EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): If we’re looking at 3,741 employees, it’s 51 percent, so we will need another five percent, or 187 employees, and I’m confident that we will reach 56 percent.
As I stated earlier, we will review this again and see if we can go other ways. I think we will gain an additional 187 Inuit employees by 2010.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. (interpretation) Mr. Picco stated this morning that it’s good to have a strategy to go along with a goal.
I would like it better if you set up a goal because 56 percent Inuit employment by 2010 is not a high enough number.
How about setting a goal by 2012 that there will be 85 percent Inuit employment within government, and if not, why not?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): As stated earlier, I can’t answer any other way.
We are reviewing the figures of Inuit employees.
Once it’s clear how we’re going to try and reach our target of 56 percent by 2010, then we will have a better idea if we can increase it to 85 percent by 2012.
I can say that by 2020, I fully believe it will be at 85 percent, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. (interpretation) The year 2020 is a long time away.
Maybe some of us won’t be around and we want to see it while we’re still alive, so it would be appreciated if you could make it sooner. (interpretation ends) Thank you.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Yes, we will try.
Thank you, Mr. Curley. (interpretation ends) D-8.
Total Operations and Maintenance, to be Voted. $720,000.
Page D-9, Branch Summary.
Your department conducted an audit of its training expenditures within the past two years on which GN training programs have proved more successful and which have proved least successful.
The 2008-09 Business Plan for the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs indicates that one of its priorities for the coming year is to “Coordinate provincial and territorial support for the pan-Inuit training initiative.”
Is your department also involved in this initiative and what are the main elements?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I can’t really answer that question at this time because we’re not involved with that, Mr. Chairman.
I’ll leave that alone.
However, I’m interested in finding out and maybe he has some numbers on the training of Inuit as potential employees, or apprenticeship programs or mentoring programs, especially in the decentralized communities, that need to be upgraded in order to make it more successful in Inuit employment.
Is there an increase in Inuit employment through training, or has that kind of levelled off, or has it gone down?
Here in Iqaluit, there were 306 trainees and 139 of them were beneficiaries.
We have to involve the hamlets when we’re training Inuit employees within the government.
If we were to look at last year, there were 56 different training programs and 1,067 participants of which 549 were Inuit employees.
Those are the numbers for the training section.
Did he ask what kind of training? Perhaps I can get some clarification on his question, Mr. Chairman.
Yes, I’m interested in that. (interpretation) The people that are in training, are they still in training?
Is their training level going up, or is the number increasing in the decentralized communities?
Are the positions being taken over by Inuit in the decentralized communities or is it remaining about the same?
That’s what I wanted clarification on.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): We have figures for each region but not for the decentralized communities and we can certainly check to see how it is with the decentralized communities and how our employees are doing.
After we have checked this, then we will have to get back to the member and give him the figures, Mr. Chairman.
I would be very much interested in finding out which decentralized communities are more successful than the others or if they’re generally the same.
I think the decentralized communities also have to be accountable to the government in their progressive approach to hiring locally, or at least training people locally, hiring and mentoring them, etcetera.
So if we can have this information available to us, I would really appreciate it.
Will he be tabling that information in this session or in the spring session?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I’ll have my deputy respond to that.
As the Department of Human Resources, we provide quite a few different training programs and courses to Government of Nunavut employees. So if the member could specify the numbers for which types of courses he was particularly be interested in, I think that would be useful.
I really can’t because there are few departments in my community for example.
I think what I’m interested in is the sort of trend where the training of potential Inuit employees are and where they are being progressive in doing that. The government had a goal and that’s why the communities were decentralized so that every community, especially the larger ones, will benefit from the workforce of the government.
It seems that the community is still there but very few of its own people are working in those decentralized communities and they are still filled largely by southern Canadians, which we welcome them. It’s just that the goal was to have local employment opportunities.
Where is it lacking? Where is its weakness that the Department of Human Resources should be concerned with?
These are the types of information that the public will need.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will have my deputy respond, Mr. Chairman.
As I have mentioned, the Department of Human Resources provides various training opportunities to Government of Nunavut public servants. As the Department of Human Resources, we have not followed up to see whether or not an individual who has completed such and such training is continuing to advance in the workforce.
However, I would like to point out we have done a little bit of analysis with the Sivuliqtiksat Internship Program where beneficiaries are taking various training programs within that internship program.
Even the ones who do not complete, we have found that many of them continue to work for the Government of Nunavut and many of them are working in many areas that are in a higher level than they were when they started with the Government of Nunavut.
I wanted to follow-up on the line of questioning I had with the Premier last week related to language training. When I was questioning the Premier, I was asking about language training for deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers, and other senior management, but we got onto a discussion there about opportunities for other Government of Nunavut employees to learn the language.
I see in your business plan on page D-19 that you have Inuktitut/Inuinnaqtun language training.
I wanted to focus a little bit on both of those dialects because my region is kind of unique as we have both dialects. I wanted to ask how your department arranges to provide the opportunities for employees to receive language training in the dialect of their choice in the Kitikmeot.
Currently, the Department of Human Resources has a multi-year contract with the Nunavut Arctic College to provide the language training for the Government of Nunavut public servants.
Currently, in headquarters and in the Kivalliq region, we do have a permanent person that has been hired to provide the language training in those regions. It’s quite difficult to find people who speak Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun who are available because they have other opportunities to work in other areas, so we have not been able to hire anyone in the Kitikmeot to provide Inuinnaqtun training permanently.
However, we do have a contract with Nunavut Arctic College to provide that training.
I thank Ms. Rojas for that answer.
If the Nunavut Arctic College is providing the training, who would they engage as instructors to provide the training?
I’ll provide a response specifically to the Kitikmeot. The Nunavut Arctic College has retained Hadlari Consulting to provide that training in the Kitikmeot.
I thank Ms. Rojas.
When the Nunavut Arctic College offers the training, do they offer it during the workday, or evenings, or weekends? How do you arrange it so that it’s easy for the employees to take the training?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you. The employees are trained during the day.
What I’m asking is: do employees receive time off from their normal work duties so that they can attend language training courses?
As long as they have approval from their supervisors, they can go to those classes during the day, Mr. Chairman.
I guess it gets back to the Nunavut Arctic College. Now, if you contract Nunavut Arctic College to provide those courses, how do they decide, or determine, or assess when to offer those courses?
They must have an indication from somewhere that a certain number of employees want to attend a language training course during a particular period of time, whether it’s one week, or two weeks, or three months.
Could you give us an overview of how Nunavut Arctic College determines when and how often to offer language training courses?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will have my deputy respond to that, Mr. Chairman.
Our Training and Development Division, in communication with Nunavut Arctic College officials, decide on when they can provide the language training.
I’m a little bit confused; the Training Division contracts the Arctic College, but then the Training Division somehow works together with Nunavut Arctic College in terms of when to offer the courses and their frequency.
How do they determine the numbers of people that would be interested in the course?
Do they advertise through the Help Desk, or do they put signs up around the communities, or through radio stations?
Do individuals have to complete an application to show their interest and that determines the numbers that are available to justify holding a course?
Can you just give us an overview of how you come to that point?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will have my deputy respond to that.
Ms. Rojas
In terms of deciding when to provide the language training, there’s a training and development consultant in each of our regional offices. Usually, near the end of the fiscal year, to plan for the new fiscal year, they send out a notice to the various senior officials and directors in the regions and asking them what types of training they want, and this includes language training.
When there’s going to be language training offered in the regions, there is an application process.
So the employee can say they filled out the application form and get their supervisor to confirm that they can go with the operational requirements of their job that they’re able to take time away from their work to participate in the language training.
Also, through the Government of Nunavut internet service, there’s a training button on that page. So any employee can press the button to find out what training opportunities there are available to the public servants and language training is available there as well. So that’s where people can find about the language training opportunities.
I thank Ms. Rojas for the details.
Once a course is identified let’s say at the year end, then they have identified courses for the next 12 months. As you approach the dates for the course, for example, if you have identified the course for May, when you get into late April, is there any local advertising just to make employees aware that this course is coming up? Is it made available to other employers within the community where the course is going to be held?
I’m just trying to find out what level of awareness and public relations you do to raise awareness that these courses are available to the employees and to other individuals within the community.
In terms of the language training opportunities, when the time is coming close, the training and development consultant checks to see how many registrants there are.
If there are not many registrants, we work with CGS to send out a Help Desk notice to the regional offices where the training will be offered so that all public servants can see the notice in their email system.
There have been times where we have provided opportunities to others, like the municipalities, when there haven’t been many registrants and I think that’s what we would like to start doing more so that the spaces are always filled up.
I thank the Minister and Ms. Rojas.
I personally think the more courses there are available to people, whether it’s just the Government of Nunavut employees, or the hamlets, or other employees, it seems like, in the smaller communities, everyone ends up working for the government sooner or later.
It would be beneficial for them to participate in those courses and learn either, in my region, Inuinnaqtun or Inuktitut.
Having said that and continuing along with the same line of thought I’m having, have there ever been any courses in the Kitikmeot cancelled because there weren’t sufficient numbers of applicants for the courses?
I don’t have specific details about whether or not there have been any cancellations in the Kitikmeot due to low registrants.
I know for a fact that recently, there was going to be an Inuktitut language training program provided in Gjoa Haven that was postponed due to weather.
It’s been postponed and we will try and get there at a time when it’s mutually convenient.
In the year 2007-08 to date, how many language training courses have you completed successfully in the Kitikmeot?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): We have the overall figures but they’re not broken down by regions.
We did hold 15 classes in the Keewatin, Kitikmeot, and Baffin.
It’s a Nunavut-wide number, so I’m assuming that we will have to divvy up the numbers by region, Mr. Chairman.
It would be very helpful if you could provide that information by region.
I’m trying to get a sense that the Government of Nunavut employees and other employees in the Kitikmeot are at least interested in these opportunities and want to participate, and that the Government of Nunavut is making those opportunities available.
In the main estimates on D-9, you said, “provide an opportunity for employees to progress within the public service,” and as the Premier indicated the other day, employees, to progress within the Government of Nunavut, in many instances, will have to be fluent in Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun.
So it obviously makes sense to make as many training courses available to folks as possible and make them frequent so that they can continue to learn.
Another area I was asking the Premier about the other day was the issue of standardized training and proficiency testing for the training that employees receive.
I know you hire consultants in the Kitikmeot to provide that training.
When the employees attend these courses, are there standardized materials that they work from and do you provide them with proficiency tests so that they know or have an indication of what level of proficiency they are in the language?
We don’t have the information on whether we do proficiency tests on employees, but we will get back to the member with that information on how we do proficiency tests after they do their training.
So we’ll have to get back to the member, Mr. Chairman.
I think it is important that there is some standardized training and that there is some proficiency testing because it’s an investment of people’s time.
If they’re going to invest the time to learn, then I think it’s important that the Government of Nunavut ensures that the training they receive will benefit them as they move forward within the public service.
So I’m hopeful that you do think about that and that you will ensure that when the employees take the training, that they’re receiving training that is important to their job and that they are tested so that they know that they have achieved a certain level of proficiency.
I’m assuming that when you offer these language training courses, there might be a level one, and at a certain time, there would be a level two, and then there would be a level three so that they can progress through the various stages of proficiency.
So I’m wondering if the minister or Ms. Rojas could comment on that in terms of employees taking a course and then if there are subsequent courses at higher levels, for them to continue their progress in learning the language.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): As I stated before, we will have to get back to the member because we don’t have that information with us at this time.
That’s just part of the first question that you had posed. So therefore, we don’t have the response and we’ll need to get back to you, Mr. Chairman.
Can the minister indicate when he would be able to get that information to me?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I can commit to providing that information before the session is over, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Peterson. (interpretation ends) Page D-9.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): I would like to ask the minister in regard to training. What kind of policy do they have?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I don’t think we have a policy for Inuktitut language training.
I don’t think there’s a policy within the Department of Human Resources, but let me try and find out, Mr. Chairman.
I’m told that there is no policy on Inuktitut language training, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. (interpretation) The way I see it is there’s no such thing because we cannot provide funding from the government and cannot get a grant when there’s no policy.
The Auditor General would not approve of that.
How much have you spent on Inuktitut language training for government employees?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I’m told that we don’t have the figures on that, so we will have to get back to him on how much has been spent on language training, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. (interpretation) How do you provide the funding when the staff go for training and the instructors are paid?
Do you have a budget for the Inuktitut training program?
With regards to what was discussed earlier on how they select the people who will be taking the training, when the government doesn’t have a policy, how do they determine who’s prioritized?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): When there’s going to be a training program for GN employees, for example, the Inuktitut training program, it’s open to all employees who are interested.
If there’s interest from the various departments, then they go through our department. For example, if there’s going to be a training program offered, we let the other departments know and we ask them if there’s anyone who is interested, and then their supervisor has to approve that training program.
When we talk about Sivuliqtiksat, they are paid for on-the-job training.
Sometimes they get time off work for the two or three days to concentrate on training and they get paid while taking that training program.
For non-beneficiaries who would like to learn Inuktitut, there’s a training program offered by the Arctic College here in Iqaluit in the evenings and that’s outside of their working hours.
So there are various Inuktitut training programs that the GN employees can take, Mr. Chairman.
I understand and I believe that the staff have to be trained but there’s no training policy. I believe that the department needs to set up a policy for Inuktitut language training.
If the public service does not have a training policy, then why don’t you make it a priority to set up that policy for the departments to follow?
We have to hire consultants to train the Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun instructors.
So therefore, I wonder if you could commit to coming up with that policy, or indicate whether or not it’s required. (interpretation ends) Thank you.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Yes, I can provide that information to the members.
We will review it and look into that further, Mr. Chairman.
I think it’s very important to have a policy for language training within the civil service.
Otherwise, it will be, in my opinion, very susceptible to political interference to who shouldn’t and who should receive any training.
If there was a standard policy, then all of the departments would know exactly what the rules are so that the employees can have a fair chance of learning Inuktitut.
It will be much easier, in my opinion, to train those who have a long-term commitment because our language is very important.
I wouldn’t want to train someone who’s going to have a very short-term interest up here to become a very important expert and become a consultant within a very short period of time.
Inuit values and everything have been taken advantage of too long, so I think it’s critically important that if we’re going to train non-Inuit our language, we better be guided by some guidelines that are standardized throughout the department.
I would urge the minister that this is not something that should be treated lightly.
Otherwise, even the dollars that are used to hire contractors to train language will not be guided by anything.
So I would urge the minister to consult with the officials on that, otherwise, the Auditor General will be on our tail before too long for not having a policy on this. (interpretation) Could you do that?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): The Departments of CLEY and Human Resources will see what else they can do.
Due to my lack of understanding, I have to look into that, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Curley: We certainly, even in our Assembly here and I think many of the Assembly staff members, would be interested in going through some of the training if they were probably guided by a policy so it doesn’t discriminate only to certain departments trying to take advantage of it.
Mr. Chairman, I have another question.
Earlier, my colleague to my left asked a question on which particular training programs for entering into the public service, particularly for Inuit students, worked best. I think that’s what he was trying to say.
I believe that in your 2005-06 business plan, there was a reference on page D-19 stating that the department would “Complete an audit of training expenditures by department,” and the status of that progress was “to be completed by March 31, 2004,” so it was a few years back.
If, by chance, you find that report, could you make that report available to us, please?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Yes, we will look into it, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): You clarified that. It’s evident that it was audited, which means that they looked at its strengths and the weaknesses.
I don’t think it’s the only one.
As you mentioned earlier about the internship program, participants were happy with that and it’s something they wanted to see from us, the MLAs and government.
Will this continue?
The person next to you asked about the same issue, so I just wanted to get some clarification. (interpretation ends) Thank you.
Yes, this will continue.
There are even four positions with the rest having finished.
So in April, we will be requesting that there be training on-the-job in the Sivuliqtiksat program.
This will continue, Mr. Chairman.
I think the budget that was allocated for last year is about to expire at the end of the month.
There were 3 PYs added for Training and Development and you want to add half a PY to it.
Are they working on things besides training and development as there’s already a training group within your department?
Can the minister or his officials tell us what exactly they are working on?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): We don’t understand the question, Mr. Chairman, so could the member clarify his question, please?
Your department (interpretation) has three PYs that were put in for 2007-08.
You have three employees who are handling training and development to train Inuit and you’re going to be adding half a PY for 2008-09.
My question is: what kind of work are they doing?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Bob Loehr will respond to that, Mr. Chairman.
We have two and a half new positions this year in the new budget - one is for a Senior Finance Officer in the headquarters, one is for an Administrative Assistant in the Kitikmeot region, and the other half PY is actually one that’s approved by FMB in the current year but it’s carried.