Thank you. Would this also be a section that works on strategies to come up with new ways to reinvigorate our public service under the theme of Employer of Choice?

Minister of Human Resources. Assistant Deputy Minister Sharilyn Alexander.

Thank you for that answer. That’s what I’m looking for.

What are the trends or innovative ways the shop has been looking at under this section of Employer of Choice — that one would define as trends or innovative ways in other jurisdictions, whether they’re large employers or just other regions outside the GNWT that are having an impact so the employer is perceived as the employer of choice?

Mr. Chair, I guess the biggest trend we’re noticing is that our workforce is aging, and within ten years I think about 40 per cent of our workforce will be retiring. What we’re noticing in the demographics is that the younger workforce is much different from the workforce we’ve been dealing with. They’re younger, they’re more focused on a work-balanced approach, and they also are looking for challenging work. They’re more focused on jobs that are best for them as individuals. It’s a trend that we think is going to impact our whole approach to staffing.

With regard to Employer of Choice, we’ve said on many occasions that the GNWT is not the preferred place for a lot of people to work. I guess that was something intentional, that the government wanted to make sure happened, because there were always complaints that government paid too much and took employees away from other sectors.

Mr. Chairman, I take the Minister’s numbers when he cited that in ten years we’ll have 40 per cent of our workforce retire. That’s approximately 1,920 employees. That causes you to wonder if we need to do 135 layoffs, although I know that the number is being significantly reduced through drives. Of course, I’ll recognize that. That was my issue earlier, which I never really got an answer to. I wanted to know how they’ve identified how many people are retiring in that bracket. So that said, it’s odd we can come up with a number now but couldn’t earlier.

Mr. Chairman, I’m trying to get a sense of how they’re implementing any of these initiatives and where they’re bringing them forward. As well, I have some questions on the details. Under this section as well we have summer employment programs for students. I’m wondering how many new programs have led to hiring this summer and how’s that changed — what’s it changed by versus previous years.

Mr. Chair, with regard to the number of employees and potential retirement, that was based on the analysis of employees and pension information. We’re assuming that most people will retire when they reach a certain age.

With regard to summer students, 205 summer students have been hired. Our numbers are probably a little lower than in previous years. I think a lot of it can be attributed to the fact that this year we have an interim supply, where the money runs out at the end of June. So our expectation is that if we put on a full-scale direction to departments, we’ll get more summer students hired. In an average year we hire about 325 summer students. Last year was one of our better years. We hired 353 summer students.

Mr. Chairman, although I don’t see the word “survey,” I suspect this is the same area. It’s not under Employer of Choice. I assume it’s under this Corporate Human Resources section, which is what probably conducts the survey specific to the employee satisfaction survey.

Now, I do see in the detail where it talks about surveys and interest surveys, but recently there was a survey done — I think in February — and, oddly enough, it seemed to have coincided with the release of that 135-person lay-off notice as well as, of course ironically, with the $135 million reduction. I was just wondering when I had a chance to briefly go through the survey and I noticed that…. Well, I didn’t see too many people happy. It looked like a

lot of people felt they were not being appreciated in the system. It looked like a lot of people didn’t understand how they fit in the system or were recognized throughout the system.

I’m just wondering what the Minister is doing with that survey, because I thought it was quite a shocking thing to see how many unhappy people we had in the public service. Yes, there were some happy people, as you could see from the survey remarks, but in large part it wasn’t a positive look. What’s the plan to turn that around? I mean, there must be some strategy.

The survey the Member is referring to is an employee satisfaction survey, and this is something that is conducted across Canada in all the provinces and territories. We’ve all agreed we would do surveys every two years. The first survey was done in 2006, and also it was done again this year, 2008.

I’m pleased to note that the respondents have increased by about 10 per cent. Perhaps it was the UNW advertising that caused more people to complete the survey. My reading of the survey results — and we are still doing additional analysis, and the letter I wrote to the Members was circulated in the surveys — was that we would be doing more analysis to try and interpret some of the findings and also to compare our jurisdiction to other jurisdictions. In many areas the results have improved, so we’re quite pleased to see that. Certainly there are areas where we can improve, and this is something we will be focussing on as we move along.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Next on my list I have the Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yesterday, when I first started talking about the Department of Human Resources, I pointed out that the Premier indicated that Community Health Nurse Development Program is going to be increasing. However, when I look at the Main Estimates for the Department of Human Resources, I see they’re eliminating one of their vacant nurse educator mentor positions. I’m wondering if they can help me understand how eliminating the positions that support the Community Health Nurse Development Program are in fact enhancing the Community Health Nurse Program, also keeping in mind that as we move forward through this binder and see the Department of Health and Social Services, we’ll see there is a cut to the Community Health Nurse Development Program within the Department of Health and Social Services. As you are the administrator of the program, I’d like some clarity on how the program is being enhanced if, in fact, it is being cut.

I think the reduction of one-half of the nurse educator mentor will affect our

ability to provide hands-on services to the authorities. We recognize it will reduce our ability to do that, but we will be focusing our efforts entirely on supporting new nursing graduates. Our expectation is that over the next few years the number of graduate nurses will be reduced. For example, next year with the intake of the program the expectation is that there will be seven graduates as opposed to the 15 or 20 this year.

That’s great. That helps me understand the nurse educator mentor

with respect

to the students, but it doesn’t answer the question even remotely with respect to the Community Health Nurse Development Program. My question was specific to the Community Health Nurse Development Program.

My understanding is the funding is more closely aligned with the uptake of the program now.

The Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. You’re

saying it is being reduced and the program is being cut even though the Premier did indicate in his statement that it was in fact being enhanced?

Ms. Alexander.

Related to this area but not specifically the nurse educator mentors anymore: on the next page — it’s related to this page as well — it indicates that maximizing northern employment is being reduced by $800,000-ish. Can you tell me what kind of review or program evaluation was done to identify areas in which maximizing northern employment could be cut, given the strategic plan of this Legislature, which is to support youth and maximize northern employment?

The reductions were in the Graduate Transition Program. This was an internship program for private industry. Rather than cutting some of the programs that directly impact the public service, a decision was made to eliminate the program that supports the private sector for interns. This was offered through ECE but was funded by Human Resources. Also, the reduction in the graduate placement program

for

teachers and social workers will now bring the program funding in line with the historical uptake. We also would reduce the number of graduate workshops. We would reduce the in-person component of it, and we would focus on having

these workshops but delivering them electronically. We also recognize that it would reduce the number of students who can be subsidized, but it’s not a significant reduction.

Next on the list I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to ask the Minister about the Employee Recognition Program. This government is supposed to be about prevention and engaging our employees. I hear a lot of frustration about wasted energy, wasted resources, inefficiencies in programs. A lot of employees have individual observations and experiences to offer that aren’t necessarily part of their job descriptions. When we started the reductions exercise, I think it was recognized as a valuable source of information. We put out a call, and in fact we got a lot of good suggestions from employees in our public service. It seems like there should be opportunities for that in the Employee Recognition Program.

Perhaps there is a specific program on that, but I think our priorities this term have been set at lowering costs and reducing climate change — that is, greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption — and increasing the effectiveness of government. I’m wondering: has the department made recommendations on this government-wide and, of course, within their own department — a specific Employee Recognition Program that would focus on recognition in some way or another, financially or status, some sort of status, or whatever. I’m sure HR knows better how to recognize employees in the area of achieving our goals of lower cost and improved effectiveness.

Minister McLeod.

This is certainly something we could consider. I know that in the past energy conservation was a goal that was expected of all

deputies, and it was part of their performance measurement. We also had a program where employees could submit ideas for reducing costs and they would get monetary rewards based on how much money they saved the government. That program was eliminated about five years ago because they weren’t getting any suggestions after awhile. I think initially it was well received. We do have the Arctic Energy Alliance environmental awards, but I think it would be worthwhile to look at developing something for energy conservation awards. It could be a subset of the Premier’s Awards for Excellence perhaps. This is something we could take forward for next year.