EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
We do have systems within Finance for tracking job evaluation requests that come to us on the staffing side, our competition database. Our systems are quite simplistic and they’re in-house built.
It’s not a large human resource information system by any means, which creates some problems, as you probably noted in the audit, about sharing the information with Health.
We have put processes in place to assist like weekly reporting from the job evaluation system and providing their nursing recruitment division with a clean copy of our database that they can use. Going forward, we can assist them more.
Yes, we do have systems but they are quite simplistic.
I am wondering if the department can tell us: when they look at the number of casuals within the government, what’s the plan there? What’s happening within that area?
The number of casuals has been a concern for quite a long time.
We have made a concerted effort over the last several years to identify casuals who have been on strength longer than a year. In some cases there were five or more years.
We have asked the departments and I believe they report on a regular basis with our officials. We will ask of any casuals who are longer than a year. We will ask the department why they’re longer than a year and what their plans are.
We have encouraged the departments to run restricted competitions so that casuals and other individuals in the community can apply on the job.
If a casual has been in the position for a quite long time, it’s very likely that they understand the duties, scope, and responsibilities of the job and they qualify.
We would encourage the departments to consider preparing the paperwork to have casuals direct appointed into their position.
Of course that has to go up to the cabinet level and we don’t just take a name on a piece of paper; we need some good, solid documentation of who the person is, performance appraisals, their qualifications, job description, and all of that.
We want to ensure that if we direct appoint someone into a job, we’re not setting them up for failure and they’re going to into a job that they can handle.
You still have one minute.
Ms. Angnakak: I’ll give it to someone else.
Before I proceed, as the Chair, I would like to recognize a fellow resident of my community, Charlie Inuarak, welcome, and a friend of mine from Kimmirut, Maliktoo Lyta. Welcome to the House.
We will now proceed. (interpretation ends) Mr. Mikkungwak, you have one minute.
You have ten minutes.
I have ten minutes and I will also take Ms. Angnakak’s extra minute that she gave away.
My first question is it indicates in the 2017-2020 business plan that you are working with the Department of Family Services and it states that “In total, 30 students were provided summer work experience under the program.”
This program provides wage subsidies to hamlets or private sector employers.
To what extent do the Department of Finance and the Department of Family Services coordinate the administration of the two summer student employment programs?
We’ve got lots of information on the program, but I didn’t have all that information. The one piece of information I didn’t have is for Mr. Mikkungwak.
Mr. Chown tells me there was limited coordination last year, but it will be increased this year.
I’m not sure which one of my colleagues asked the question, but there were eight summer students who worked in Baker Lake, so I would like to applaud the government for employing that many summer students.
I also recognized a summer student who worked for us this summer and it has made a great improvement in their personal life and career.
If the hamlets or the private sector should apply to the wage subsidy program through the Department of Finance and the Department of Family Services, would they apply for that subsidy through the Department of Family Services?
I appreciate the recognition of that summer student program.
I have to point out that we budget $985,000 for that summer student program, but the government departments and the public agencies spent $2.6 million for salaries and benefits for students last year. That was a tremendous summer student program last year.
With respect to Mr. Mikkungwak’s question, the employer or the hamlet would have to contact Family Services directly to discuss that program.
Mr. Mikkungwak (interpretation): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) I guess I will switch it from here on in.
When you look at your 2014-15 Public Service Annual Report, it was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on February 24, 2016, almost 11 months after the end of the fiscal year.
However, the 2015-16 Public Service Annual Report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on November 8, 2016, less than eight months after the end of the 2015-16 fiscal year.
What specific actions did your department take that resulted in it being able to produce this annual report more quickly?
It’s a good question from Mr. Mikkungwak.
That report typically in the past would be tabled anywhere between, I would say, 10 and 14 months after year-end. I think it was Ms. Angnakak who encouraged us to table it earlier.
Then I heard it wasn’t a requirement to table it within six months, but somebody told me it has nuanced. I’m sure that person is listening upstairs now.
What we did is we started standardizing our reports so that we could collect the information faster.
You have to appreciate, Mr. Chairman, you’re going through year-end and then you’re going through the summer and getting all that information tabulated and making sure it’s accurate.
It’s a tremendous exercise.
It’s a lot of pressure on a lot of people. I have to commend all the people that did that.
Then of course we have to make sure that the people on the front of the cover are okay with that. I was very happy to see that the lady that retired in Rankin Inlet last year, Louisa [Nanooklook], is on here.
She is a disabled lady that worked for the Government of Nunavut and the GNWT for over 30 years.
She is very happy to see that she made the cover. You can see she’s smiling.
It was a tremendous effort by everybody. It comes down to standardization of reporting and then making sure that people get that information in by the deadlines.
With that question it sort of led me right into my next question regarding the Public Service Annual Report 2015-16.
I am looking at page 10 of 68 on that particular report and when I look at the community that I am representing, I see the number of vacancies is 27.
I did go through the report and I am fully aware as to which departments have the vacancies.
I guess my question here would be: could I get the actual information provided to me by your department as to those positions are vacant, what their real careers are?
We don’t have that information here today, but we can get that information for Mr. Mikkungwak.
Mr. Akoak: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, minister and staff.
My question is with your annual report on pages 41 and 42.
I just need an explanation on the total positions filled and the number of terminations.
If I can use my community, it is 84 positions and 11 terminations. The next two lines are in percentages.
Are the 11 positions completely lost from the community of Gjoa Haven?
That number refers to the people who have left the community, but the positions are still in the community.
The actual jobs are still there.
Do you foresee in the future that they will be filled this year or the next year?
That depends on the department.
Wherever the department is with those positions would have to complete the necessary paperwork to allow the Department of Finance to proceed with a job competition.
In your business plan on page 31, Regional Operations manages staffing and relocation.
Seeing that, are those both on the same page? With those 11 terminations, are they relocations in a sense?
I’ll ask Ms. Power to respond to Mr. Akoak’s question.
The staffing relocation that’s under Regional Operations is run out of Igloolik, Rankin Inlet, and Cambridge Bay.
They’re responsible for hiring and relocating, where needed, people into the communities, either within the territory or from outside the territory. That’s run out of those three regional offices.
If a job is relocated away from a community, I believe there was something in the past that there would be another from another department who would be sent into that community to replace that termination of a job.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Is he correct?
It depends on the community, but if it’s a decentralized community, the jobs are supposed to be. The government would have to replace that position with another position. It would depend.
So that’s not a guarantee that I will get a job in the community of Gjoa Haven. Do I understand it that way?
I believe Gjoa Haven is a decentralized community.
If the government was going to move a position out of a decentralized community, any position we transfer from any community to another community has to be run through cabinet.
We have a very robust debate and discussion because no MLA or even ministers want to see jobs lost from their communities.
If the department is even contemplating doing something like that, they really must come with a solid plan to put a new position in that community that they’re going to take the position out of.
I have to say that in my experience in cabinet over the years, it has occurred. Generally the government makes a very serious and sincere effort to keep those jobs in a community.
In fact they might even move a couple of positions up and put more positions in over time.
Second line of questioning, Mr. Joanasie.
Mr. Joanasie: Thank you for recognizing me for the second round, Mr. Chairman.
I had asked the minister to come prepared with the question I had asked him on language proficiency in the public service and I asked it in the House.
Can the minister indicate approximately how many positions in the GN currently require employees to be fluently bilingual in both Inuktitut and English or French?
Can he answer that question?
The information I have here is that there are 2,324 positions with a bilingual bonus approved, either as a requirement or as an asset to their job.
I’m trying to find that page in the report too.
Can he point out which page it is in the Public Service Annual Report 2015-16?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Minister Peterson, point it out for us, please.
I’m looking at page 12 of 68 and page 13 of 68 in the Public Service Annual Report.
I lost myself in all this paper.
I noted in this it says 2,416.
However, we know the number of beneficiaries. (interpretation) Where is it?
(interpretation ends) I’ll quote the Towards a Representative Public Service from December 31, 2016.
The totals there are 1,762.71.
Those are the number of beneficiaries currently.
However, I note too the number of casual beneficiaries... . If you can just hold on a second; I had it all tabulated. It is 418 and if you combine those two it’s just over… .
I note it says on page 13, “These numbers do not represent the number of individual employees who receive a bilingual bonus.”
Does that mean there might be employees who get the bonus twice?
I’ve got just as much paper here myself and I don’t know exactly what page the TRPS report Mr. Joanasie is referring to.
Yes, especially if casuals move around from different positions, they may be in one position for four months and then they move to another position and receive the bonus.
I think the important thing to bear in mind is, as I said, the Government of Nunavut is paying out a bilingual bonus to people who are bilingual and/or have a second language as an asset.
We are encouraging it and we are rewarding people who are bilingual.
I recall a while ago I had asked about where this bilingual bonus is heading towards.
I know the minister had stated that the Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit is developing proficiency tests and I think they’re moving toward the three-step bonus.
Where is that at now?
I’m going to ask Ms. Power to respond to that question.
Currently IUT is now in the testing phase for its language proficiency testing. Finance is currently working on the policy for how this will be rolled out.
Once we have a policy, we will have to consult with the union because this is part of our collective agreement with the union.
We will have to work through that.
EIA continues to develop language proficiency educational programs. It will be moving forward in this year.
I’m curious: does the GN have any employees on staff that are unilingual Inuit speakers?
As the minister was saying how this annual report has a lot of information, it is missing some information and that’s why we have question period.
I do appreciate this information.
I think hopefully maybe future annual reports can reflect if there are any staff that are unilingual and their language skills, where they’re at.
I just wanted to say that with language and proficiency, we want to work towards more beneficiaries in the workplace.
Maybe most Nunavut Inuit are a lot more proficient in Inuktitut.
However, they might need some skill development on the English side. Is there anything where Inuit that feel like they’re able to work or they feel like they can work in the Inuit language, where they can get help and either trying to fill a job or if they’re already in the public service to advance from their position?
Hon. Keith Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank Mr. Joanasie for his comments on the report.
It does capture a lot of information and it’s good to have that information, but if there are suggestions for improvements, we welcome those suggestions and we would try to include that information if we can actually obtain it.
To answer his specific question, I believe Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs has a training program, English as a second language, that would help unilingual or Inuit who need help with learning English.
Through our GN Human Resource Strategy we are trying to help people improve their skill sets in all areas so that they can move up through their career path in the Government of Nunavut in any department or public agency.
Given that Inuit employment has stagnated around 50 percent over the years, I think that’s something worth exploring about Inuit in Nunavut, where their skill level is at in terms of language proficiency in the Inuit language and how well they can apply it possibly in the public sector.
Maybe there will be some new initiatives that can look at that.
I was talking about the vacancies, over 1,200 vacancies, and then in this report, Public Service Annual Report 2015-16, it also talks about the average salary. Just as an example on page 25 of this report, it says that GN-wide the average salary is just over $90,000.
I mean that’s an average, but people can make a decent wage if they apply themselves.
Maybe we need to look at some ways. Perhaps they’re unilingual or they have stronger proficiency in the Inuit language and trying to meet these vacancies with the unemployed population of our territory.
Maybe the minister can comment on what they might do potentially in this area moving forward.
I thank Mr. Joanasie for his insightful comments.
We do, as a government, encourage education.
My colleague, Minister Quassa, has been really making education a priority, working on the Education Act and amendments to the Education Act.
Through our summer student program, grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 and then post-secondary, encouraging kids to stay in school through the training program funds that NTI and the GN are working on, if we can get some funding there, we can put out some training programs that would help Inuit employees to get better training.
The key to raising this percentage, which has been well documented over the years in various reports, to us is education.
If the kids or younger people stay in school and get their education, they’re going to qualify for the jobs that are available.
If people are working for the GN, we’re supportive of them getting training. We have all kinds of leadership training and programs.
I know the Government of Nunavut offers a variety of training programs. I see the Help Desk messages that come out offering different training in different areas.
We certainly encourage our current employees to avail themselves of the training. We encourage our managers, supervisors, and deputies to identify people in their departments or public agencies that need training in certain areas to strengthen their skills to qualify them for other jobs at different levels.
We encourage people out in the communities to keep encouraging kids to stay in school and get their education.
I believe, through Nunavut Arctic Collage, they offer lots of training programs for people who either want to continue schooling after grade 12 or have been out of school, but with some training or education they can go to those programs and then qualify for government jobs.
There are lots of opportunities in the government, but people are going to have to get trained and we’re going to have to support them.
I agree education is one of the tools, but also at the same time there is formal education. Also, Mr. Shooyook talks about IQ and cultural learning, which sometimes we can’t really put it in a classroom, so to speak, but they are still skills nonetheless that we can acquire.
I think we can also keep an open mind about some of these issues.
I just wanted to state that, and my clock is running out already.
Page 49 talks about the Inuit Employment Steering Committee.
They came out with 33 recommendations and they gave it to the Building Capacity Committee. Can the minister provide those to the House at some point if he doesn’t have those?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. Your time is over. Minister Peterson.
Ms. Power is involved in that and I’ll ask her to answer that question.
The Inuit Employment Steering Committee brought forward, as he said, a number of recommendations to the Building Capacity Committee, which is a DM-level committee.
There were too many initiatives to tackle all at once, so it has been reduced to maybe ten accomplishable goals over the next year.
Unfortunately I don’t have the document with me. I don’t have them in front of me.
Yes, it has been brought forward and departments are working towards accomplishing those goals.
Mr. Joanasie, since I’m a good Chairman, I didn’t stop you right away, even though your time ran out.
I’ll allow you just one more question.
In that case I’ll try to put it into two.
On page 32 of the report but it’s also reflected on page 35, hiring for 2015-16.
I pointed it out earlier that of the 327 positions that were filled, 177 were Inuit and 150 were non-beneficiaries.
Can the minister state how many of those positions were hired from outside of Nunavut? Also with that, what were the costs associated with bringing them into Nunavut?
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you. (interpretation ends) Minister Peterson, do you have that information with you?
I don’t know if I have that precise information. We don’t track where they’re coming from. We don’t break it down, but we estimate that 90 percent of those employees come from the south.
We spent on average in the last couple of years a little over $1 million on relocations for employees coming from the south.
We spent $175,000 on paying outside recruitment to help us recruit the five GN positions.
Mr. Minister, I would like to give you leeway, but there is only one page left to review.
Let’s move on and deal with page C-8.
It reads, Finance.
Centrally Administered Funds. $52,710,000.
Chairman (interpretation): Go back to page C-3.
Total Operations and Maintenance, to be Voted. $94,831,000.
Does the committee agree that we have concluded the Department of Finance?
Minister Peterson, we are finished with your department. If you have any closing remarks, the floor is yours.
Hon. Keith Peterson: Mr. Chairman, I thank you and your committee for your excellent scrutiny and questions over the last few days of the Department of Finance, which includes human resources.
We understand it’s a very important department to the Government of Nunavut and we will strive to continue to make improvements over the coming years in all the areas that you asked us about.
I would like to thank Mr. Chown and Ms. Power for being here as witnesses with me.
I would like to thank all our staff in my Department of Finance across Nunavut in all the offices. They work hard every day to make the Government of Nunavut a place that is an employer of choice.
In a lot of cases the first people that approach us are people from the south on jobs. It’s important that we ensure that people understand that it’s a great place to work and we do provide lots of support for all our other departments.
I would like to express my support to them as well for their working with us on the HR side and all the other areas on the financial side.
I thank my colleagues as well for being here for the last couple of days.
Before we proceed to the next review of the Department of Economic Development, we will take a 10-minute break while we prepare for that.
>>Committee recessed at 18:12 and resumed at 18:25
Bill 34 – Appropriation (Operations & Maintenance) Act, 2017-2018 – Economic Development and Transportation – Consideration in Committee
We will be reviewing the Department of Economic Development.
At this time I would first like to ask Minister Ell-Kanayuk if she has officials that she would like to join her at the witness table.
Hon. Monica Ell-Kanayuk (interpretation): Yes, I have officials that I would like to join me at the witness table.
Does the committee agree to let Minister Ell-Kanayuk’s officials go to the witness table?
We will be starting with page K-4.
Minister Ell-Kanayuk, for the record, please introduce your officials.
To my left and your right is my Deputy Minister, Sherri Rowe, and to my right and your left is my Assistant Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Bernie MacIsaac.
Mr. MacIsaac and Ms. Rowe, welcome to the House.
I would now like to give you an opportunity to make your opening comments, minister.
I regret that I will be speaking mostly in English as I don’t have the Inuktitut translation of my opening comments, but I will translate part of it into Inuktitut myself.
It is my pleasure to appear before the Committee of the Whole to present the 2017-18 operations and maintenance budget for the Department of Economic Development and Transportation.
(interpretation ends) The operations and maintenance budget represents the department’s annual operational and programming requirements to meet its mandate and includes the provision of grants and contributions to eligible businesses from Nunavut, organizations, and individuals.
I am pleased to present EDT’s proposed 2017-18 budget of $71,496,000.
This is an increase of $3,156,000 over the budget for 2016-17.
This 4.6 percent increase over the prior year is essential to improve Nunavut’s transportation system and support the development of Nunavut’s economy.
The overall budget increase is comprised of four changes.
A one-time increase of $2.5 million for the Community Transportation Initiatives Program.
An increase of $1,555,000 for the Iqaluit International Airport Improvement Project.
This is a scheduled increase in the annual service payment.
These two increases are offset by two decreases:
A scheduled decrease of $500,000 in temporary tourism funding.
This one-time funding was secured at the beginning of this government’s mandate for tourism initiatives associated with the implementation of Sivumut Abluqta and Nunavut’s Tourism Strategy.
Some of these activities are now winding down.
A scheduled decrease of $401,000 in the Community Tourism and Cultural Industries Contribution Program.
This program was also intended to support implementation of Sivumut Abluqta and Nunavut’s Tourism Strategy.
In addition to these changes, we propose to reprofile portions of the department’s existing funding programs to provide more transparency and better control over the annual O&M budget.
The overall objective is to enhance the strategic focus and program delivery of the department’s economic development programming.
This includes some program realignments as follows: