Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Just with respect to the Human Resources new department, it is something that I supported at its inception upon becoming an MLA. However, it did raise a lot of concerns in the regions about people losing positions and jobs because it was centralizing. It created lots to do. In fact, a couple of new residents that were working with HR at that time kind of let the community know, because we are reading the old Deloitte and Touche reports which kind of initially recommended it, they are saying they are already implementing it, we are moving out of here, we like Simpson, we are not going to get transferred to Yellowknife. So they actually left the North. Since then, it hasn't been a great big centralization beast that people were expecting. However, we still have our trying times. I am not too sure how many people we actually did lose because I know it happened in other regions and not just the one I am representative of.

With that, I can imagine some of the trying times because of the lack of experience and expertise. When people move on from an organization, they take corporate knowledge with them, the corporate history. It is huge. Any length of time is huge for any organization, so that means other people have to try to keep up, or take two people to do that same job, or it took one guy effortlessly. You have to correct that one person effortlessly. For the most part, I would like to maintain that, yes, centralize it, but that doesn't mean that all the positions have to be central. I kind of like the effort that the department is putting into maintaining a regional presence as much as they can.

Some of that confusion is because it is new and it is working itself out. For instance, during question period, I was talking with the Minister about some of the difficulties in responding to job applications in the health sector. They were telling me that in the health sector previously, that department had the responsibility of doing the interviews and they had a little bit of a method in which to handle their professions. They have their particular way of doing things and their own little protocols, but once you move into a central agency, somehow that gets lost in the mix and you lose some of your protocol and the flow. You are usually used to dealing with the health sector. You are applying for a health job, but now it is a centralized GNWT. It loses something there. I don't know what the department is looking at, or maybe it is just going to take people to get used to that as well, Madam Chair. That is one of the indicators. It is kind of like a surprise to hear that the Minister wasn't aware that there was a bit of a gap, as it were, in terms of following up with people's applications. Just a simple acknowledgement letter, yes, I got your application. Following up on post-interview, as well, is another little gap there.

I think, getting specific, some of barriers after interview was if the candidate said, hey, that seems like a good candidate for us, I think another thing that moved at a crawling pace was indicated to me was doing the record checks, doing reference checks, as well. That was taking longer than usual. It creates a barrier because someone who is interested with us to provide health care services for our health departments, it is a window of opportunity. It is a really right market for nurses. If something doesn't happen within a month, chances are they fired off five or six applications and a chance of them getting their skills being taken up by another jurisdiction, field or sector, greatly increases. Probably if we have identified needs sector, we should be more efficient in trying to keep the people that apply more interested, keep them up to date, and keep them informed as to their status. Maybe they do want to work for us, but if it is taking too long, then they will just move on. Quite often it is like that. People look for the opportunity to live and work in smaller communities. They don't mind doing that. If it is going to take too long, they are like everybody else. They probably have families, mortgages and children to take care of and they need that income coming in. They have bills; so the longer they wait, then the less chance we have. Just within the health sector alone, I would kind of urge the ministry to keep better tabs on it, be more responsive, just the simple little things of keeping the clients informed and let them know that, yes, we are interested.

Even when I do my work, if I don't respond to somebody, it is like I am not interested in them or their concerns. They reflect that to other people that they deal with. It is the same probably in the health sector, even the smaller circle of friends say how did your application go with the GNWT? The word of mouth goes a lot quicker in that sector.

As for tracking changes and that, I think that is one of the things to look at. I am not too sure how many jobs remain unfilled too in our new HR. I know changes are on a continuing basis, so I don't know what is acceptable or if they're out of balance in terms of active positions held, if there is a gap and how they are intending on fixing it, because even skills in this sector are kind of hard to get, as well, because everybody is screaming for human resource professionals.

With that, just summing up, Madam Chair, I urge the ministry to continue keeping as many people in the communities as they can. I urge the ministry to be more responsive and interested in people that are applying to be GNWT employees or Health and Social Services employees. Let them know that we are interested and even the simple fact of letting them know that we are going through changes and we are trying to be as expeditious as possible. We value their interest and we will do everything to recruit and retain you. If they don't even hear that, then I don't know. We kind of stay the status quo where we are always clamouring and looking for people using the nursing agency. I don't know the term of that organization to fly in nurses and that. I am kind of glad they are there, but it is expensive. There is another way of doing it. It is just being friendly and informative and stay in touch with that. With that, Madam Chair, I conclude my opening remarks,