Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee, I believe, would like to deal with the last department in the budget, the Department of Human Resources, and then move on to Supplementary Appropriation No. 3, Supplementary Appropriation No. 1 and then Bill 2, time permitting, Forgiveness of Debts Act. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Committee agree?

Okay. With that, well take a short break and begin with the Department of HR.

---SHORT RECESS

I’d like to call the Committee of the Whole back to order. As we agreed prior the break, we will continue on with the Department of Human Resources. At this time I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for Human Resources if he has any opening comments. Minister Bob McLeod.

Mr. Chair, I am pleased to present the Department of Human Resources main estimates for the fiscal year 2010-2011. The mandate of the department is to provide leadership and direction to the Government of the Northwest Territories, its boards and agencies, in all areas of human resource management.

The Department of Human Resources is the face of the Government of the Northwest Territories as an employer. As the human resource service agency of the Government of the Northwest Territories, we are responsible for the development and implementation of government-wide human resource management, recruitment and compensation practices. Our advice on these practices supports departmental and agency decision-making.

The department is proposing a budget of $40.073 million in operational expenses for the coming fiscal year. This represents an increase of $4.994 million or an increase of 14.24 percent over the last main estimates. This includes $2.017 million for the NWT Public Service Strategy Plan 20/20: A Brilliant North and Service Stabilization Initiative, forced growth funding of $3.120 million for core operations resulting from the compensation increase negotiated during a successfully completed collective bargaining session. The forced growth also includes increased costs for the public service medical travel and dental benefits. Finally, Mr. Chair, the increase includes a corporate initiative of $136,000 for the printing of the Collective Agreement and implementation costs, and a sunset amount of $279,000 for arbitration hearings and for the Yellowknife consolidated clinic.

Mr. Chair, improving human resource management in the Government of the Northwest Territories is one of the priorities of the 16th Legislative Assembly

and one of the key components of the Refocusing Government committee mandate.

Mr. Chair, I would like to outline for you the key themes of 20/20: A Brilliant North, and the programs and initiatives under development for 2010-11.

Under the theme of “proving a healthy, safe work environment for employees:”

The department will create a health, wellness and safety framework for the Government of the Northwest Territories.

•

The Aboriginal Cross-Cultural Awareness and Diversity Awareness training programs are under development, to be available to all departments by April 1, 2011. This will include e-training a component in the orientation and on-the-land cultural opportunities. The e-training will be available on-line to all existing and prospective employees.

•

There is a GNWT Green Team and a number of departments have started their own green teams.

Mr. Chair, under the theme of “create a diverse and inclusive workplace representative of the Northwest Territories population:”

•

The department is organizing regional advisory committees to provide a regional perspective and support the Aboriginal Employee Advisory Committee. These committees will help advise on issues related to the Affirmative Action Policy and methods of increasing the fair representation of aboriginal employees within the Government of the Northwest Territories.

•

The GNWT Advisory Committee on

Employability will be operational by March 2010. This committee will advise the Human Resources Deputy Minister’s Committee on methods of promote, support and increase the representation of persons with disabilities within the Government of the Northwest Territories workforce.

•

A sensitivity training project will be piloted in March 2010. The training, focused at directors, managers, officers, administration staff and persons with disabilities, will give attendees a greater understanding of the workforce that is represented by people with disabilities.

•

The Human Resources employer of choice

unit, in addition to providing program support to the GNWT Advisory Committee on Employability, will develop a strategy and vision for increasing representation of all priority groups.

•

The Department of Human Resources will be increasing our ability to track and report on all employees with disabilities who require an accommodation in our continuing attempt to increase the number of disabled employees, attract and retain them within the public service.

Mr. Chair, under the theme “demonstrate a commitment to learning and development of employees:”

•

The Department of Human Resources will

create a structure for the design, delivery, administration and evaluation of targeted programs for the advancement of aboriginal persons within the public sector. These programs will provide the foundation for an Aboriginal Learning and Leadership Initiative.

•

The department will make draft Government of the Northwest Territories-wide Learning Guidelines available by April 2010. The guidelines will help to provide much needed investment in learning and development within the public service.

Finally, Mr. Chair, under the theme “deliver effective workforce planning practices, from attraction to retirement:”

•

Human resource plans, which align with

business plans, are being piloted in three

departments: Environment and Natural Resources, Finance and Transportation.

•

A review and update of Government of the Northwest Territories recruitment and marketing initiatives is underway and includes a review of current departmental practices for hard to recruit positions. This information will be critical in the development of a Government of the Northwest Territories-wide recruitment strategy.

•

A Department of Human Resources Transition Team has been created to review and streamline existing processes. Work is underway to improve efficiencies, help resolve outstanding pay and benefits issues and look at improvements in other areas of human resource core service delivery.

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the Members of this House, specifically the Government Operations committee, for their support on these initiatives and of the NWT Public Service Strategic Plan 20/20: A Brilliant North. I will be pleased to answer any questions that Members have regarding the budget.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. At this time I’d like to ask if you’ll be bringing in any witnesses.

Yes, I will be, Mr. Chair.

Does committee agree that the Minister brings his witnesses?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses in.

For the record, Mr. Minister, can you introduce your witnesses?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left, I have Mr. Tom Williams, deputy minister, Human Resources. On my right, I have Michelle Beard, director of strategy and policy for the Department of Human Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Welcome, witnesses. Any general comments in regard to the Department of Human Resources? What is the wish of the committee?

Detail? Okay. Turn to page 3-7, department summary. With that, we’ll defer until consideration of detail. Starting on page 3-8, Human Resources, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?

Moving on to page 3-9, Human Resources, information item, active position summary. Any questions?

Moving on to page 3-11, Human Resources, activity summary, operations expenditure summary, directorate, $590,000. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I could have done this under opening comments, I guess, but I’ll do it under the directorate. Being an MLA, obviously we field a number of calls and complaints, usually from constituents who are government employees or looking at getting positions with the Government of the Northwest Territories. I just wanted to make a comment, Mr. Chairman. In the past year or 16 months, year to 16 months, there’s been a marked improvement by the department, I think, in handling issues that have come up with constituents and I’m not getting the number of calls or complaints that I used to get. I think that’s a testament of the management there at the department, and I just wanted to put that on the record, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that’s largely a function of the hard work of the staff in the department and working very closely with all the staff at all of the different departments of the government. It’s helped quite a bit working with the committees and focusing on improving service delivery. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Any other questions on the directorate? Okay, operations expenditure summary, directorate, activity summary, $590,000. Agreed?

Moving on to page 3-12, Human Resources, information item, active positions, directorate. Any questions? Agreed? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and excuse my hesitation. I am unsure where to bring this one up, but I’m wondering, with regard to direct appointments, what role does the department have in direct appointments that departments might decide to do? Do we have a policy on that and is it within this department or do we advise other departments on it? Does HR advise other departments? I could use a little help with that. Thank you.

Minister of HR, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a directive that lays out the criteria for which would apply to direct appointments, and we do provide assistance to the different departments as to format, and it has to be approved by the responsible Minister, and all direct appointments have to go through Cabinet. Then once a decision is made and if that position is approved, then the

Department of HR is the lead on implementation of the decision. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you. That helps quite a bit, Mr. Chair. The last one is: is the directive a Human Resources directive?

Minister of HR, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you. It’s a directive that is approved by Cabinet and it’s updated from time to time. We do keep track of the number of direct appointments and we do review the criteria to make sure that it’s fulfilling the objectives of what it was intended to do and we do have direct appointments for a number of reasons. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the last one is: is that a publicly available document or is that an internal?

Minister of HR.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s one that’s approved by Cabinet. So it’s a Cabinet document and I’ll check to see whether that’s available or not. I expect that if it is, then we can share it with the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

That’s great, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that offer and that would help me become more informed on that and then the reasons that you can do direct appointments. If the document can’t be made available and that can, that would also help me. I’ll let it go at that. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

We’ll commit to providing that information one way or the other. Thank you.

Okay, we’re on page 3-12, Human Resources, information item, active positions, directorate. Any questions there? Agreed?

Moving on to 3-15, Human Resources, operations expenditure summary, activity summary, $6.257 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is the proper place to talk about this; somebody can direct me to where the correct place is if this one is not the right place. So in the Minister’s opening remarks there’s a couple of comments, one on page 2 about an Advisory Committee on Employability, the next page then talks about a sensitivity training project and then about tracking and reporting on employees, and all of these have to do with employees with disabilities or in and around employees with disabilities and

accommodating them and encouraging employment of them and so on. I think it’s well known that I have some difficulties with the Affirmative Action Policy the way that it’s currently written. I’m a little confused on some of the information that’s in the Minister’s opening remarks and I would appreciate a bit more of an explanation, first of all, on the Advisory Committee on Employability. I realize it’s supposed to help, but what’s the composition of this committee and what’s the intention of the actions of this committee to try and encourage the increase of the number of persons with disabilities that we employ? Thank you.

Deputy minister.

Thanks for that to the deputy minister. Maybe it’s the language in the Minister’s opening remarks, but it talks about the sensitivity training project; the training will be focused at directors, managers, officers, administration staff and persons with disabilities. So I’m wondering why persons with disabilities need to have sensitivity training. So maybe I could get an explanation of what’s intended with that statement. Thank you.

Minister of HR.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess a large part of that is in determining what approach our government should take to increase representation of persons with disabilities in the government workforce. We looked at other provinces and territories and we thought that we could learn from what they were doing. So we had

a session with the Yukon division -- that was seen to have been the most successful -- and they briefed us on what they saw as being critical to being successful in this area, and a very large part of it is sensitivity training for our management and also to interact directly with persons with disabilities so that they become more aware of the work environment and so that we can become more successful in addressing some of the issues that could be potential barriers to employment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I guess I’m still not quite understanding the value of providing sensitivity training to somebody who already has a disability and is employed. So are these people taking the training? Are they there as a resource to the people who are giving the training? Again, I don’t quite understand the value of providing sensitivity training to somebody who is already identified as a person with a disability. Thank you.

That is not our intention to train persons with disabilities on sensitivity training. We are involving them so we can learn from them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thanks to the Minister for that clarification; I now understand. I just wondered, the Minister’s statement about increasing our ability to track and report on all employees with disabilities who require an accommodation, could I get a bit of an explanation as to what that action is intended, what it is intended to do, I guess, and how it is going to be done? Thank you.

One of the issues that has been identified early on is the question of self-identification, and so this is... We want to be able to deal with that and be sensitive to that, because one of the things that are used when people look at how successful we are or how successful we aren’t in attracting persons with disabilities to work in our workforce is statistics. I think that our intention here is to have a better idea and a better tracking system. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thanks to the Minister. I just wanted to comment on Mr. Ramsay’s comment. I do agree with him that things seem to be improved and the number of complaints coming forward to us as Members with regards to the HR department have been less, so I do think that the department is doing good work, I just wanted to echo Mr. Ramsay’s comment. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, I am done.

That is more of a comment. Did you want to respond, Mr. Minister?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate those comments and we are going to continue to work hard to continue to improve. Thank you.

We are on page 3-15. Human Resources, operations expenditure

summary, human resource strategy and policy, operations expenditure summary, $6.257 million.

Moving on to page 3-16, information item, human resource strategy and policy, active positions. Any questions?

Moving on to page 3-19, activity summary, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $8.075 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I asked a question yesterday with regards to recruitment and retention and I have received an answer that suggested that there is going to be a government-wide effort to put in place some recruitment and retention strategies for hard to fill positions. One of the ones that I am concerned about is within the Department of Justice, lawyers particularly. I just wondered whether or not the department is developing an across government strategy if it is going to include, for instance, lawyers, legal aid lawyers that are required by the Department of Justice and areas such as that where they have difficulty filling their staffing requirements. Something which the Health and Social Services department used a number of years ago, I guess, or may still use, was a return of service agreement and I wondered if the department is considering that in terms of recruitment and retention strategies. Thank you.

Deputy Minister Tom Williams.

Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is all I have.

We are on Page 3-19, activity summary, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $8.075 million.

Moving on to page 3-20, information item, management and recruitment services, active positions. Any questions?

Moving on to page 3-23, activity summary, corporate human resources. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I am right, I think this is where the Brilliant Future document is being implemented and I am wondering if, first of all, is that the budget under strategic initiatives. I see there is a doubling of that cost this year under program delivery details. I assume that is for the delivery of that program A Brilliant North. Am I correct there or are there other initiatives I should know about there? Thank you.

Minister for Human Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct; it is where it is provided for and that is where we have funding to be able to invest in a public service. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

One of the things that I am particularly interested in, of course, is the Government of the Northwest Territories Green Team that, I believe, Environment and Natural Resources has had for a while and perhaps is spreading to other departments. I believe the Minister mentioned in his opening remarks, that was spreading to other departments. I am just wondering, if that information is at hand, what those departments might be and is there a schedule to get the others signed up and going on this. I think this was wise to include this in the strategy. It is one of the things that attract young people these days, young professionals, is the ability to be green and participate in it. If those details are handy and you know if there are also what sorts of things these teams will be doing, green teams will be doing, I would appreciate that too. Thank you.

The Member is correct in his observation in that younger people, how green the place of employment is, is a factor in their decision-making. So the Government of the Northwest Territories does have a departmental Green Team. The terms of reference have been

developed and the following departments are represented on the team: Environment and Renewable Resources; Industry, Tourism and Investment; Public Works; Municipal and Community Affairs; Justice; Housing Corporation; Human Resources; Aboriginal Affairs; and Transportation. So the team is right now finalizing a comprehensive inventory of current Government of the Northwest Territories green initiatives. We are also drafting a proposed set of environmental conditions and this interdepartmental team will advocate and assist the development of internal departmental teams. Maybe I will ask, through you, Mr. Chairman, the deputy to further update us on how well we are doing in that area.

I appreciate Mr. Williams’ and the Minister’s comments. I know we heard a lot the other day about how the Legislative Assembly is doing and they’re marching right along in regard to some of those initiatives; I think well along towards achieving 80 percent reduction in paper in some areas and looking really good. I’m assuming that’s also saving us dollars and giving us some flexibility for other work and priorities. So that’s all I had. I’d probably benefit from seeing the terms of reference, if that’s shareable there. So I appreciate those comments. Thank you.

Minister of HR.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’ll commit to providing that information to the Member.

Thank you. Next on the list I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a quick question here with regard to the contract services. That amount has increased significantly and I just wondered if I could find out why. Thank you.

Minister of HR.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The main reason for the increase is for the implementation of 20/20. So contracts have increased by $2.1 million for that purpose. Also, it includes funding for Employee and Family Assistance Program, HAY training, labour relation, a very small section. So the primary reason is for implementation of the 20/20 Strategic Plan. Thank you.

That seems like an awful lot of money, $2 million to implement the plan. Are we adding staff or is this contracted services that we’re using to put this plan in place? Can I have a bit of an explanation as to where this money is being spent? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll just go quickly through the list here. Administration of client satisfaction survey, $50,000; travel costs for outreach and marketing programs, $50,000; support to employee diversity networks, $237,000; Youth Intern Ambassador and Enhanced Student Employment programs, $500,000; marketing and recruitment initiatives, $250,000; cross-cultural workshops for staff, $100,000; increase employee wellness programs, $100,000; Performance Measurement Program system and support, $100,000; competency-based training pilot project, $500,000; training for all of the HR staff, $100,000; training initiatives for all employees, $410,000; and it also, when you get to the next page, provides for some increase in employees and I’ll ask the deputy, through you, to provide more detail in that area, Mr. Chair.

Deputy Minister Williams.

We’re on page 3-23, activity summary, corporate human resources, operations expenditure summary, $11.086 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Sorry, Mr. Chair. I think this belongs here, so I better ask it now and find out. The Minister mentioned the Human Resources Transition Team resolving outstanding pay and benefits issues and backlogs and so on. I just wondered if I could get an update on where things are at in terms of pay and benefits and the backlog. Has it finally gone down to zero or are we getting close, et cetera? Thank you.

Minister of HR.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We now have transition in place. There’s been an increase of six positions for a two-year period. Right now, we are starting to make some gains. There was a brief increase for a number of reasons, but now that we have a transition team in place, our expectation is that we’ll begin to see a reduction in the backlog. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Back on page 3-23, corporate human resources, operations expenditure summary, $11.086 million.

Moving on to page 3-24, activity summary, corporate human resources, grants and contributions, contributions, $115,000.

Moving on to page 3-25, information item, corporate human resources, active positions. Any questions?

Moving on to page 3-27, Human Resources, activity summary, employee services, operations expenditure summary, $14.065 million.

Moving on to page 3-28, Human Resources, information item, employee services, active positions. Any questions?

Can we move back to page 3-7 in regard to the department summary. Human Resources, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $40.073 million.

Does committee agree that we have concluded the Department of Human Resources?

With that, I’d like to thank the Minister and the witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out.

Does the committee agree that consideration of Tabled Document 62-16(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2010-2011, is now concluded?

Mrs. Groenewegen.