffin Correctional Centre. The process by which a registration is granted requires the applicant to provide more information in far greater detail than is required by staffing policy and is therefore relied upon as the final assurance of qualification in such cases.

A review of the process followed in the hiring of the psychologist at the Baffin Correctional Centre indicates that no errors were made with respect to GNWT hiring procedures. A review will be carried out to determine if it may be necessary to exceed the requirements of GNWT procedures in some cases. If such a conclusion is reached, recommendations for a general change to procedures will be made to the interdepartmental human resource committee for all departments to consider. If necessary, additional steps will be introduced to the process in the Department of Justice.

The warden of the Baffin Correctional Centre met with all inmates in the centre to discuss their situation in light of the absence of the person formerly serving as the correction's psychologist. He stated that all reports completed by her had been removed from the inmate files, and that the reports had been sealed. The reports will only be reopened when a new correction's psychologist is hired. Manon Leblanc, a psychologist with the Department of Health and Social Services has agreed to provide counselling services in Iqaluit to BCC inmates and young offenders at Isumaqsunngittukkuvik who request such services.

It has been concluded that no release was affected by the work done by Ms. Bannerman in Iqaluit.