This is page numbers 5827 - 5874 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

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Page 5843

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Okay, thanks, Madam Chair. Just over on the previous page 154, there was a rather large, back in 2021-2022, line item for financial management board and then it came down pretty dramatically. So could I get an explanation as to what that spike is all about? Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Chair. I certainly can -- sorry, yes, so that's -- the difference there. That, Madam Chair, was positionally -- well, a couple of things, Madam Chair. There were some changes in terms of compensation and benefits back at the time. There was unfunded positions and underfunded positions that have been -- that have adjusted over time. And then also, Madam Chair, there was an unfunded donation -- this is where there's a donation that was made, $150,000 to United Way, to deal -- or to support flood relief came out of there as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Page 5843

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Okay, thanks. I don't think I have any other questions. I'm just...

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. All right. Are there any further questions from Members under the directorate? Seeing none, please turn to page 336 -- or sorry, wrong. To 154.

Finance and directorate, operations expenditure summary, 2023-2024 Main Estimates, $89,303,000. Does committee agree?

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. We will now turn to page 158. Human resource with information items on page 159. Questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at page 159, and I see that human resources unit within Finance is adding eight new positions. Can someone just tell me what those positions are? Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Page 5843

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, these positions are for the human resources health recruitment unit. There are -- really is a -- I can certainly actually provide the detail breakdown of where they are but let me just -- mine -- I'll turn it to the deputy minister, please.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Deputy minister

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Mackay

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the -- that's a new initiative funding to provide to the management recruitment services for the establishment of a health recruitment unit. So the function of the establishment is to -- the unit already exists. It was to enhance that unit. So there's eight positions that are being added to that:

  • One manager based in Yellowknife;
  • Two human resource officers in Yellowknife;
  • One HRO in Inuvik;
  • One HRO in Fort Smith;
  • And then two junior HROs in Yellowknife; and,
  • One human resource assistant in Yellowknife.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Page 5843

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can someone just try to explain to me whether there -- how this unit has changed over time with health hiring? My understanding is prior to the amalgamation, the health authorities were doing all of their hiring themselves and they had their own HR officers. That's no longer the case. And I think now we have -- we still have a bit of a hybrid model where there are some hiring being done in health with the assistance of this unit? Can someone just try to explain it to me. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, so there is a joint initiative between the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Finance. And I will speak specifically to the health area though, really, Madam Chair, at this point the department of health mirrors more closely what happens in other departments in that there are still management roles for the department's staff that then work with a human resources officer or client services officer who can support the work that goes on to hire someone into an individual department or division.

The health recruitment unit, though, is a little bit different. So understanding that this may be the focus here, this is really meant to address, firstly, the mandate item that we have to increase specifically health professionals in the Northwest Territories but also arising and focusing on the challenges of recruitment of health professionals right now specifically given labour market shortages across Canada. So this began under -- again under the mandate item and has really been refocused and given even more attention in light of what's going on.

So there are some -- with the specialized efforts to support the Department of Health and Social Services, the health recruitment unit can undertake extra and added work to focus on what's going on in the health services labour market to initialize specific campaign drives to try to recruit nurses to spend extra efforts to, you know -- for instance, attending focused conferences. And perhaps I'll stop there, Madam Chair, and make sure I've answered the question adequately. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess I don't fully quite understand it. One of the complaints I know we have heard is that a manager over at the health authority will identify a candidate and want to hire them and then they have to quick it over to, I assume someone in HR -- I don't know if it's actually specifically the recruitment unit -- and then there's this turnaround time. And I believe, you know, we've actually been improving it so perhaps that is the question. Can someone just tell me how quickly HR is now processing, especially for health -- and I know there's multiple different timelines, you know, from advertising to -- maybe even to actual contract. But whatever data we have available of us, has this been sped up and we're making some progress on this area? I think it's usually post-interview to contracting and -- thank you, Madam Chair

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Page 5843

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Chair. We certainly do track the timeliness of hiring processes across departments. I don't have that data in front of me, and it hasn't appeared in my eyes as I'm sitting here. So I will commit to get back to the Member with that.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Are there any further questions under the Finance human resources? Member for Monfwi.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know, this is further to what my colleague just said. In the past, in our region, TCSA and other GNWT departments, had power to work through human resources process to support our residents in the communities and now these functions have been centralized to Yellowknife office and our region do not have the flexibility to recruit and attract, you know, outside -- especially with the health department, to recruit more health nurses, you know. We have a lot of vacancy just like Minister Green said, that there's 40 percent vacancy. We have problems recruiting nurses, speech pathologists, CYCC and all that. But in the past when the department were doing it, the agency and other GNWT were -- when they had their own human resources office, I don't think there was as much problems or there was any -- a huge vacancy rate at that time. So I'm just wondering, will the Minister decentralize some of the human -- or the human resources power back to the regions to small communities to do their own hiring as we have done in the past?

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Page 5843

The Chair

The Chair Lesa Semmler

Thank you. Minister.