Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Villeneuve.

Well, that's fine. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Before I continue, maybe I can ask, we have some guests up in the gallery right now. I understand they're from the Rotary Northern Experience Exchange. Welcome to the House here.

---Applause

Thank you, Members. We're on page 2-65, activity summary, corporate human resources, operations expenditure summary, $8.492 million.

Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd just like to ask the Minister, in terms of the total rewards management that's on 2-64, corporate human resources. I'd like to ask the Minister, to what level do we involve the UNW in evaluation of positions? Is there any involvement by the union with the evaluation process? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The UNW is not involved in the process. The UNW is involved in the selection of the system and the pay equity approach, but they're not involved in the actual evaluation right now.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm just wondering, going back to looking at developing a human resource strategy or plan, would it be the department's intention that the UNW be heavily involved in a process like that? How would you involve the UNW in that? Because I think they are, Mr. Chairman, a part of the equation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A government HR plan would be one that says you need to get the right person in the right place at the right time, and that wouldn't necessarily involve input from the UNW. The UNW is there to advocate on behalf of their members if they think that the process that's followed in hiring a specific person to a position isn't followed properly, or if they think there's some other problem. But in terms of planning and personnel planning, that's a government function and it's one that the departments have the lead on and set the plans up in place.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the other issues -- and I'll pick up where my colleague Ms. Lee had questions about Stanton -- one of the concerns that I've heard from management at that facility is the fact that managers, and you pick a ward, pick an area of operation in that hospital, managers end up dealing more with staffing issues and concerns from the staff than they do managing their area of operation. I'd like to ask the Minister, what support is out there within this department of HR to try to get some assistance for Managers on the ground, in our health centres, so that their day is not spent on the phone talking about staffing issues or in an office in a meeting with staff dealing one on one with staffing issues and, in fact, they should be left to manage the unit or the area of operation and not deal with staffing issues all day long. I think that's part of the problem, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to ask the Minister how he could address that.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Human Resources offers management training assistance in helping managers understand how to do the job, particularly in managing people. But let's be clear, that part of a manager's job is managing people. So you're going to have to expect that they're going to spend a fair bit of time managing people in any circumstance or any situation, any job in the Northwest Territories. If they're a manager, that's part of the job.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wouldn't imagine 80 percent of their day would be taken up with staffing issues. I don't think that should be allowed to happen. I think managers should be able to manage. Sure, they're going to have some staffing issues, but not 80 percent of their day, or 90 percent in some cases. That shouldn't happen. I just, I'll leave it there. I've got some more questions on the next page, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. We're on page 2-65. Ms. Lee.

Next page. Sorry.

Thank you. We're on page 2-65, Human Resources, activity summary, corporate human resources, operations expenditure summary, $8.492 million.

Can we now turn to page 2-70 and 2-71? Human Resources, information item, client services, operations expenditure summary. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. Under this section may I ask the Minister about the situation on the pay scales at the Stanton Hospital? I'm sure we're talking about a group of nurses, so I'm sure it's not in violation of any private information, but I'm going to assume that the Minister, I haven't had a direct conversation with the Minister about this, but there are a group of nurses, pediatric nurses, whose positions were reclassified and I think they might have had their pay scale raised up and some of the nurses, pediatric nurses, got retroactive pay, but others did not. This is not new; I mean not new in terms of there have been lots of issues like that at the hospital where a group of nurses or positions get reclassified and then some of them get paid more than others and some of them, especially in this situation, my understanding is that now everybody gets the same pay, but there are only some of them who get retro pay and others who do not. I would like to ask the Minister what the explanation of that is. Thank you.