The standing committee has repeatedly requested specific, detailed information from the department regarding the success of the various elements of the recruitment and retention plan. The department currently has a team of three full-time staff working at the headquarters level, exclusively on recruitment and retention issues. On October 27, 2000, the standing committee requested further information on the components of the recruitment and retention plan. To date, no response has been received. Without this information, it is difficult for the committee to determine whether the significant funding currently invested in this plan is having an impact, whether there are any more front-line health and social services workers and whether the length of time they remain in their positions is increasing or staying the same.

Nursing

There are two areas of specific concern regarding nursing. The first is the issue of the nurses' supplement. This supplement is nearing its end and the government will have to determine, once again, how to handle the issue of compensation for nurses.

Committee members are unaware of any specific work being done to find a long-term solution to the issue beyond the stopgap use of the nurses' supplement. There is also a lack of clear information regarding the effectiveness of the supplement in both recruiting and retaining nurses. The committee looks forward to information on how the department plans to address nurses' compensation, while acknowledging the impact of any such strategy on other occupations with similar recruitment pressures.

The second area of concern regarding nursing is the apparent lack of coordination in trying to recruit nurses. Committee members have been told of instances where one health and social services board will attend a recruitment event, only to discover that other boards are also there delivering a similar message. One of the elements of the recruitment and retention plan was supposed to be coordination of these efforts between the boards and the department. The committee would like to receive detailed information on what coordination takes place with the boards on recruitment.

Strategic Initiative Fund

The committee notes that the Strategic Initiative Fund has moved beyond its original purpose and is, by the department's own admission, funding programs which should be included as part of the base funding to boards.

This becomes readily apparent upon examination of the information provided by the department to the committee on the programs that are being funded by the strategic initiative fund this fiscal year.

While there may be some advantage to maintaining some discretionary funding that can be used to fund worthwhile projects, such a fund should not be utilized to pay for programs that should be part of the base. If a program funded under the strategic initiative fund is ongoing, or has become institutionalized as part of the core services that the board offers, the money to run the program should become part of the base funding to that particular board.

Members were of the opinion that the strategic initiative fund is being used to fund programming that could be considered as part of the core services that each board is expected to offer. The original intent of the strategic initiative fund was to help boards fund additional programming over and above what they are required to.

Concern was expressed that the way the strategic initiative fund is administered could be unfair to the smaller boards. The larger boards have the resources and personnel to develop and submit comprehensive proposals to access funding. The smaller boards, because of their inability to develop proposals, may be systemically penalized in accessing funds.

Should the strategic initiative fund be discontinued and the funding converted to part of the base, the Standing Committee on Social Programs will expect to see rationale presented that explains the fair and equitable distribution to the boards.