Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Traditional Knowledge Annual Report, 2010-2011. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Michael Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled

Making Connections - Building Networks to Prevent Abuse of Older Adults, A Framework for Action.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item number 7 on the Order Paper.

---Unanimous consent granted

The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with the Minister of Human Resources on summer student hiring and I’d like to continue with that.

Members are very concerned about the hiring of northern students returning to work in the NWT for the summer. Based on the return of questions yesterday, the Minister responsible for Human Resources indicated that the GNWT was committed to hiring 263 students; yet, to date there appears to be only about 146 students hired.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Human Resources is the gatekeeper for facilitating the hiring of students -- the Minister, as well as the Progressive Experience Program -- and maintain the student employment database. My question for the Minister is: what is the department doing to encourage departments to access programs like the PEP and increase the number of students they hire? Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. In December of last year the department met with the deputy ministers of all the departments and advised them of the process for hiring summer students, the need to register on the public registry and the need to have a continued support to hire summer students. We follow that up with regular updates at deputy minister meetings and also letters to the departments. We also raise them at ministerial meetings. So in every opportunity, we encourage departments to increase the level of hiring of summer students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Last year the Department of Human Resources hired 16

students. To date how many have they hired this year?

Thank you. To date we’ve hired nine summer students and I’d also like to advise the Members that the Progressive Experience Program is also fully subscribed. Thank you.

Thank you very much. When did the Department of Human Resources start planning for hiring of summer students for this spring and summer?

Every year we plan on a continuous basis, but for this fiscal year we started in December 2010. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, although we’d obviously like to see an increase in the number of summer student hires, will the Minister of Human Resources commit to hiring at least 16 students with the Department of Human Resources this summer? Mahsi.

Thank you. The government’s objective is to meet last year’s target of 263 summer students and it’s our commitment for the department to achieve the 16 summer students that we hired, the same as last year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources on summer students. I’m concerned about the transparency and efficiency of the summer student hiring process and I’m wondering if ENR puts out a file of the positions that they have identified, presumably, as I understand it, in December on the positions that are available for students so that they can underscore the credentials that they have towards those specific summer student positions.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We follow the hiring process as laid out. Students are encouraged to register early, put their names in along with their credentials, as well as students from the different regions probably have their own personal points of contact. In terms of the process, we look at hiring about 29 students that we have this year already. That’s the process that we follow.

Just looking outside, we’re right along on our spring. I’d say it’s almost summer. Last year I believe ENR hired about 40 students. I know students have been out of school for some time. They’re waiting desperately to hear. Will the Minister commit to hiring at least 40 students, as he did last year, again this year and get word to them quickly?

We’re committed to hiring as many students as possible with the resources that are available to allow us to do so.

I do notice that the budget is up for ENR this year compared to last, so I’m hoping the Minister will confirm that means we’ll be hiring at least 40, and probably more students. I am concerned about the concept of challenge and accountability, because I have information from constituents indicating that in some cases equally qualified people have lost out to people with lower priority status. I’m wondering in ENR if there’s apparently no public listing of what jobs were on offer, how can applicants know whether their priority status was honoured when job offers were made in the department.

If the Member has a specific concern or issue, I’d be happy to have that detail to see and ensure that due process was followed, of the Member would care to share outside this House that specific detail.