Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I’ll treat that as a comment. Committee, we’re on 3-11, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $3.817 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Committee, 3-12, information item, directorate, active positions. Any questions? Seeing none, I’d like to move to 3-15, activity summary, management and recruitment services, operations expenditure summary, $4.337 million. Is committee agreed? Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question here and I couldn’t find a reference, but some time ago I wrote myself a note and I put “client service centre versus regional service centre.” The two centres have been referenced, I don’t know if it was in the Minister’s opening remarks or elsewhere, but I’m struggling to understand what the difference is between a client service centre and a regional service centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll just have the deputy minister explain the difference between the two quickly.

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

Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks for the clarification. Maybe the term should be regional client service centre, so one would understand that they’re the same.

I wanted to just emphasize – I don’t know if I’ve made this comment, but I know it has been made to the department – in terms of regional recruitment, I think it is the intent of the department to try to mentor some people in the regions and fill vacant positions, and also for people who are retiring, to make sure the role is filled when they do retire. My understanding is the department is looking at either long-service employees or senior level employees. I would suggest that the department also consider mid-service employees and/or maybe even people who are newly entered into the job or into the department or office and people who don’t maybe necessarily have the amount of knowledge that is totally required but that they can work themselves into the job. I guess what I’m trying to suggest is we don’t limit ourselves by saying we are going to use long-service employees. That totally eliminates anybody who isn’t considered a long-service employee. I would encourage the department to look beyond maybe what the words say. If we’re going to mentor people, that we look as wide as possible and ensure that we get somebody who is backing up the position of somebody who is going to retire or try to fill a position that is currently vacant. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Again, I’ll treat that as a comment. Committee, we’re on page 3-15, activity summary, management and recruit services, operations expenditure summary, $4.337 million. Committee agree?

Page 3-16, information item, management and recruitment services, active positions. Any questions?

Seeing none, page 3-19, activity summary, strategic human resources, operations expenditure summary, $9.943 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to follow up a little bit on succession planning, which I think this division is largely responsible for. This has been highlighted for a number of years now and our workforce has been aging, basically, as I understand it. I think we had a significant proportion of employees, something like 20 percent or maybe much more than that that were within five years of retiring. What is the current trend on that measure, whatever it is? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member refers to a knowledge transfer for succession. We have a strategy to do that. We work with all the departments. It is part of our Workplace Planning Strategy. The idea is to look at the individuals who are working for the government that are in the twilight of their career and we would ensure that their knowledge is being transferred to individuals that would be taking their positions. So, we are actively engaged with the Department of Human Resources to ensure that happens.

I was aware of that. I probably wasn’t clear with the question I’m asking. I’m asking more specifically on where we are at in achieving our goals. What are the statistics that indicate the trend in our succession planning? It used to be X percent in five years are going to retire. What’s the change? Thank you.

For more detail, I’ll ask the deputy minister to provide that.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the deputy minister for that information. I didn’t get my statistic again, but I think I heard that it’s not a reliable statistic anymore. Perhaps we don’t have

any statistics that indicate our succession with all these tools to deliver succession planning. Forty years is great in one way, but in another way people may not be able to retire, and I think we are hearing that across this great country, and there’s a possibility that the types of policies we are putting in place are failing people and their interest in retiring early and moving on to other productive pursuits in their retirement. Obviously a big concern potentially. It would be nice to know what’s happening there.

One of the things was double filling positions in the last six months when people indicate that they are going to retire. How much are we using that tool? How many instances? I believe it was proved as a tool or certainly emphasized in 2011-12. What’s our experience to date? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll go to Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don’t have the numbers of the overall corporate numbers for the GNWT on the succession planning on who’s matched up with individuals who are soon to retire. We will be able to provide that information to committee.