This is page numbers 4401 - 4448 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was know.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my Member's statement, my questions are for the Minister of Finance, which human resources falls under.

Does the GNWT have a document to educate hiring staff on how to measure education equivalencies? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Finance.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly anyone that is involved in hiring does have opportunity to access training through the Department of Finance. There are information packages online that can describe some of this, and the Department of Finance is often, if not always, involved during a recruitment and retention process so that they can also provide some strategic advice on how to do the evaluation equivalencies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister for their response but I've been in hiring process through the education boards, I've been in Health, in other areas, hiring teachers, nurses, you know, and every HR person that I received information of gave me a different way to do it.

So there isn't one strategic way or document that everybody does it equivalently through the Northwest Territories. I just wanted to put that on the record.

Does the GNWT currently use lived experience and cultural experience into equivalencies and if not, will the Minister direct her department to find a way to do this equally across the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is one of the commitments that is under the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework. And I certainly recognize that the passion is being brought to it for exactly this reason, that there does need to be, you know, a better way of doing this to achieve the goals that we have of having more inclusive public service. So it's included already in that action plan.

There is the new job description guide. I ought to have mentioned it in the last response.

The job description guide is meant to be a place where there can be more cohesive approach to how, in fact, job descriptions are being done and where evaluation of the combinations of education and experience can be considered and some guidance, indeed, on how to achieve that through job descriptions now, again, utilizing that guide in the context of the framework. So once that is now underway, Mr. Speaker, that will be part of the commitments that we've made in that framework and hopefully we'll see success in that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and the Minister's answer, thank you for that. And it leads kind of right into my next question.

Is the GNWT reviewing all job descriptions to remove barriers and add cultural and lived experience to be measured when a job evaluation is scoring how they rate the pay? This is something that must be valued in our territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's Action 1.1 of the framework where it speaks to the importance of the job descriptions and, specifically, that all departments and agencies are now expected to conduct a detailed review of all job descriptions specifically with keeping in mind systemic barriers that may exist. And the point is to precisely do that, to remove those systemic barriers.

Every department and agency is responsible for their job descriptions. They certainly can seek strategic advice from human resources. But that is the individual requirements for each department, knowing themselves some of the particularities of those jobs.

But of note, in terms of when we're going to get there and how they're going to do that, we are now all collectively expected to be reporting annually on the completion of those tasks, including job description reviews. And performance measures for the framework includes having job descriptions reviewed over the next two to three years so that we get through, indeed, all of them just as is being asked. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. And I'm glad that you added at the end that there is kind of a timeline that these need to be done so we're not sitting here and some of our pages are the MLAs at the time asking the same question 20 or 10 years from now.

Will the Minister commit to creating these documents, like I had mentioned in my first two questions, for hiring staff to measure education equivalencies and cultural and lived experiences into equivalencies, and will the Minister commit to releasing these documents for the public and hiring managers and any staff that are involved in hiring on their websites to be more transparent and to commit that ensuring that HR ensures the departments are reviewing all their job descriptions. And you said that already so I thank the Minister for that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is one resource that I would certainly encourage prospective applicants to take a look at. It is on the website. It's GNWT hiring Q and A. It describes some of the information about who's on a hiring committee, what equivalencies -- what kinds of equivalencies might be considered, how that's defined. But it does not go through job by job providing individual equivalencies.

I had the opportunity to speak with the Member before sitting today. I understand, we don't want people to self-screen. We don't want people to think that they won't meet an equivalency and not even apply. That doesn't benefit the process. It doesn't benefit the public service. You know, the ideal is to have folks coming forward because they think they have the right equivalencies and then we can go through that process of the hiring process.

That said, Mr. Speaker, I can certainly go back and see if we can get a bit more information on to this Q and A so that people have a sense of where they stand and so that they aren't screening themselves out and they are applying to jobs to which they had a proper equivalency. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Education assure me, and the constituents of Thebacha, that Fort Smith is still the intended location for the main campus and headquarters of the future polytechnic university? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the time that our Premier was the Minister of Education, the messaging has been that the idea of a main campus is outdated. We have three campuses, and we have a number of community learning centres that all form one organization.

That being said, there is no plan to move the administrative headquarters from Fort Smith to Yellowknife. I think that some people perhaps, you know, saw that there was something happening with the campus in Yellowknife and assumed that everything was getting sucked into the capital. That is not the case. Thank you.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please provide some clarity regarding the meeting that took place on May 30th at city hall of Yellowknife about the polytechnic university. What is the intended purpose of that meeting? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The City of Yellowknife, ECE, and Aurora College have been working together to, you know, identify a site for the future polytechnic university campus in Yellowknife.

If anyone is familiar with the current campus in Yellowknife, you would know that it is small. It's cramped. It is in a location that is inconvenient for many people. There's limited parking. And there's no possibility for growth there. And so there is a need for a new campus in Yellowknife. That has been, you know, discussed many times here. And there's also need for new infrastructure in the other campus communities of Inuvik and Fort Smith as well.

The meeting that took place with the City of Yellowknife was to discuss the MOU between the City of Yellowknife, Aurora College, and ECE regarding the Tin Can Hill site as a potential future site for that campus and just to discuss how everyone can work together to work through the process to transferring that property. Thank you.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to have ECE and Aurora College staff meet with the mayor and council of Fort Smith to have a similar meeting, as they did with the Yellowknife city council, to discuss plans for the future polytechnic university. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A similar meeting isn't necessary because it's not a similar situation in Fort Smith. That being said, I was on the phone with the mayor of Fort Smith and a number of councillors on Friday discussing this very issue. I wanted to give them assurances that this was not a situation that, you know, some people are now assuming that it is, that there is going to be a single campus in Yellowknife or Yellowknife is absorbing all of the campuses or anything like that. I wanted to let them know that this was part of the ongoing process of developing a facilities master plan that will guide infrastructure investments in the polytechnic university for decades to come. And in order to do that, we need to have sites identified as well as the needs of the polytechnic and the students identified. But that being said, if the mayor and council want to meet and have a discussion, I'm happy to do that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to provide this House with an updated status on the polytechnic university at its earliest possible time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I gave an update last week with one of my Minister's statements, and I'm always happy to discuss this exciting project. So yes, I will provide an update to the House. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I've raised the issue of our failure to prevent liabilities at Mactung, and Cantung, and our inability to sell the Mactung property at least 11 times since I've been an MLA. I can't quite match the 65 times raised by my colleague here. But can the Minister tell us how she can improve communications with MLAs and the public on what is happening with this mining property? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.