Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Anything further, Ms. Bisaro?

No. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay. Page 3-18, active positions, human resource strategy and policy, information item.

Page 3-21, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $3.97 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again a little bit of uncertainty on whose mandate. I know that during the middle part of the 16

th Assembly

there was a website and other resources established specifically to enhance recruitment and retention of health professionals. I’m wondering, if this is a Human Resources responsibility, what is the success of those programs that were put in place specifically for this purpose and what’s the result of the evaluation. If it’s not this Minister’s responsibility, I’ll direct that later.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the Department of Human Resources within this – it’s actually not in this section, it’s in the corporate human resources section – there is a recruitment and retention unit that’s responsible for the big picture recruitment. Planning, figuring out how to convince people to come here, also supporting programs that will actually train people here in the Northwest Territories. Programs that they do run out of there, there are a number of health-specific programs. They do the bursaries, they do the professional development initiative, they do some marketing on the big scales, not for individual jobs, the Community Health Nurse Development Program. A whole variety of programs. It’s complicated. It’s a joint responsibility because ultimately the budget for those programs is a Health and Social Services budget even though it’s administered by the Department of Human Resources.

The two departments have to work closely together. I don’t believe there has been a recent sort of evaluation or review of the effectiveness of the bursary program’s professional development initiative, Community Health Nurse Development Program, or a number of the programs that are being delivered in there.

I can tell you that the bursaries are being utilized. They continue to be distributed. The Community Health Nurse Program is still in place. There has been a recent intake. I believe there are four people in that program right now. So there are things that are happening in that area.

Thanks to the Minister for that clarification and additional information. We should obviously be doing some monitoring and evaluation. Can we expect that to happen and would the Minister have a time frame in mind or can he establish one working with committee here?

The Department of Human Resources and the Department of Health and Social Services will be discussing this particular issue next week, as a matter of fact, and how we want to work on this particular division to improve effectiveness. Once we have those discussions and figure out what we’re going to do,

I’ll be happy to share that with the Member and the appropriate committee.

Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. Now, Madam Chair, thanks for your forbearance there returning to this section. Could the Minister tell me just for my own edification here, the allied health recruitment unit mentioned here, how does that fit into the picture and how does it relate to what we’ve been discussing?

The unit that we’re talking about which is in the corporate human resources is more of a planning unit and delivers some specific programs to encourage people to go into the health professions. The allied health recruitment unit is the unit that’s actually doing the staffing for individual jobs, out there recruiting or advertising for position X and following it through to the hiring of somebody in position X. They’re more the action unit with the actual individual jobs who are doing the actual hiring with the authorities.

My last question here is: Is this a unit of your department or is it a private enterprise contract? How does it work?

Mr. Bromley, sorry, to conclude your question.

Yes, thank you. Just the word “allied” caught my attention there. It’s normally used in the title of companies and so on. Perhaps it has another meaning here.

It is a section of this unit. It is six employees who are GNWT employees. The allied health recruitment unit is titled that because we didn’t want to focus just on nurses. It’s got to be for all allied health professionals, which include PT/OT, respiratory therapy, pretty much every health profession. They’re commonly referred to as allied health professionals. So we wanted the unit to be consistent with those individuals that we were trying to recruit.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question has been asked and answered.

Thank you. Page 3-22, active positions, information item, management and recruitment services.

Page 3-25, corporate human resources, operations expenditure summary, $12.371 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d just like to follow up with sort of an alert I gave in my general comments on the green teams, part of the Brilliant North, the plan. There was a record of failure on that and getting those established in the past, and I know in the 16

th Assembly there was

agreement to try and focus more on that. Has the Minister been able to get on top of that situation yet and what are the plans during 2012-13 here to make sure that those are up and running more effectively in all departments rather than in one or two? I know the one or two that are up and running have tried to share it but I’m not getting the impression that they’re very successful yet, and I, again, do regard this as an important element especially for young people and people that are really plugged into the state of the world as a job place quality issue. Mahsi.