EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
We want to try and investigate to make sure that there is no discrimination within the departments and we have a list of what we can say in a work place; what you are allowed to do and not to do.
We will produce that.
Thank you, Minister, Ms. Okpik, and also Mr. Thompson.
I’m sure glad that my colleagues had brought some points out to the minister and the staff on Article 23 and also the policies.
We are under policies for each department and it’s kind of frustrating when the policies are not used, especially when there are vacant positions and they are filled with family members in the department without going through the proper channels like screening and interviewing. Sometimes they just get hired and I’m not sure why the policies are there.
I’d like to see the minister enforce those policies and start using them so that our graduates can get a better chance to get jobs and also get a chance to work their way up to management positions.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the minister if his department is willing to enforce the policies so that the department doesn’t just hire relatives; and that they go through the right channels and screening, and then interview the proper way, rather than just hiring my good buddy.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Evyagotailak. Mr. Tapardjuk.
I would also like to thank you, Mr. Evyagotailak.
This is very true. It has been a problem with the casual employees. They have been given direction to be able to fill positions with casuals.
With this issue, we have sent a reminder to all departments to follow the policies and not to just hire their friends and relatives.
They have to look at the abilities of the individual, and I agree with you whole-heartedly Mr. Evyagotailak that the departments have to adhere to the policies.
We sent out reminders and we can also direct the departments to follow the policies.
If there is one department in particular that is not following the policies, they will be sent a reminder.
Our deputy minister has also reminded the other deputy ministers that there are policies that have to be followed.
Mr. Evyagotailak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you, Minister.
If you can enforce the policies, that would be very good for all the departments and also to the public because it will be a lot more fair for everybody else, rather than just for relatives.
These concerns have been brought up, not once, not twice, not three times. It’s a lot of times. I’m sure it’s not only in our community, but throughout Nunavut probably that’s how it is.
So, Mr. Chairman, I’d like to thank the minister if he can enforce that, and also direct his staff to get this going, not just for favouritism, but for everybody else’s fairness.
That was just a statement, so I’m going on to the next person.
I would also like to welcome the minister and his officials, Kathy and Tom.
As for me, when I was visiting my constituencies; Mr. Chairman, maybe I should start with saying first of all, thank you for bringing up the issue under replies to the Commissioner’s Address, in regard to the divisional boards.
They worked extremely hard to make sure that nepotism wasn’t practiced in the government and they also had an executive board that dealt exclusively with staffing.
Even though there is Arctic 23 in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, I’ll use an example of a letter that I received. The minister got a copy of that.
In the smaller communities there are very few employment opportunities.
When a higher position is open Inuit applicants are not even considered.
Usually, racism tends to come out when Inuit are not being hired.
It was especially true in Grise Fiord that the airport manager position opened and I believe there were six Inuit applicants and one non-Inuk.
We definitely have to look into this issue.
Those Inuit were extremely capable of filling that position of airport manager.
I would like to urge the minister to do a review on this.
It has been a problem, I think in all the communities. We are looking at how we can resolve this problem. We are definitely working on resolving these problems.
We have a policy on who should be the first priority when you are hiring and those are the beneficiaries of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
If our department is told, or if you apply for a position and don’t get the job, you can appeal to the government within four days.
We are also reviewing the job descriptions or job ads, because of course there are way too many skills that you have to do. So what we are doing is reviewing all the job descriptions so that it will be easier for the people and to encourage more people to apply for those positions.
We are definitely looking into it, but I would like you to know that during question period, the previous Minister of Human Resources was responsible for all government positions. We gave the Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services that position and we’re doing the same for education. Those are the two departments that are not under our responsibility.
I have given that to the Department of Health and Education.
Of course we’re going to have a close working relationship and we are concerned about the problems that were voiced here. We are looking at resolving these problems.
Once those are approved and implemented I’m sure that it will resolve many of the problems.
Mr. Barnabas. Thank you.
We’re on page D-5.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $2,223,000.
My first question on this is under Directorate and it overlooks the overall direction of the department, reporting, and initiatives, Article 23. Under the corporate services function for the department, is this the area that keeps track of the leave and attendance and stuff like that for not only your department, but for the other departments?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Tootoo. Mr. Tapardjuk.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. From what I understand, that is the Department of Human Resources, and not for the whole Government of Nunavut departments.
Each department is responsible for those types of duties.
And even though that is the case, if this money is approved we would like to get an employee who will be solely responsible to do those types of duties; how many days leave, the reasons and so on.
This person will work exclusively on those types of responsibilities. We’d like to do that if this budget is approved.
This person would be responsible for the absences, the leaves, and vacation days, and so on.
That is the type of function that I was looking for. My question is: does that function fall under the Directorate, or is it in a different section in their mains?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is included under the Directorate; it’s under Directorate.
I know that I’ve raised concerns over the years that millions of dollars that have been poured into human resource management systems by the government in the Department of Human Resources.
I know there were four or seven million that was pretty much flushed down the toilet. I think it was Oracle, the first system that was tried.
I think it was in the last two or three years that the department announced that it had a new personality. The human resource management system called Personality. I remember at the time saying I’m glad the department has some personality now.
One of the concerns that I have is despite all the money that we’ve put in there to develop the system, the Auditor General’s recent report indicates that 50 percent of leave and attendance forms that they audited had mistakes in them. I know that the departments keep track of their own, but they don’t have access to Personality.
I would assume that the departments send their reports, probably on a monthly basis, to the Department of Human Resources to input into their Personality. Based on the Auditor General’s findings, it looks like there is a clash of personalities there where something seems to be going wrong.
It seems pretty bizarre after how many millions of dollars that we’ve invested into a human resource system that half of the information that goes in there is incorrect.
I want to just ask the minister if he could elaborate on some of the problems that have been identified and how they are addressing those concerns.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will have my deputy minister respond to that question, Mr. Chairman.
All the departments are responsible for the leave and attendance of each of their employees. Each department is responsible for training employees on how to deal with their leave and attendance forms.
We had acknowledged the fact that there needs to be a system for the whole of government.
At this time in the main estimates here, we had identified one position just to deal with leave and attendance. This P2K computer, you cannot deal with leave and attendance. They are now trying to put the leave and attendance into the computer.
We have to complete it by December 2006.
But the leave and attendance are dealt with by hand, and manually.
We expect that in December 2006, the system will be completed and all departments will be giving support to all the departmental staff to assist them in filling out forms - leave and attendance forms - and how the data is inputted into the computer.
And, also, we will be working with the Department of Finance to look at the policies for leave and attendance.
It still boggles my mind I guess that we spend millions of dollars on a system that can’t even take leave and attendance numbers. That’s still being done by hand.
I guess my next question is: when that information is inputted into whatever system by the department that it receives from the other department to keep track of their central forms, how is that done?
Do they get a monthly report from the other departments and just strictly take those numbers and stick them into the system?
Or are there any other problems in that area where those numbers that come directly from the other department are not the numbers that are being put into the system?
Currently, they don’t provide the reports to us because we don’t have a system on the computer for leave and attendance forms, but we get the leave and attendance forms manually from the departments, then we’ll be able to work on these on the computer in December of 2006.
The department only gives us the reports when we request them, or when they ask us how many absences there were, but each department does their own paper work for absences, leave, and attendance, and they collect all the figures from each department.
I thank Ms. Okpik for clarifying that.
My next question is: when they were looking at the system to purchase, and to use, was the leave and attendance function considered to be a part of that, or is it something that they realized after that they had to get extra, and what was the cost for that?
Ms. Okpik (interpretation): Thank you. We’ve been considering leave and attendance. It was in the computer in two phases.
The very first one that had to come up was payroll compensation and benefits from the Department of Finance.
Once that was completed, the Department of Human Resources are now developing leave and attendance, and training and development that pertain to HR.
We’re now developing phase two at this time.
Currently, we have two employees and we’re working closely with the Department of Finance. We’ve set aside two positions with the assistance of the Department of Finance. We’ve set aside some funds of $231,000 to be used for that.
On that system, the Personality system that the government has now; I understand that they’re integrating a leave and attendance function within that system. I think that’s good. It will hopefully alleviate some of the problems identified by the Auditor General.
I know there’s always a training component in that the system is not just there and someone just pops in and starts putting in information. I wonder if I could get an idea from the minister or his officials of how much we paid for contractors to run the system and for training staff members for the system. Where do those individuals come from?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Since we started using this system, to date, we have utilized $1.7 million for the system and it was also paid for by the Department of Finance and the Department of Human Resources. It was jointly paid for by the two departments, but I don’t know who has been contracted.
We had purchased that from the Highline Corporation and we had requested certain information from the people out there and those are the people that we have selected.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Minister. (interpretation) Do you still have any more questions?
The minister had indicated the contractor, I think he said Highline Corporation, and I would assume then that these are the individuals that provide technical support on the HR system.
I was just wondering if he can give us an idea of how often or how much time is used or how often these individuals have to come up and provide technical support to the department on the system.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will have my deputy minister respond.
I can say that we had set aside two positions that continually work on those issues, but I can’t respond as to how frequently Highline comes up here. We have to look into that and provide a response later on.
I would like to thank the deputy minister for that and it would be interesting to see the frequency, the time spent, and the amount of dollars it has cost us to bring in technical support from outside the jurisdiction to maintain the system.
I would just like to ask if the minister could commit to providing that information here in the Assembly.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Minister, could you commit to that?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Yes, I can commit to that. I can provide the information once it’s available.
Any further questions? Thank you.
We are now on D-5. (interpretation ends) Human Resources.
Branch Summary. Directorate.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $2,223,000. (interpretation) Do you agree?
Chairman: Thank you. D-6. (interpretation) Human Resources. (interpretation ends) Branch Summary.
The HR appeared before the committee and there are quite a few positions that are vacant within the government.
I think there are over 700 positions that are vacant.
Could you clarify for us as to how many vacancies there currently are?
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Minister, could you respond.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll have Tom respond to the question because he’s responsible for that.
I’m just going to get the briefing note on that.
As we’ve mentioned in previous standing committees, we’re sitting around 80 percent capacity.
So there are about 20 percent vacancies. That equates to about 770 vacant positions currently in the Government of Nunavut, Mr. Chairman.
Go ahead Mr. Curley.
I think it was yesterday we heard from the chair of the standing committee that currently the gaps are being filled, and we asked questions during the standing committee if it was your priority to fill old positions or to fill new positions.
Which is your priority?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): The departments are responsible for that. For example, Mr. Akesuk’s department, some positions were not filled, and there was some urgency to fill one position.
Each department has the jurisdiction on the filling of positions. But, I could tell you, quite a few vacant positions, especially in Iqaluit, we are experiencing quite a few problems due to lack of housing. That’s one of the major causes of not filling up the positions, along with other problems that occur.
But each department is able to speak to that themselves, rather than our department. Thank you.
I believe that we need a policy because we are a government. I believe that we need some sort of regulation on that because when there are too many vacant positions. The new positions should not even be approved because the next position can be acting.
That’s how it is occurring in Rankin Inlet; each position, they’re just playing musical chairs, and they can’t tell who the supervisor is in each department, especially in the Department of Education.
My colleague from Nanulik said that the District Education Authorities don’t even know who to complain to. So each director is referring problems to another supervisor. Why aren’t you making regulations when they’re not filling up these positions?
I believe that all positions should be filled first before a new position is created, because the majority of people living here in Iqaluit with homes, perhaps if you can make an amendment to the Public Service Act, while you are in review of that, could you factor that in?
If you are going to request for new positions and following each department’s vacant percentages, would this be a problem for the government if this were to be included in the Act?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): No, it would not be a problem. Let me explain this. The Financial Management Board of the Nunavut Government recently gave a direction to the Department of Human Resources, Department of Finance, and to the other departments of the Nunavut Government.
They gave direction to pay close attention to the positions that are vacant within GN.
If the 2006-07 Main Estimates for our department were approved, it will be this way: only the positions that have been approved, and also funded positions, will only be operating all of the non-funded positions that are in written form with no funding and others that have not been approved will be removed.
I have requested that these positions be removed. After these positions have been removed, we can determine actual real vacant positions and how many positions we can fill up. We will do that by using the main estimates or the funding that is allocated to the department.
I would like to ask another question. Sometimes we don’t understand everything. I believe there are about 284 positions that are vacant.
In Kivalliq, there are about 60 or 70, probably even over 100.
What does it mean that those positions that are not funded? And how long are they not funded for, whereas the new positions are funded?
Can you elaborate on this further? Those vacant positions that are not funded, are they not as important? What is the reason?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will let my deputy minister respond to that.
Some positions are not funded and some of them have not been funded for quite a long time.
It was up to the individual departments; if they wished to advertise or open a position, then they were able to take the funding from their department.
But the new positions that FMB has made available, we can only open positions after requesting through the FMB and get an approval from them.
For example, we have a request here in the main estimates for positions, but those older positions, that funding was supposed to be used for, is transferred to a new position.
I’ll say this in English; I find it too difficult in Inuktitut.
The deputy minister explaining that position, it is clear.
My final question to that is: who or how is the position determined that the funding be discontinued and what process is used to put a stop to funding a position?
Exactly how or who recommends it?
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Curley, Ms. Okpik
It’s up to each individual department and it’s up to each deputy to decide what they wish to do with their positions and their budget.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Mr. Curley
I’d like to ask the minister; I would think there should be a proper process or procedure for that kind of thing because each staff member or position in the government has a certain responsibilities for funding levels.
I would think in order to recommend that position be discontinued and not be funded in any community that I would think there is a procedure pursuant to the Financial Management Act that signing authorities in some ways is involved in this thing. So I’m asking exactly at what level, who recommends, that positions be discontinued as far as funding is concerned but still remains in the books in the government.
I think in order to have a so wide-ranging procedure and not really have an accountable system makes this Assembly question why the government continues this practice.
Ms. Okpik: The current practice right now is the FMB Directive that states any new positions that will be created will have to go through FMB or through the budget cycle through the main estimates. That’s the process in place right now.
Any new positions that come in that are requested through Human Resources, we will not process that position until we have some type of supporting document either through an FMB decision note that says that position is funded and it can be created.
Chairman: Thank you. Are you done?
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): The Health Committee will be having a short meeting, so I would like to report progress.
Chairman: There is a motion on the floor.
All those in favour to finish for the day.
Thank you, Mr. Tapardjuk and your staff.
Your committee has been considering Bill 12 and the main estimates and would like to report progress. Also, I move that the Report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.
Immediately following the adjournment of this sitting, a meeting of the Standing Committee on Health and Education in the Tuktu Boardroom. A reminder to the members of a meeting of the full caucus at nine o’clock in the morning followed by the Leadership Forum here in the chambers at ten o’clock.
Orders of the Day for February 27:
Speaker (interpretation): This House stands adjourned until Monday, February 27, 2006 at 1:30 in the afternoon.
>>House adjourned at 14:08
Monday, February 27, 2006
Pages 1000 – 1064
Opening Prayer 1000
Ministers’ Statements 1000
Members’ Statements 1002
Oral Questions 1010
Written Questions 1028
Tabling of Documents 1029
Notices of Motions 1030
Motions 1030
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters 1031
Report of the Committee of the Whole 1063
Monday, February 27, 2006 1000
Minister’s Statements
061 – 2(3): Minister Okalik Absent from the House (Picco) 1000
062 – 2(3): Intranet-based Training Calendar for Government of Nunavut Employees (Tapardjuk) 1000
063 – 2(3): Cold Weather Testing in Nunavut (Akesuk) 1001
064 – 2(3): Outstanding Principals (Picco) 1002
137 – 2(3): Congratulate Patterk Netser (Brown) 1002
138 – 2(3): Nunavut Fuel Tax Rebate (Curley) 1003
139 – 2(3): Congratulate Netser (Alagalak) 1004
140 – 2(3): Sports and Recreational Activities (Peterson) 1004
141 – 2(3): Health Centre Services (Evyagotailak) 1005
142 – 2(3): Passport Issues (Barnabas) 1006
143 – 2(3): High Winds in Pangnirtung (Kilabuk) 1006
144 – 2(3): Leadership (Netser) 1007
145 – 2(3): Monitoring the Mining Prospectors (Arreak) 1008
146 – 2(3): School Bus Services (Kattuk) 1008
147 – 2(3): Automation of Weather Forecasting (Picco) 1008
148 – 2(3): Naujaat Team Selected for Arctic Winter Games (Mapsalak) 1009
159 – 2(3): Details of the Nunavut Fuel Tax Rebate Program (Curley) 1010
160 – 2(3): Decentralized Health Positions in Pangnirtung (Kilabuk) 1011
161 – 2(3): Coral Harbour School Renovation to Include a Daycare Centre (Netser) 1013
162 – 2(3): Fuel Tax Rebate (Peterson) 1014
163 – 2(3): Lack of Bus Services (Kattuk) 1016
164 – 2(3): Update on Issuing Passports to Arctic Winter Games Participants (Barnabas) 1018
165 – 2(3): Boarding Home Expansion (Arreak) 1019
166 – 2(3): Senior Fuel Subsidy Program (Netser) 1020
167 – 2(3): Consideration of Conditions for the Fuel Stabilization Rider (Curley) 1022
168 – 2(3): Policy and Guidelines for Emergency Response Times (Kilabuk) 1026
013 – 2(3): Impact of the 2002 Budget Measures Implementation Act (Peterson) 1028
075 – 2(3): Photographs of Aging Infrastructure (Barnabas) 1029
076 – 2(3): Two Proposals for Work and Supplies Needed in Arctic Bay (Barnabas) 1029
077 – 2(3): Peter Irniq Article (Picco) 1030
009 – 2(3): Appointment of Patterk Netser to Executive Council – Notice (Kilabuk) 1030
009 – 2(3): Appointment of Patterk Netser to Executive Council (Kilabuk) 1030
Bill 12 – Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act, 2006-07 – Review in Committee – Human Resources 1032