EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Mr. Chairman, we heard earlier in this session, I believe it was the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation and staff housing.
They indicated that the department, it might have been the Minister responsible for Human Resources I can’t remember now, that they usually don’t hire or advertise positions that they don’t have housing for but given the chronic shortage of staff housing that is here, there’s been a whole lot of pressure from departments for the department of Human Resources to go ahead and advertise these positions regardless of whether or not we have housing for those individuals.
I guess I’d like to know and I think it’s important that we find out, are those positions being filled?
Because if they’re not, aren’t we just wasting money advertising positions with no staff housing?
If people aren’t applying for jobs because they don’t have staff housing, then I believe that the minister had indicated earlier that it was 300 thousand dollars they spend in putting these ads in the paper.
Are we just wasting money by putting these ads in that don’t come with that housing, if we don’t have a very good success rate on those positions?
Can I get some feed back on that?
I’ve been advised that we do have a rather successful rate in finding people to fill jobs that do not go with housing that’s been advertised in those communities.
Mr. Chairman, I’m wondering if the minister could provide that information on a good successful rate.
It could be 61 percent, it could be 80 percent it could be 70 percent.
I think that’s important information to take a look at and see whether or not we’re filling those.
Also, another question is, given I’ve seen some of the ads in the paper for positions that don’t come with staff housing some of them are very, very technical positions and pretty difficult to find individuals with that level of expertise to fill those positions in Nunavut.
Is there any type of criteria that the department uses if there’s no way we feel we’re going to find a level 5 technical position or whatever whether it be a biologist or a chemist or something like that.
We’re not going to find that person within Nunavut.
So we are not going to run that ad and wait until housing is available for it.
I was wondering if there was any policy or guidelines that the department uses in deciding which positions to put out there?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Yes we do have a policy as to which jobs will be advertised.
There is a policy available at human resources regarding job advertisements.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. Do you want to continue, Mr. Tootoo?
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, does the minister commit to making that copy of that policy available to the members of this House?
I’ll think about it, just kidding.
I’ll make it available to the members.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. You want to continue or are you done?
But, Ms. Williams brought up the issue regarding summer student jobs.
I did not pay attention until I realized just when the minister stated that these high school students and Arctic College students will have summer jobs if they’re going to return to school in the fall.
With these summer jobs coming up, will there be hamlet jobs available as well?
And under grants and contributions there’s no money available to fund summer jobs.
Some of the smaller communities don’t have decentralized positions from the government and so I’m wondering if jobs would be made available to the hamlet.
Can money be provided to hamlets to have summer jobs in some of the communities that don’t have department positions decentralized into their community?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): I just want to clarify that this summer job program was available last summer and that it is continuing.
There were a lot of applicants and these are students that are working towards or perhaps working for the government later in the year.
But there were a lot of applicants and so this summer, the jobs will be open within the government but we don’t have any money provided to the hamlets and as I said it was successful last summer and that is why we have funded it further.
Is the minister stating that some of the communities that don’t have government positions will not have a summer student job in those communities if there are no government positions in their community?
The summer program is geared towards getting students involved in jobs within the government and doesn’t have anything to do with hamlets.
For those communities that don’t have government positions they will probably have other jobs available.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): I seem to understand in his opening comments he stated that this money is geared towards summer students and the hamlets, the municipalities, or community governments.
They provide resources and services so with that I want to ask the minister about eligibility criteria and will those communities be left out. Thank you.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): If we are going to be trying to provide jobs for those other jobs in all the communities this is something that was done last summer and if we are trying to represent all the communities.
But we are concerned about the smaller communities and perhaps something else would have to be done a different program outside of this program that is available for students.
This program is geared towards getting summer students working in the GN offices.
But we could look at setting up something.
Can the minister ask the Minister of Education how these students can be trained in communities that don’t have government departments or positions?
In a few weeks the students will be getting out of school for the summer and this money will be effective starting April 1.
I think it’s important that we find funds perhaps within the department of education or human resources to provide funding for summer students and get approval from FMB.
It would be easy to talk to my colleagues and in the smaller communities perhaps in the health centres and wildlife offices, we could encourage job opportunities for students in the summer.
Not all communities will have a lot of applicants but the smaller communities could also be involved in this program.
I think somebody asked a question about how many PYs there are going to be available for the students’ summer jobs.
There are 140 in Nunavut.
It might go slightly beyond that.
There are presently 44 students at headquarters, 32 students in the Baffin region, 32 in the Kivalliq region and 32 in the Kitikmeot region.
The communities, are the communities going to be informed that 32 positions will be in Baffin, Rankin, Cambridge Bay, the government headquarters offices there they might get 32 positions for summer students but for the smaller communities like Coral Harbour, Grise Fiord, they might not know about these summer jobs for students.
What I am trying to get at is this, I wonder if this money can be divided proportionally for each community, so that if the Hamlet is not included, then the students can have access to different departments such as RCMP, government offices according to the population of the community?
The jobs will be open for the summer students, I think we are ahead of time; we will make sure that each department in the government hire summer, the students for summer jobs.
We will ask the departments how many summer jobs they can have and I want to be more open to the ideas and each community has been informed so the students in the communities will know what is available in the government.
Chairperson (interpretation): Any more?
Page 4-7.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): One question.
The contract services 25 thousand.
What exactly is it for?
The reason for the increase is for the casual employees.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Is it just for the summer, is it one week? One month? How does it go?
Whenever there’s jobs that need to be done right away, we would hire casual employees.
It’s supper time, we’ll come back at 6.30.
>>Committee recessed at 5.55 and resumed at 6.33 p.m.
We were finished with page 4 – 7.
Assistant Deputy Minister Community Operations.
Total operations and maintenance 3 million 4 thousand.
Questions? Mr. Iqaqrialu.
I would like a clarification on Assistant Deputy Minister, Community Operations.
Which community is running this operation in the regions? Thank you.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): To my left, Mr. Thompson is my Assistant Deputy Minister and Community Operations is for the Baffin, Kivalliq and Kitikmeot communities.
Community operations deal with headquarters.
Is it for all of the communities?
Yes it is for the regions and representing their communities.
So it’s for each region’s operations.
Compensation and benefits 1 million 754 thousand dollars is an increase.
Is it for each region or for the communities?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): The reason for the increase is for two new employees and their salaries and benefits according to the collective agreement.
So that’s what the increase is for.
Chairperson (interpretation): Any more questions?
I would like to ask the Minister of Education, when you are working on this in the regions, Kitikmeot, Kivalliq, they have a Department of Education headquarters who are on the job training, there are apprentices programs in these and are you working with those people in the regions.
We have to work with these people in the government so we are helping each other and we work with them and for the other communities, they are in the communities with the government headquarters, for the Baffin and Kivalliq, there is only a difference for those two, for community operations.
ADM Community Operations. Total Operations and Maintenance, 3 million 4 thousand dollars.
Job Evaluation and Organisation Design. Total Operations and Maintenance, 759 thousand dollars.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): The Department of Finance informed us that the report is not complete about women who were employed, that were not paid enough. They have been working on this for about 10 years now.
Is the Nunavut Government in a good position? It says in here “implementing a gender neutral job evaluation system.” Is this well defined so that we will not be paying out large sums of money from the old GNWT days?
Are we paying for this now in Nunavut starting from 1999?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes.
Job Evaluation and Organisation Design. Total Operations and Maintenance, 259 thousand dollars.
Inuit Employment Plan.
Total Operations and Maintenance, 3 million 449 thousand dollars.
Mr. Iqaqrialu (interpretation): This contracts services, 1 million 983 thousand dollars.
I would like clarification.
There is compensation and benefits, 899.
What kind of contracts are we talking about here?
I will give this to my Assistant Deputy Minister, to answer this question.
The increase of 1.221 million dollars reflects the cost of new Inuit Employment Plan program initiatives that will commence on or about April 2002, such as the Employment Systems Review, continued professional improvement for Assistant Deputy Minister Development, that’s all the ADMs in all departments.
The Public Administration Certification Program through Carleton University and audit of all job descriptions to ensure that departments are beginning to remove artificially inflated education barriers and identify compensating skills required to do the job.
The contract services are geared for the communities.
Do the communities use this money under contract services?
This budget line item will be used to enhance and develop the existing Inuit Employment Plan and also to implement the plan and the management level training programs.
And to orientate the new employees and also, to provide further training programs and also for Inuktitut language skills.
Very briefly, and my last question: the 1 million dollars, according to your statement under contract services, is it only your department that’s such a place and that’s where they come out?
No, we deal with contract services, the Public Works and Services gives us assistance.
I will ask another question later on but I need further clarification under page 4-10, on the lower paragraph it states (interpretation ends) course training development specialized training (interpretation) on page 4-11 there’s a same heading, so I was wondering what difference there is between the two.
From page 4-9 to 4-11 you’re asking the difference between those two.
Under Inuit Employment Plan, 4-10, second paragraph talks about skill training, training needs analysis, course development; it talks about budget training initiatives.
How does that differ from training and development in the next page?
My page numbers don’t correlate.
I will ask Mr. Thompson to respond.
Chairperson (interpretation): Go ahead Mr. Thompson.
The difference primarily is the 4 - 10 document refers to the Inuit Employment plans.
These monies are all spent on beneficiaries.
Training development 4-11 refers to those budgets for all GN employees, so training opportunities for all employees of Nunavut including non-beneficiaries.
Perhaps this was passed but I wanted some more clarification under that same page.
Contract services 1 million 983 thousand and 58 thousand fees and payments, maybe at this point I can ask what’s the difference between those two, fees and payments contract service and also who are you contracting to do this Inuit Employment plan?
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr, Kilabuk.
I’ll ask Mr. Thompson to respond.  Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Thompson: Yes. Mr. Chairman.
I’m trying to clarify the actual concern, I wonder if I could ask for clarification there.
I will ask this one question, contract services, who are you contracting to do the Inuit Employment Plan?
The contract services the 1 million 983 thousand is spread out over what we described a few moments ago; the funding for the employment systems review, the ADM training and development, public admin certification program, and as I said earlier the audit of the job descriptions.
As well as also primarily finding funding for the senior management development program which is 15 beneficiaries, 12 beneficiaries to be identified and selected and trained for senior management positions.
The IEP implementation planning, employee orientation and education culturally in Inuktitut program, that’s where the contract services are going.
We do a lot of work in the IEP in house with the staff in training and development, and occasionally there are contracts that are put out for tender for RFPs for various portions of that document.
So, some of that does go to the consultants for the preparation of those documents for the IEP.
Fees and Payments, what would you use for fees and payments for?
Some of the fees and payments, Mr. Chairman are to provide Inuktitut language training for Inuit and non Inuit Government of Nunavut Employees.
Some of that goes back directly to Arctic College.
All new Government of Nunavut employees are required to take Inuktitut language training to gain elementary language skills within one year of employment.
So if it’s a job requirement fees and payments goes to help pay for the costs of those courses.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Arvaluk. I apologise. Ms. Williams.
Ms. Williams: I’m sorry.
According to the department’s program inventory additional federal funding for Inuit Employment Program is scheduled to start in 2003 and 2004, how much more will be provided and what will it be used for?
I can not give you information on that because negotiations are still going on.
Along the same line, it’s hard to tell now but are you at 50 percent or 60 percent of completion in your negotiations with the federal government to get additional funding for Inuit employment? Something like that.
Since this is a new program we just initially started it so it is hard to say what level we are at now.
Mr. Arvaluk: What is your timeline that you want to complete the negotiations for additional funding?
In regards to the question, I don’t want to confuse anyone but I can’t respond for the Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Total operations and maintenance 3 million 449 thousand.
Training and Development.
Total operations and maintenance 2 million 130 thousand.
In part of my question on the previous page, on this page it speaks to training and development, the collaborative inter-departmental training and development program.
For those employees that don’t speak Inuktitut at all is that where they teach them Inuktitut language skills?
Also in here is says Employee Workplace Wellness Program, Professional Development.
Here there are contract services and fees and payments.
The fees and payments are larger than the previous page.
I was wondering if the minister could elaborate on the difference between the two.
On the page for training and development, it is geared towards GN employees.
The previous page is geared towards beneficiaries.
Earlier on you alluded to having high turnover resulting in the need to advertise for more replacements although it has been successful, although the retention rate has slightly improved from 31% to 28 I think you mentioned, if I recall correctly.
The preamble on that pages states, leadership initiatives to support and enrich employees’ growth.
We are spending probably 718 thousand bucks on that one, or at least part of it.
Does that mean it’s not working well?
I understand this leadership to support and encourage growth, it sounds like part of the retention program.
With this concern about the turnover, does that mean it’s not working well, it needs to be reviewed or changed or approached to be taken differently. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In listening to your question, I heard you well but I don’t understand your question.
So I’ll ask my Assistant Deputy Minister to respond.
That is a difficult question to answer.
I think the programs under Training and Development are successful.
Many if not all of our non-Inuktitut Government of Nunavut employees are working through the courses.
So they are learning some rudimentary basics of the language.
Part of this funding as well is for professional development, other training opportunities and courses and workshops that all Government of Nunavut employees have access to.
And of course we also make our contribution to the Department of Justice’s program the Akitsiraq Law School.
So to answer that question, I think recruitment or retention issues are going to continue to be there for us but I think they are going to improve.
I think as the government matures and we become an employer of choice I think you’ll see our retention figures improve and the workforce stabilize.
It probably will stabilize in terms of employment and retention down the road but as a new territory, a new government and new initiatives like NTI and other employment opportunities other than the government have caused some of that.
However, what I would be interested in, when you are reviewing retention initiatives will you also include regular ordinary employees who may have thought of leaving the Government of Nunavut, middle management or the administrative staff that may have considered leaving the government, would you include them in your review or study so that they could tell you from first hand experience how they feel today or how they felt yesterday?
Yes, this question was posed to me in the House if I should include the general staff to find out how we can retain the employees and to find out more about the problems that they are experiencing.
Yes I committed to reviewing that and I agreed to review that in our plan.
Mr. Arvaluk: I also hear that some casual employees have been placed in positions as casual employees sometimes for over a year.
Isn’t there somewhere the collective agreement states that after a year, things must change or you have to have a permanent position or fire them or, you know, are you supposed to decide sometime within a year what you want to do with that employee or casual employee?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): That’s a reminder.
It depends on the type of employment, for example if you have to extend, or make an extension you could either decide to make them a permanent employee or make some kind of decision.
It depends on the type of classification they are on. Thank you.
Well I think that’s part of the problem with the Government of Nunavut employees, that some of them hoped to be placed in the indeterminate positions or at least receive some kind of title.
Well they have a title as casual employees but some of them stayed hoping that they would be placed in permanent positions.
I think there are also retention problems because the uncertainty in their employment when they’re working as casuals for too long, like over a year, uncertainty causes them to seek other more stable employment with other organizations.
Just a comment. Mr. Chairman. (interpretation) That was my comment Mr. Chairman.
Just a general comment.
This workplace wellness program; one of my favourite subjects.
Last year, this government contracted to Health Canada for about 700 thousand dollars and what’s happened to that money and is it on this page?
Just for my clarification, are you asking me where the program is at the moment?
There was 700 thousand dollars that we accessed from the Federal Government for the workplace wellness program.
Is it in here some where?
We have the contract services that are only at 563 thousand dollars.
What about the 700 thousand dollars that was used for the wellness program?
I just became the minister for this department just last year so I will have my deputy respond to your question.
Chairperson (interpretation): Which one, deputy or ADM.
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Mr. Thompson.
Yes that program spent approximately 700 thousand dollars last year on compensation and benefits, 1 PY for the workplace wellness coordinator position.
There was some travel and transportation involved to workshops as well as regional travel.
There were some materials, supplies, purchased services, phone, and utilities.
There were some contract services which were for the translation services, the employee information sessions and telephone counselling.
Made in Nunavut strategy and the workplace wellness strategy survey was done and the results of that of course are available.
For the year 2002/2003, we’re proposing 755 thousand dollars for the workplace wellness program.
We’ve continued the 1-800 counselling services to develop and implement the made in Nunavut strategy and to staff a management orientation session.
So the wellness program is functioning and will be offered to staff based on feedback from the survey.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Thompson.
So that money is being put into training and development instead of, I thought it was, if a staff person was experiencing some personal problems, they would get counselling through this but it’s being, some of the money has been used now for something else other than staff counselling.
We do have the document that was tabled on May 1 on this survey and it seems like they were very positive findings.
So maybe, this government didn’t have to have all that funding anymore.
So I am just trying to get a clear understanding.
If I call this wellness program number that, if it was still the 800 number, where would I be answered from?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Mr. Chairman, the phone would be answered in Ottawa.
Ms. Williams: This House was advised that this government was going to try to get that moved to Nunavut.
Is that going to be happening or what has happened to that?
In our plans we did have one option where we would have a Nunavut made program.
Is the program moving here, so this almost one million dollars could be spent in Nunavut?
Well, this money is not only used for that office in Ottawa, we have the employees, the coordinators that do get training and for the cost of the 1-800 number.
My question is, there is over 700 thousand dollars we send it right back down to Ottawa to provide the services up in Nunavut.
What we heard last year was that we were going to move that location to Nunavut. Are you going to be moving it up here or are you going to keep it down there in Ottawa?
I am not talking about the administration or expenses.