Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Question here with regard to pay and benefits. A number of years ago we had quite a backlog. Staff were hired to get rid of the backlog. I’d like to just get an update as to where things sit now with our pay and benefits. Are we up to date, so to speak? I realize that there’s probably always some stuff that needs doing, but does the Minister feel that the department is on track and getting things processed in a timely manner?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct; there is a constant workload in this section. It’s a heavy workload in this section. It tends to build up. It comes in waves. We did put in a new, or, rather, some staff in there to help deal with the tremendous amount of backlog that existed and I’m happy to report that currently we’re down to 300 files outstanding or backlogged in this section. So there has been some significant improvement in that area. That number will shrink and swell given just the realities of employee terminations, final pays, all those types of things that need to be done. As more casuals come in, the demand decreases because there’s a lot of final pays that have to be done on casuals, so it does ebb and flow, but we have managed to get the backlog down to 300, which is significant.

Thanks to the Minister. Three hundred sounds like a lot, but I can appreciate with some…

---Interjection

Yes. From 1,400 to 300, that’s a good thing. My other question has to do with other expenses the travel has been reduced significantly from $103,000 down to $15,000. Was this an anomaly in 2011-2012? I note that in 2010-2011 it was only $20,000 as well. Why the difference? Why the huge reduction?

I can’t tell you why it swelled up to $103,000 in previous years. The actual uptake was only around $20,000 so we felt it was more appropriate to indicate what the trend

has been as opposed to whatever this $103,000 was in previous years. Or last year, sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Bisaro, no further questions? Page 3-29, activity summary, employee services, operations expenditure summary, $14.080 million.

Page 3-30, information item, employee services, active positions.

Page 3-33, activity summary, regional operations, operations expenditure summary, $4.634 million.

Page 3-34, information item, regional operations, active positions. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I note on this page the reduction of three positions in the regions. Can the Minister explain that? Also, yes, if he can explain those.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s not really an elimination of positions in the regions. What this is, this was the regional superintendent/director training positions which are more like interns in their application. They had been showing up in the Department of Human Resources but they’re actually employees of other departments. So it was more appropriate to treat those positions more like the Intern Program. So the Intern Program doesn’t necessarily show all the positions in the Department of Human Resources. They show them where they exist. In this case those training positions continue to exist, they’re supernumerary, they’re extra, and it wasn’t appropriate to show them in the Department of Human Resources where they don’t actually work. But they still exist. Those positions have not disappeared. We are still facilitating the training of the regional director/superintendents as appropriate.

So my particular concern is in the Deh Cho where it showed seven positions last year. The Minister is saying there are six positions showing on the books this year but it’s still seven people working, or was that a virtual person?

There are three training positions in the associate director training positions every year. They change locations on a regular basis, depending on who is recruited into them and where they’re from. Last year there was one in the Deh Cho. There may not be one in the Deh Cho and these numbers suggest that there

isn’t necessarily one in the Deh Cho this year. But there also may be. I don’t know which department that particular associate director training person was in. I can confirm to the Members where the current group of associate director trainees are and it could be that there isn’t one in the Sahtu or the Deh Cho but there could be one as well. I don’t know off the top of my head. They will change from year to year to year to year to year as individuals come up and are identified for that particular training opportunity.

Just for confirmation then, the Minister is saying that the regional operations have not decreased by three positions.

Not sure I completely understand the question. The Department of Human Resources used to show these positions even though they didn’t necessarily work for the Department of Human Resources. To be consistent, given that this is a supernumerary training position, they will no longer show under HR’s establishment but we still have those training opportunities available and we will put individuals in those training opportunities. We will always try to have those training opportunities full. We’ll always be training somebody in the regional Superintendent/Director Training Program. There are three new ones a year and I think at any one time we could have as many as six in the program. Those six will be in a variety of locations and it will change every year. Three new individuals will be identified. Wherever those individuals happen to be and wherever the training is taking place is where they’ll be located. So it will change fairly regularly, a lot like the Intern Program. We don’t know where the interns are going to be in any given year but we continue to support the Intern Program with roughly the same number of employees because that’s what our budget will cover. In this case we will always be taking on three new ones and they will be located wherever’s appropriate for the individual. Sometimes that’s going to be the Deh Cho, sometimes that’s going to be the Sahtu, sometimes that’s going to be the Beaufort-Delta, and it will continue to move around.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Menicoche, any update?

Yes, I’m good.

With that, page 3-34, information item, regional operations, active positions.