We are moving along to page 13-10, information item, active position summary. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regards to this information item, I have been asking every department if we can get a breakdown by class of affirmative action, P1s, P2s, and P3s. Also, do you have anyone within the department who is working within the department with a disability?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister Miltenberger.

We have 120 P1 candidates, about 51 percent of the workforce; 37 are P2 and 78 are P3. In terms of women, we have three in senior management, two in middle management, 16 in non-traditional occupations and one employee with a disability.

I have a question in regards to the staffing of these positions. How do you staff positions in the different regions? Do you at any time have any cultural awareness programs for your new employees who come in from, say, the south or basically are in a new region, so they can understand the culture and the aboriginal groups that they are working with? I think that what you find is that there are people who don’t take the time to really understand the culture and the people from those regions. They just assume things without really understanding their cultural history that is there, in which people still have a lot of respect in regards to how they treat the land, the water and the wildlife. I think that and also understand that the traditions of those regions. I think it is important especially for people that do come north. Sure, they might come out of school and have a degree, but at the end of the day they don’t know the land, the people and the language. There is no way they can communicate with those people. Is that part of the training for your people that you have in the field?

As we move forward with our traditional knowledge implementation, one of the things we are working on to actually formalize and build in especially for, as the Member has indicated, new Northerners, is a Cultural Awareness Program that will be tailored to be regional-specific, recognizing the differences as you travel or live in one region versus another, to

try to give better information to new employees who are new to the North background of some of the very many unique complexities that we have in our regions and communities. Thank you.

Just if the Minister can give me the information that he read out earlier, because I would like to compile and see for myself exactly what the different departments are doing in regard to enacting the Affirmative Action Policy.

One of the other areas I think is important, that this government realizes, is we do have a lot of people who are retiring in this area. We will have to be replacing them. I would like to know, are there any programs by way of we used to have the Natural Resources Program in regards to Arctic College. We have had other courses where people went south. Is there any type of specific training to recruit those new individuals that we will have to find to replace the people within this department who are going to be retiring over the next couple of years?

First, we will share the information on our statistics for affirmative action with committee. We will pass that on. We have, of course, significant investment in the NRTP program and are working with the college to get that as current and cutting edge as possible, given all the changes in the areas of environment, with climate change and monitoring and resource development. As well, we are taking the steps at the community level to come up with positions like patrolmen and those types of positions that don’t require necessarily the same type of high level of qualification but will allow us to get local people in the door and if there is an interest, then we can work with them through our training that is available in support to move on further into the department.

We also recognize the need for succession planning at the senior level. I think, when we get the numbers, if you look at the senior management statistics, we are trying to recognize the fact that folks the age that I am or the deputy minister of a shelf life that is rapidly approaching the best before time and we want to plan for the day when we are not around, not so much MLAs. They are much easier to replace than deputies, but we recognize the need. It is a point of concern to the government as a whole, where we recognize about 30 percent of our staff are going to be eligible to retire in the next five to 10 years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. If you can share that information on the numbers with all of committee, that would be great. We are on page 13-10, information item, active position summary.

We are moving along to page 13-13. It is an activity summary, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, $10.645 million. Are there any questions? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am just looking at contract services. There has been steep and steady rise over the last couple of years. I am wondering if we can get a brief explanation of what that is all about. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Mr. Chairman, there is the money we spent on the Water Strategy. There is the other initiative being the traditional knowledge as well, but one of the big ones is the Water Strategy. Thank you.

Thank you for those comments. Are these retained services or are they services that are let as needed? Thank you.

With the Water Strategy, we have been using the services of Terra Plan and on a relatively consistent basis as we have done the work that is required, in addition to working with the staff and the communities and regions. We have been using Terra Plan for the most part.

The other thing I want to point out is that we have been and give credit to INAC. The federal government has been very supportive in this whole process and it is a contribution that without which we would not have been able to do the work that we have done. Thank you.

Are those INAC dollars part of the dollars being spent on contract services?

What is reflected here is just our expenditures, not the dollars that INAC has spent out of their own budgets.

What would be the Terra Plan contract? Is it a steady amount over the last two years plus this 2009-10 for a three-year period? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Bohnet.

Thank you, Mr. Bohnet. Mr. Bromley.

I appreciate those remarks. Did we approve positions for our own water experts to be coming up soon and have we hired people in that area yet that are new? Thank you.