Mr. Speaker, I have a response to written question asked by Mr. Ramsay on October 26, 2006, regarding direct appointments, transfers and casual hires.
The number of direct appointments to the Government of the Northwest Territories' public service from April 1 to October 26, 2006, by department and agency, was 74. Most, 43 percent, were of interns and 23 percent were appointments of successful candidates of the Graduate Placement Program: health care and social workers. Other direct appointments involved women being appointed into non-traditional occupations and senior management, ministerial staff appointments, a person with severe disabilities and individuals in highly specialized, hard-to-recruit positions; for example, oil and gas.
Existing employees can be moved to another position without competition on a temporary basis. This is most commonly done by transfer assignment. Transfer assignments are a tool used by the Government of the Northwest Territories to provide employees with opportunities to broaden their work experience and gain knowledge of other departments/units with the organization.
These temporary work placements also allow the Government of the Northwest Territories to meet short-term human resource needs that cannot be met through the open competition process. Two hundred ninety transfer assignments were approved in the 2006 calendar year. Please note that one employee may go on more than one transfer assignment in a given year if operational requirements warrant it.
Casual hire numbers are challenging to provide as an individual may have multiple casual jobs during a year. About 11 percent of the Government of the Northwest Territories' workforce was a temporary hire during the 2006 calendar year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.