GNWT Position Vacancies

In the Legislative Assembly on February 11th, 2014. See this topic in context.

GNWT Position Vacancies
Members’ Statements

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use today’s Member’s statement to once again return to the issue of position vacancies within the Northwest Territories government. One day later, in my view and in certainly the view of many others, is one day no further ahead. If this problem was an onion, we keep peeling it back and the one thing that is certain is that it just keeps getting stinkier.

The reality here is the fact that we just don’t know where these 800 jobs are and how they’re being filled, or in this case how we know they’re not being filled. Questions still need to be answered. Even after our briefing this morning, we’re still just as much in awe as to how this could be happening without anyone fully knowing exactly where these are. Questions like the other day the Finance Minister said there was an actual 571 jobs out there that are being actively pursued, but we know that there are at least 800, maybe even more. So what happens to those jobs? Do we continue to fund those jobs?

If you go to the website on the GNWT jobs area, it says they’re looking for about 100 people. So what happened to the 471 people that they say they are looking for jobs, are they posted with invisible ink on this website? I don’t know. Nobody knows where these ghost jobs are. Are there 100? Are there 200? By the way, that would add up to 10 to 20 million dollars. We just don’t know. We need to know where these jobs are located and what they’re doing sitting empty.

The Minister of Human Resources may describe them as, well, geez, in some cases we have students and casuals in them. Well, let’s face it. How do you actively pursue a job posting when you have a casual sitting in there that constantly gets renewed? I guess the question is: Are you really actively looking to fill these jobs? They may also say, well, geez, we use that money to hire summer students, so you hold a job open for a year and only fill it for three months. What do you do with the nine months’ money that’s left over? By that theory, you should be hiring four summer students, not one. Where is the part that starts to make sense?

There are so many questions and we’ll continue to pursue them later today in question period, but we still need to know where are all these missing jobs, these ghost jobs. How many are there? How are we funding them, and by golly, why do we bother still keeping them on the books if no one is interested in filling them? Because, quite frankly, as I said yesterday, if we have jobs on the books that we’re funding, then nothing is more clear than it is simply a slush fund. We’ll be pursuing this later today in question period.

GNWT Position Vacancies
Members’ Statements

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

GNWT Position Vacancies
Members’ Statements

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last few sittings that we have had here since we started the Assembly, there have been a lot of questions regarding some of the human resources practices that this government exercises and we have talked about the career fair and going into the communities. We talk about trying to recruit our northern people into positions within the government. We heard about how many vacancies we have within the GNWT, within the departments.

We are going through the budget process right now where this government, actually the departments determine positions required for them to do the programs and services that they provide the people of the Northwest Territories. These fully funded positions are budgeted for and funded through the

business planning and main estimates process. That is where we are right now. As I said, we have heard a lot of issues on these funded positions that, as committee, we go through page by page, department by department, we look at these positions and we approve them.

Now, not all of these positions are people getting these positions; we have all these vacancies. Where do these dollars go? In discussions with the government, it opened up another, as Mr. Hawkins put it, you peel one layer away of an onion and there is another layer.

It brings me to something that I have to look on in the Financial Administration Act and dealing with how dollars are moved around within our departments. It brought concern to me because, looking at the actions, there is a significant amount of cash and budget that has been approved for within this government that can move from these job positions that we are talking about, that we approve and fund through the budget process.

I will have questions today to see who has the authority to move the funds that we put for these positions within the government, why they are being moved around, and I will get some more clarity on those with questions later. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

GNWT Position Vacancies
Members’ Statements

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

GNWT Position Vacancies
Members’ Statements

February 10th, 2014

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Over the last couple of days we heard in this House about many empty jobs in government. This is, of course, concerning to all Members on this side. However, my take on this is that I think we should be filling them.

Of course, we’re asking the Minister to assess them and see where those empty positions are, how many are funded, not funded. There are many mechanics and different definitions about this whole job review and ghost jobs, et cetera. My concern is my people, and in my constituency qualified people are being screened out. P1 Aboriginals and local people are not getting the jobs.

Part of the Minister’s fiscal plan is to increase the population, I think he said by 2,000. I also submit that this plan should also include filling our empty positions so that they have people in them paying taxes that will benefit our Government of the Northwest Territories.

Members are anxious to reduce positions because the day that we see that these jobs are not needed…but I remain cautious about that. Jobs are important to my constituency of Nahendeh. We depend on them. They generate revenue for our economy. So, I like the slow, cautious approach, but we must get answers about what those jobs are and why it looks like they’re so empty. We think that the government is using empty positions to use those approved jobs for other expenditures, which should not happen, but let’s work on the plan, let’s

get them filled and let’s get people back working in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

GNWT Position Vacancies
Members’ Statements

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Ramsay.

GNWT Position Vacancies

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