Several years ago, when the Department of Personnel was decentralized, the training money was allocated to the departments. There are a number of programs. Right now we have a leadership program with the government. People can apply to be part of this program. Generally they need some support from the department and we have regular training modules that have been established through the University of Alberta. We also have an Associate Director Superintendent Program for aboriginal people whereby we’re trying to increase the number of aboriginal people in senior management positions. We have been working through utilization of transfer assignments whereby we can allow people to obtain experience in different levels of management so that they can move on to higher levels as they progress.

Our Human Resource Strategic Plan 20/20 recognizes that we want to encourage government employees to take advantage of lifelong learning so that they can advance their careers within the government. We are developing a draft succession planning discussion paper. We will be introducing a pilot program and we will be developing a succession planning framework for the government to follow, and we expect that next year. Thank you.