Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It often takes a long time to fill vacant jobs in our government, especially in our smaller communities. The irony is that this is where jobs are needed the most and where unemployment is the highest. Even one job, even one new employee can make a real difference in a community as small as Tsiigehtchic, or even Fort McPherson.
I know one problem is matching local skills to the jobs available. I hear from Minister Lafferty that his department is improving education and training, and I really look forward to some of the good results.
The job vacancy statistics are a little surprising. In my riding, the largest community, Fort McPherson, had the highest vacancy rate last year. Mind you,
the numbers, the latest ones that I get from Human Resources are from April 2014. So, I am hoping to see some progress since then, but it seems to me that there are still too many jobs vacant.
The final part of this story is one that does not get enough attention. What is the impact of these vacant jobs on our services to the public, and how much extra work and overtime end up as a burden on our other staff?
I have two suggestions, and the first one is: do more training that is linked to the vacant jobs available. The second is: use a little ingenuity in looking for people to fill our jobs in our small communities. Hosting those jobs on the GNWT website and waiting, well, it’s probably not enough to get the job done anytime soon.
I’ll have questions for the Minister later today. Thank you.