Thank you, Mr. Minister. Just one other point I think I would like to make, or maybe a question to ask, is: with all these competitions that are out there, I’d be curious to know — and I suppose the Minister can supply me with the information after the hiring is done — how many of these new hires would be from outside the Northwest Territories?

I’m sure the Minister would commit to providing me with that information once the hiring is done, because, again, I will say that…. Looking at all these job competitions, and we’re proposing to lay off all these employees, I would probably be safe to assume that 75 to 80 per cent of these employees are long-term Northerners. I don’t know how many — 41 per cent, or something like that — are aboriginal.

I’d be really curious to see, once all the firing is done, how many folks were hired from outside the Northwest Territories. And if we have a few, then that should cause this Assembly a lot of concern.

As I mentioned, it would depend on what kind of jobs we’re advertising for. For jobs that are hard to fill, we normally take whatever we can.

With regard to the potentially affected employees, they would get first priority on the hiring. And with the affirmative action policy we have, that would still apply as well. So I would expect that we would still hire people from the Northwest Territories on that basis.

Members, we’re on page 2-63, Management and Recruitment Services, Operations Expenditure Summary. Next on the list I have Mr. Bob Bromley and Mr. Abernethy, then Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Following some of the words from Mr. McLeod from Inuvik Twin Lakes, I’m wondering if the department considered additional mandatory leave days in the summer.

My impression — and it’s just that — is that productivity has actually gone up during mid-winter in relation to the so-called Donnie Days that employees still enjoy. That’s leave without pay. But it allows some extended family time. It’s got to be healthy for families as well as labour relations and so on. I know there’s interest out there in our brief but beautiful summer season.

If employees had access to…. Say if we wanted to stay open all the time, but choose six out of the ten Fridays in summer, or Mondays — choose what you like — over the course of the entire government, that would probably produce some of the savings — maybe all of the savings — we’re looking for from this department. Has the department considered that, or would you consider that in the near future as one option to pursue? That would possibly bump up productivity as well as labour relations and savings on dollars.

Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chair, certainly that was something that was looked at, not something that Human Resources would be responsible for. But we did provide some input to the Financial Management Board Secretariat.

I think there’s a number of considerations. One is we would have to negotiate something with the unions for it to occur. With Donnie Days, there was a rollback in wages.

I think the biggest consideration is the fact that we do have a significant number of facilities and operations that operate 24-7, 365 days a year. And those facilities, by giving more days off, would result in additional costs to the government and more difficulty in finding people to fill in for those days off. So having said all of that, this is looked at. For this budget it wasn’t considered for being put into place. I’m not saying that’s out of the question for future years.

Again, I’m always looking for a new approach from this government, and some innovation. I think that’s what our public is asking for too. I’m sure the Minister and others are aware there are reports coming out showing that productivity actually goes up with various schemes, such as shorter work weeks and so on. This also results in direct savings. Between those things, I would think that increased productivity and the money saved on 5,000 employees, or whatever we have, taking six days off should account for those 24-hour services. I’m hoping the Minister could have his staff start looking into that sort of thing, to see what the opportunities might be. I have one other point, but I’ll stop there for now in case there are comments.

Mr. Chair, I just want to make a couple of points. The majority of the employees concur with more time off. That would certainly be

something we would look at. I’d like to point out that 58 per cent of our workforce works shift work, in 24-7, 365-day-a-year facilities, so I think in those areas it wouldn’t save us money, because we would have to probably pay more. I guess the other consideration is that for those employees at lower levels of the wage scale who work for the government.... I would think that a rollback of one week’s wages would probably have some implications for them. But I think that if employees want more time off, that would certainly be a consideration.

I appreciate the Minister’s comments on that. I too would be interested in the research on that. I would just note that the average wage of employees in the Northwest Territories is 50 per cent above the Canadian average, and I suspect that if you just took the GNWT employees, it would be even greater than that. Our cost of living, especially in our larger centres, is more like 20 per cent higher. So I think there would be some room for some exploration there.

Mr. Chairman, the other question or frustration I have is that I feel I’m sort of finessed into dealing with this situation of vacant positions when, really, what we had been expecting was that layoffs would have been based on program review. I’m sure it doesn’t help labour relations and recruitment to base things on this rather than showing we’re looking to improve effectiveness, efficiency and so on. Again, that’s just a comment. I’m hoping to see the program review finally implemented as fast as possible and, also, layoffs not resulting from the random selection of vacant positions but actually being based on program review and increased efficiency.

Mr. Chair, the Premier did talk to that very point yesterday in response to a certain question and is really looking forward to the program review as well.

On page 2-63,

Management and Recruitment Services. Next on the list, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Looking at the Mains on page 2-63, I notice that in this section, Management and Recruitment Services, the only reductions that seem to have occurred are a small percentage in travel and a small percentage in materials and supplies, as well as the elimination of one vacant position.

Yesterday I talked about efficiencies and how large organizations with less staff are able to manage their human resources services — organizations with far more staff than the GNWT has. I was wondering if you could help me understand or go through the process you went through to identify reductions in this area through identifying efficiencies and increasing the effectiveness of this division. What is in the books? Obviously, there

were no reductions in this area. I am mostly curious.

Ms. Alexander.

Have you explored new technologies that are available that might assist the staff increase their efficiencies and increase productivity?

Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chair, we are looking at a number of areas. Certainly in the area of staffing, we are looking at moving away from recruiting through the papers and moving more toward the Internet and computers like other jurisdictions do. We are looking at those kinds of areas. Certainly we think that with the vast expanses of the Northwest Territories, that would be one area where we can grow and reduce our costs.

Next on the list I have Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Chairman, on page 2-63 of the Compensation and Benefits

section we recognize

that one position has been deleted. My first question on this specific area is: what position has been deleted? Furthermore, what analysis was done to come down to the fact that this position has been deleted, and was it filled at the time that the decision was made to delete it?

Minister McLeod.

The position was a human resources assistant. It was filled with a casual at the time, and it was felt we could spread the workload among the other three people.

Mr. Chairman, does the Minister mean an analysis was done or an assumption was done?

Well, I guess the analysis that was done was identified as an area in which we could get away with one less person, so I guess you could call that an analysis. I am not sure how detailed an analysis the Member would have been looking for, but we did look across the department

to see if there were areas where we could make reductions, and this was one area.

I guess what I am getting at is the fact that you define a position by looking at dollar value and make an assumption that because it is an assistant position, maybe it’s not that important. And they ask themselves — well, whatever they probably do. And when I say “whatever,” I assume you know what they do.

I’m just saying I’m sure we could divide these up and make people pick up those duties, versus an analysis, which, in my interpretation, would be where they actually break down what this person specifically does and then try to put some time allocations behind it before they then saddle someone else with those responsibilities.