Madam Chair, I will commit to providing the rationale that underlies all direct appointments. I certainly can provide that in fairly short order. With respect to the number of direct appointments that have occurred, I would like to first confirm that this wouldn't result in any information-sharing that would be inappropriate. For example, in a small community, I wouldn't want this to wind up with somebody having their personal information shared about the nature of their employment. I will return to the Member with a response as to whether or not I can, in fact, make that commitment on the other half of the request. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Just to be clear, I am not asking for the information by community. I am asking for it by department. I guess I will let the Minister go and sort out whether there is a breach of privacy in providing that information. I don't think there is any kind of public notice or anything attached to when a direct appointment is made, that I am aware of. If she wants to go away and think about it. Great for me to get this information. I want her to make it public, though. There is an annual human resources report that is prepared by the department. That is probably the most appropriate place for that kind of information to be found, but here, I have to ask about it in the budget review. Okay, the Minister is going to go away and think about that. I have some other questions here around staffing appeals. I would like to know what percentage of employees who apply on GNWT jobs are actually eligible to file an appeal. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.

Madam Chair, I am informed that, in 2019-2020, we had roughly 75 appeals in total, but I can't say what the total percentage that is as compared to total applications. I will commit to getting that number for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes. I have had this issue brought to my attention by some constituents, as well. When someone is not successful in a GNWT competition, are they actually informed of whatever appeal rights they may have? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Not every person who applies has appeal rights. Those who do have appeal rights, I believe the intention is that they should be given that information. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I think part of the issue here is the restrictions on the ability to file appeals. It's a very, very high bar to get over in the first place. I don't know how many job recruitments took place, but to say that we only had 75 appeals in a given year, that's not very many. I don't think it's necessarily just a result of us having a great staff, as we do, but I think it's an issue of the restricted ability to actually access the appeal process. My question for the Minister is: have we actually had the staffing appeal process ever reviewed independently by a third party? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The appeal process itself is actually done by a third party. With respect to whether the overall process has ever been reviewed, not to my knowledge. This is an area that I already, in only the short few months that I have been a Minister, have had many enquiries from Members about staffing appeals, so I am alive to the fact that this does seem to be an issue that is coming back to all of the Members in this House. While I can't right now commit necessarily to a full review of this particular program, I certainly can commit to going back and making some further enquiries myself about whether, in fact, we are making best use of the staffing appeal process for people who are looking for GNWT positions. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate the commitment on the part of the Minister. That's more than we got out of the previous Minister of Finance, who was not even prepared to admit that there was an issue or a problem, so that's good. I would suggest that the Minister start with reviewing some of the correspondence and reports from the Standing Committee on Government Operations from the last Assembly. I wasn't even a member of the committee, but I did sit in on some of their deliberations, and this was a source of some contention, and those issues were brought to the attention of the previous Minister without much resolution. That's more of a comment, Madam Chair. I don't have any further questions, but I appreciate the Minister's commitment to look into it, and she knows that I'll keep raising it. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Did you want to comment, Minister?

No. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at a human resources policy, the pay for performance, and I see in there that we are allowed to apply bonuses to our excluded employees. Is that budgeted for at all in our main estimates?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.

Madam Chair, thank you. Any bonuses paid out by a department have to come from within that department's internal funding. There is nothing on a main estimate line that will show an amount for bonuses. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and that's exactly the problem, is that we're essentially encouraging senior management to go and find cuts, and then pay themselves bonuses. Can you provide the total amount that we paid for in pay for performance bonuses?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.