When it comes to additional time off and things like that, we are bound by the terms and conditions in the Collective Agreement. So we have to find ways to recruit as well as retain our professionals within the working environment that we have. But we are open to suggestions and recommendations from committee. I would say that if committee has some ideas, we did share the draft plan with them, they did provide us with some input, but it’s a living document and we’re open to suggestions from Members, from communities, from Aboriginal governments, anybody that can help us find ways to recruit and retain the professionals that we have and that we need to have in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that was, again, brought to my attention with the campuses that we have across the Northwest Territories. More specifically at the Yellowknife Campus, and also Inuvik as well.

Since I brought this to the attention of the Board of Governors, they’ve been developing some options to deal with these matters at hand. I need to get the latest status from the Board of Governors. I don’t have that detailed information here from their organization, so I will provide that to the Member. Mahsi.

On another point with the Aurora College and speaking to the Board of Governors, in the Beaufort-Delta region we did have our Board of Governors representative resign last year.

What is the update on filling that position with another representative on that Board of Governors? Thank you.

Mahsi. Yes, unfortunately the board member resigned from the Beaufort-Delta. At the same time, we wanted to have a voice and a representative right away, so we did appoint Ms. Mary Beckett. She started January 23, 2015. It is a four-year term. So this is an agreement that has been brought to my attention as well. This individual has started already and they will be well represented in the Beaufort-Delta. Mahsi.

Thank you. I’m glad to hear that. I’m sure Ms. Beckett will do a fine job in the position.

Early childhood development has become a priority for this government and the onset of this government. I’m wondering if the Minister, speaking with the Board of Governors and the executive, is working on developing an Early Childhood Development Certification Program at the campuses, at any of the three campuses so we can get qualified early childhood development educators in the system. Thank you.

Mahsi. Aurora College is developing their two-year strategic plan, and the ECD programming, early childhood development programming has been brought to the attention of the president, the Board of Governors chair, because we are serious about developing programs. This is one of the GNWT’s priorities as well, ECD. So, it is in the works, part of their strategic plan. We’ve been pushing with the college. So we want to see this particular programming at our campuses. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that standing committee has been working with the Aurora College Board of Governors, the executive and the Minister’s office and dealing with some of these concerns at the Aurora College here in Yellowknife. I think it’s a great opportunity now, since it’s Aurora College Week.

Does the Minister have any plans of meeting with the staff and students at the Yellowknife Campus and just giving them an update on the work that standing committee has been asking the Minister and Aurora College in terms of dealing with the issues and concerns that students have brought up? Thank you.

I believe it’s very important to have that dialogue with the students, even with the staff at the college. So, when the opportunity arises, we’ll certainly take advantage of it. While we’re in session it may not be possible now, but definitely after session I’d like to meet with the board staff and also the students who are

available to air their concerns as well. So yes, again, we need to have that dialogue going. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up a little on the jobs issue I raised yesterday, and we talked about the 1,032 positions out there in one form or another and the 466 that are actively being recruited.

I made a post on my Facebook and I got some really interesting feedback, and one of the particular issues that’s been raised that I thought was interesting, more so in the sense of have we ever done this, is have we ever considered engaging the citizenship to understand and appreciate the practicality of trying to hire people for these jobs? We’re trying to get people in all regions throughout the Northwest Territories, but some of the challenges that the public sees are pay, benefits, affirmative action, recruitment method, housing, child care, flexible work plans and certainly training opportunities.

Has the Department of Human Resources ever considered calling upon its citizenry to create a bit of a working group to discuss some of the problems the public sees day to day when they’re trying to get access to employment, but sometimes they’re facing not an open door but a closed door on these challenges? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We haven’t asked the public to form a body that we’d consult with in filling vacancies, but we do have an internal body, an Aboriginal Advisory Committee that we use to try to utilize Aboriginal employees we have in the system and bring more Aboriginal employees into the system in order to become more representative of the population. But specifically to have gone to an outside group and asked them and consult with them on hiring issues, we have not done that. Thank you.

Does the Ministersee any problem with the issue of reaching out to the citizenship to get some feedback as what the citizens see, the everyday people, the everyday families trying to get job opportunities here in the North, from their perspective on trying to apply for jobs, be it in Yellowknife, be it in the regions, be it even in the very small communities? They would provide great benefit and insight as to the challenges that they see and face. Many people keep reciting the same problems over and over again, and I often wonder: does the government

appreciate the circumstances and challenges they’re seeing?

So does the Minister see an opportunity for us to consider this, or does he see an opportunity for him to do this? Thank you.

Thank you. We would look at all of the options that are available to us. Right now how we’re going about filling jobs have been through job sites, internal graduate internships, regional recruitment, expression of interest internally and so on to fill some of the jobs. But we are open to other ideas. If there are people out there that felt that there were better ways for us to recruit to lower the vacancy rate, we’d be open to taking those suggestions. Thank you.

I thought that was almost a yes, but just a little ways away from making that final step.

Recently, we’re well aware that the government has been reaching out in Eastern Canada. We’re well familiar with the job fairs that happened throughout, looking for people to be hired. I don’t have the budget as an MLA or else I would do it, but what I’m asking for, is would the Minister look at maybe setting up sort of a working group, discussion group, some public outreach as to what people see as some of the challenges for northern employment? I won’t go through them all. I’ve said pay and benefits, affirmative action, recruitment methods, housing, child care is very important. All of these things are very important. We need citizen feedback because we can’t keep doing it the same way we’ve done it before. Would the Minister commit to taking this initiative on?

We have not had a discussion to bring people from outside the public service in to assist us with filling vacant positions. We do have staff in all of the regions. I suppose the first place that we would reach out to, if we wanted to try to come up with some more creative ideas, is maybe to ask the people in our regional office, talk to the citizens out there in the regions and then set something up here to have that discussion. To formalize something and create a committee or a board from outside the public service to consult with, I suppose if the committee members were to want the government or the Human Resources department to look at something like that, we would be prepared to look at something like that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not specific to the Minister, but I get worried because the government’s taking the approach, well, we’re running short of days. But the problem is the government marches on every day long beyond us,

so the next group will be going on. It’s the same government, just different faces on the ministry.

This initiative is very important, so I’m going to ask clearly, what can the Minister do? It may not be fully completed by the end of this term, but what can we get on the ground, up and running today? You know, what can we do? Because we’re still working until the end of our term, so let’s make sure we are working as hard as we can.

So I ask the Minister, what can he do to ensure we can get some proper citizen feedback, whether it’s an ad or it’s a little bit of radio, whatever the case? Because we’re willing to spend thousands of dollars for sure on these campaigns, reaching all over Canada and the world, but let’s get some good genuine feedback from our citizens who live here. Thank you.

We know that just in general we have very high employment rates here in the city. I would be prepared to deal with the Members, like, the committee. If the Members were to go through committee and ask that we develop something that we could discuss to try to decrease the vacancy rates across the GNWT, we would be prepared to look at that, but I think it has to come from committee.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Item 8, written questions. Mr. Beaulieu.