Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is my recollection that this case came to public notice because it was reported by the media. My question is whether the method of taking and responding to complaints of this kind has been improved so that there is a more direct mechanism for the department to respond to complaints. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, both prior to going to a single authority and after going to a single authority, we have implemented and put in place quality assurance mechanisms within the Health and Social Services system. This is an office of individuals that can be engaged by residents of the Northwest Territories who have concerns of the healthcare or the social services provided. What has become clear, both with my meeting with the family on Friday and my meeting with leadership in the community, is that, although these positions exist, people don't know that they exist. People do not know that this mechanism is available to them. I made a commitment to the leadership, to the family, and I am making a commitment here to the Members to do more to get that information out to the public.

Early in the life of this Assembly I provided all of that information to the MLAs. The problem is we have to go beyond notifying the MLAs of this information. We have to get it into the health centres. We have to get the nurses and doctors and other healthcare providers talking about the quality assurance mechanism. We need to encourage people to use it, because it is input from our residents who are having difficulty or concerns that will actually help us improve this system. I have made a commitment to finding better ways, more effective ways to get this information out to all residents of the Northwest Territories.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we are going through this budgeting process, I have noticed a number of people coming to me and saying there are unfunded positions within the government. It is fitting that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is coming up today here. Will the Minister tell us: how many unfunded positions does the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs have? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has nine unfunded positions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for her answer. Can the Minister tell us how the department comes up with a job description and a pay range for these positions?

Unfunded positions are treated the same way as funded positions in that we look at the job duties that are needed for the position. We then do a job description that we submit to human resources for a job evaluation, and they do a pay grade.

I thank the Minister for her answer. As we are developing these job descriptions and that, can the Minister tell us: how does the department fill these positions and does the affirmative action policy apply?

The filling of the positions actually is done dependent on the situation. It can be an open competition. It can be a transfer assignment. It could be filling a spot with an affected employee. Yes, the affirmative action does apply on unfunded positions the same as it would on any other position.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to hear that the affirmative action does apply in there. I am a little concerned about how the positions are filled. Sometimes, it is direct employment, and that concerns me. However, will the Minister make a commitment to classify these positions and put them on the org chart so they are not unfunded positions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The positions that we have, the current nine positions, they already have gone through the job classification process, and they are in our organizational chart. I will commit to actually reviewing them at the end of this fiscal year again to ensure that they can still maintain as unfunded versus moving them into a funded position.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I spoke of the Department of Human Resources and the upcoming amalgamation with finance. I have some questions on trying to maintain as much of the human resources aspects into this new department as possible. I would like to ask the current Minister of Human Resources if he is able to advise the House: how many departments have human resource development plans? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Human Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we expect all departments to have the HR plans. I will confirm for the Member how many of them actually have the plans, and I will report back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In the breakdown of affirmative action candidates in the GNWT, we notice that most regions are well within or very close to representing our population, except for if you are looking at representation of the territories overall. As I indicated in my Member's statement, Yellowknife is just slightly low, but there are other communities as well in the same way, some communities lower, actually. I would like to know if there are any affirmative action plans that departments by department follow.

I have a response to the Member's earlier questions. We actually have seven departments with completed plans. However, as I said before, we do expect all departments to have them. We will follow up on that and ensure that our departments are putting together their completed HR plans.

To the Member's second question, the affirmative action, we expect that to be incorporated into the HR plan for each department.

I would like to thank the Minister for that response. I just wasn't anticipating that. I was going to ask the Minister what actions he will take to increase Priority 1 hires. I guess I will ask a different question, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to know if the Minister would actually look at the Affirmative Action Plans community by community as well as department by department.

As I recall, some time ago we did have a list that I think we shared in Committee of the Whole, not this particular government, the past government, that actually had it broken down to the regions and to the different departments, the number of P1 candidates or P1 employees they had in their system. I can tell the Member that, of the 5,187 employees we have, 1,601, I believe, are Affirmative Action employees. I will look at the breakdown of numbers by community, and I will share the findings with committee.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good memory; I have the numbers in front of me. Mr. Speaker, inside the human resource plans, I would like to know if the Minister would insist on having some development plans for affirmative action so they can move up the ladder to more senior positions if their education and skills warrant it. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for those who are working within the government system, some who work in the system, you know fairly quickly that they have the ability to move through the system based on what they bring to the job. We continue to promote that. There are a number of initiatives that we use, the regional recruitment, direct appointments, the Aboriginal Management Development Program.

I can assure the Members that I want to see the folks from the Northwest Territories move through the system, but I want them to move through the system based on their ability and what they bring to the job. Our commitment to them is to give them an opportunity, because I think that is what a lot of them are looking for, is the actual opportunity to move through the system based on what they bring to the job. We will make that commitment that we will work with all Aboriginal employees to find places for them to move.