Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Committee, we are on page 3-9, Human Resources, information item, active position summary. Any questions? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to be sure, I’m not sure that this information was included, but in addition to these active positions, are there unreported inactive positions and if so and they’re not funded, is the intent to delete those so that we’re not having to continue to manage those empty and apparently nebulous positions?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a government, we’re going through the process of responding to the overall vacancy positions, dormant positions and the positions that have been identified in the House. What we’re presenting here are the main estimates and the changes that we’re going from one main estimate to the other main estimate and not which PYs are being reported through PeopleSoft. What we are providing to the Members as the overall from the government was to indicate and respond to the questions of the dormant positions, positions to be filled, and then a full report that we are going to be responding to. I did not come with the detailed report here. Essentially, coming here with the main estimates and what we are requesting, but this is separate from the information that has been requested that we will respond to, I think, within the next day or two.

Thank you for that, Minister. If we have questions with the information that’s been provided by the department, is this confidential information or are we allowed to ask questions to clarify what the situation is?

I think it would be my preference or the department’s preference if we would. We have a meeting scheduled, I believe, for 7:30 tomorrow to talk about the report we have provided to the Members, and that we would answer the questions on that specific report that doesn’t really correlate with the business plan that we are presenting here today.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Moving on with questions on activity 3-9, I have Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I’ll follow along with some of the questions that my colleagues have asked. I’d like to ask a question about the devolution positions and, I guess, the number of positions that were out in the regions and, I guess, the lack of support for HR in the regions. I mean, all the positions have been added to the headquarters. Did we not deem that Inuvik was getting a good quantity of these positions and probably going to need some assistance with some of those positions as well as multiple communities in the South Slave. Would there not have been some sort of advantage to putting an additional position into the South Slave and potentially Inuvik to assist with some of the HR demands that those people are going to see from devolution?

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will ask the deputy minister to respond to that specific question.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.

Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Mr. Bouchard.

I guess I’m struggling with that issue, especially on a day like today when I made a Member’s statement on decentralization and the plan that we have going forward. I guess there are quite a few jobs going out into the regions through devolution, and to add seven more to Yellowknife, I understand some of them were through devolution but a couple were actually through an option that we had. I guess this is a priority of the Assembly to do decentralization and I’d like us to consider that, I guess.

The other area of concern that I have, and it’s more of a question, I think, we talked about the details of the vacancies that we’ve been asking more and more information on. We’ve been getting more of that and we’re going to get more options to that.

The Minister indicated he didn’t want to comment on that, but I think we need to get some of that information sooner than later, because this is a budget issue. I understand that the department is gathering that information with all the different departments. But for the Department of HR not wanting to discuss that at this budget time, which we know this is a priority, I think we need to look at all those options. We need to look at where those positions are filled, especially the ones that are funded. We have some vacant positions that are funded and inactive. There are quite a few that we need to look at in this budget process before I think we can move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I’ll take that as more of a comment. I didn’t quite hear a question in there. With that, committee, we are on page 3-9, Human Resources, information item, active position summary. Any questions? Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Page 3-11, Human Resources, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $3.817 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question here with regards to the advertising strategy that the department has adopted within the last six months or so. I talked about this the other day and asked some questions of the Minister, but one of the things that concerns me particularly, and

I’d like to bring it up again, is this need for an e-mail address in order to apply for a job with the GNWT.

I’d like to know from the Minister, he’s mentioned that they’ve made some adjustments; they’ve changed a few things so that basically people will be able to apply. So, I have no computer, I don’t have access to a computer. How am I going to apply for a job with GNWT if I don’t have an e-mail address? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If an individual is seeking employment and finds a job on-line that they would be interested in and they don’t have a computer and can’t do the eRecruit, they are still welcome to take their resume in, a hard copy, to anyone in the regional service centres that we have or also into headquarters here in Yellowknife.

Thanks to the Minister. I’ll use an example, which may be a little exaggerated, but if I’m in Colville Lake and there is no regional centre in my community, what do I do then? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. With that, we’ll go to Ms. Bassi-Kellett.