Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I proposed to discuss the issue of affirmative action/employment equity with the unions that the government has and then, following that, we will take a look at the comments we get there. I would then want to come back to standing committee and want to discuss it with the standing committee.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. We are on page 2-57, activity summary, human resource strategy and policy, operations expenditure summary, $4.837 million.

Page 2-60, page 2-61, activity summary, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $7.231 million.

Turn to page 2-64 and 2-65, activity summary, corporate human resources, operations expenditure summary, $8.492 million.

Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe one of the members of committee might want to backtrack a little bit, so if you want to see if another member wants to look after that, go ahead, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My apologies. I just missed that page. I am wondering if I could have permission to go back to page 2-61.

The Member is requesting that we go back to page 2-61. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Activity summary, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $7.231 million. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, colleagues. I would just like to ask the Minister on the human resource management and recruitment issues at the hospital specifically. As you are well aware, we are doing a human resource review at the hospital and we are waiting to hear the responses on that in terms of where the staff at the hospital feel that there could be improvements in terms of their working conditions. I don't know what it is, but we do know that there were some concerns raised last fall and we were hoping to get to what the issues are and what the possible solutions are. That process is laid out and we are following that process with the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Having said that, just generally we have a lot of issues coming to us from nurses, especially nurses, but other health care workers at the hospital who are feeling they are not being listened in terms of the way their work environment is. That's an issue we want to find out from human resource management. The bottom line is they feel they are not being appreciated as much as with all the talks about the importance of recruiting, especially retaining workers, that a lot of decisions being made or things being told are working against the principle of what people are saying in terms of keeping them, but they don't feel like they are being treated in a way they would want to be kept.

We are also dealing with nursing students at the Nursing Program at Aurora College where it's an excellent program where the government committed a lot of resources to hire our northern nurses. It's one that we are gong to rely on to address the recruitment and retention issues for nurses. This is a separate issue, but I want to ask the Minister what work Human Resources is doing and what role does it play in working with other departments like Health and Social Services to work out an effective recruitment and retention policy. I have to question whether we are working together. When government says we are training students so we can create our own northern nurses so we can have them in our hospitals, I am not sure whether there is enough resources being placed on the receiving end so that there are accompanying steps being taken at that other end so they are prepared to receive the grads coming out of Aurora College which is as a result of the government policy.

For example, we have been getting a lot of letters from nursing grads at Aurora College. When they show up to work, it's either that they are not getting enough support or coordination or have a say on their training plan or they

would indicate what areas of the hospital or practice areas that they would like to work in. They give top three priorities and they know that they can't get it all. They know that, but they would like to feel that the employer would be interested in listening to what they have to say. This is especially problematic when they know that they apply for positions and they are told there aren't any spots for them and then, just before they get there, the positions they were looking for have gone to somebody else who is not from here.

I am just interested in hearing what role Human Resources is playing in coordinating the government policy of training our professionals and then putting them into our workforce. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Department of Human Resources works with Health and Social Services, with Stanton, on staffing. It does work in cooperation with both of them to try to ensure that graduate nurses are placed in appropriate placements across the Territories. Obviously, there has to be a balance of experience and knowledge in every one of the units. That will sometimes mean that graduates can't get their first, second or even third choices sometimes of where they would like to get some practice. So the department provides help in the staffing beforehand. The mentors are actually Human Resources staff and they are assigned to help the recent grads in their placements. That is one of the roles that HR plays, is actually providing those mentors.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Ms. Lee.

Could I be provided with a policy on this mentorship? Is there a written policy on anything that would show us the level of coordination between government's pronouncement that we would like to train our own northern professional labour such as nurses and that the government has made a promise here on maximizing northern employment to hire our grads out of nursing class? Is there a policy statement that speaks to how the government is going to live up to that? Maybe the Minister doesn't have it now, but could I get information on how many positions were filled at the hospital? Let me reduce it to nursing positions so that I don't have staff going and looking at all of the positions, but just tell me how many vacant positions were filled at the hospital and how many of them were filled by Aurora grads and how many were from outside. Further, if it is possible, how many of the positions required experience or were positions that new grads could take? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would be happy to give Ms. Lee the guidelines for the program that she has requested. We will get that to her on hard copy. Could I ask if Ms. Lee could specify over what period of time she is asking for that other information? I would be happy to get that, too.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Ms. Lee.

I would be happy for stats for the last two years. Thank you.