EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): We have been trying to address this problem, but what sometimes happens is that some positions open up for one location all at the same time, into one facility with departments and other agencies.
We have open competitions within the government and anybody can look at the jobs available.
Often, there are job opportunities provided by private businesses, governments, and so on. They’re putting out advertisements and try to attract individuals through career shows, trade shows, and so on.
The Department of Human Resources will work harder to ensure that all the information is put out there and advertised for individuals who are looking at career opportunities .We will work hard to promote it more.
We also provide apprenticeship and internship programs through the government.
Right now, we’re putting the information out there to attract individuals.
We’re doing this for people who want to apply for jobs and who are willing to work and are capable.
We can’t just say, “You can’t apply for this position because you’re not a man.”
We’re looking at other avenues so that we can address this issue. This is something that has been brought up on more than one occasion. However, men tend to seek work that they enjoy and we can’t really tell them to apply for jobs that they’re not interested in.
We will, however, get the information out there, Mr. Chairman.
That’s good to hear since I believe it’s time we need to do more to communicate on this issue.
We need to find out if men are comfortable or are not worried about their masculinity with respect to the jobs that are open within the government.
I have another question on the same page. I have an ongoing concern with the public service announcement that was made in regard to the turnover rate within the Government of Nunavut.
For that reason, if we look at all the jobs that have been available since 2006-07, about 15 percent of employees have resigned from their positions and need to be replaced. It is a large number; a total of over 400 employees have left their jobs.
What is the reasoning behind this turnover rate? Some of them are obvious – rent… or is it too cold?
I think we need to know what the exact reasons are. I think it’s up to us to find out why there’s such a high turnover rate.
Could the minister elaborate on this issue?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): In regard to the 16 percent turnover rate, I think that’s higher than the southern turnover rate.
Nunatsiaq also has the same problem. They said they were at a 14 percent turnover rate in 2006-07 and Nunavut at 16 percent, which is two percent more.
How can we retain our employees within the government system? How can we lower the turnover rate?
It’s quite expensive when you have to send people out and bring people in, and of course, it’s a concern for the government.
We have to look at how we can retain our employees and we have to make sure that there’s an increase in the Nunavummiut personnel - the long-term northern employees and also the people who make their home here.
The Department of Human Resources, as I stated earlier, gets together to talk about the concerns or the problems they have within the department.
After those problems have been rectified, then we would assume that the turnover rate would lessen and that the working environment is friendly. So we’re looking at all of those in order to lower the turnover rate through those avenues, Mr. Chairman.
When we have high turnover rates, it costs approximately $4,000 to $10,000 when we have to relocate the outgoing employees. According to the policy within the government, if they worked for so many months, they’re eligible for some assistance.
I know that it becomes very expensive when moving within the year. When there’s a high turnover rate within the year, the government can make improvements to the turnover rates.
I’m sure there was a report on how to correct the turnover rates and you’re also able to get some information through exit surveys.
Are you keeping up with filling the vacant positions as they occur?
If a position requires that a qualified person be hired and if the individual resigns, sometimes it takes a long time to fill the position, especially when an individual in a job requiring even higher qualifications resigns or quits.
For example, when Community and Government Services needs to hire surveyors, there are no surveyors in Nunavut.
Therefore, we had to look at other options to fill those positions, especially for the positions that require highly qualified and educated professionals.
Some Inuit are unable to fill these positions due to inadequate qualifications, such as for legal counsels, architects, and others.
These are very difficult to fill.
So there are people who apply for these positions but their qualifications are too low and they’re not eligible, so the deadline for the job opportunity has to be extended or they have to re-open it when there are no applicants with the qualifications required.
As a result of those problems, the 16 percent turnover rate has remained the same since last year.
We are concerned about that and we are trying to address the issue on how we can retain our employees within the government.
There’s something I need more information on. In 2005-06, your department’s business plan identified rates of absenteeism.
There have been some questions posed by members because the absenteeism rate across the GN has doubled.
You had made plans to rectify the situation, but for 2003-04, the absenteeism had doubled again.
Maybe there were some individuals that had gone on vacation or on leave and that’s the reason why the rate had increased.
Looking at your business plan, the plan which addresses the problem, has the absenteeism improved since then? What measures has the government taken to address the problem? What’s the status today?
Is it better now or is there no change?
I don’t quite understand the question. I would like to ask the member to rephrase his question, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Alagalak, please rephrase your question to the minister.
I was referring to absenteeism of GN employees.
According to the government’s responses to the Written Questions by some of the MLAs in the Legislative Assembly, the absenteeism rate across the GN doubled between 2002 and on to 2004. (interpretation) That’s what I was talking about, the doubling of absenteeism.
I was asking if the absenteeism improved since and what measures the government has taken to address the problem within the departments.
So I was wondering if you had already worked on that and what kind of measures you have taken to address this, Mr. Chairman.
I thank the member for clarifying that.
I will have my deputy minister respond to that, Mr. Chairman.
In terms of absenteeism, the Government of Nunavut still recognizes this as an issue across the government.
Our department has hired a leave and attendance consultant recently who will be able to provide ongoing training to all the leave and attendance coordinators across the government.
In addition, we will be providing training to managers within our Employee Relations Division, to provide orientation sessions to managers so they have a good understanding of what the leave and attendance entitlements are.
I have some questions on page D-5.
According to your department’s draft 2008-09 business plan, some recommendations from the casual staffing audits have been implemented in Iqaluit. The remaining recommendations are pending until the collective bargaining process with the Nunavut Employees Union is completed.
What further changes does the department plan to make to the GN’s casual staffing process and does the Nunavut Employees Union agree with the proposed changes?
I will have my deputy minister respond to that question, Mr. Chairman.
In terms of the casual employment category, one of the recommendations, as an example, that had already been implemented is ensuring that the casual staffing action forms are scanned amongst the regions. We found that sometimes it’s difficult to understand the paperwork when it’s faxed.
So that’s a simple example of what we have already implemented.
In terms of the things that we would like to implement that we’re waiting for collective agreement negotiations to be completed, the major one is to change the terminology from “casual employment” to “temporary employment.”
The temporary employees would have two categories - one would be relief workers and the second category would be substitute workers. That’s the change that we have proposed.
Currently, the union is not agreeable to these changes.
Chairman: Thank you, Ms. Rojas.
I also have a question on summer student employment.
The GN’s Summer Student Employment Equity Program provided jobs for 207 young Nunavummiut in 2006. However, only 172 students participated in the program in 2007, which was the largest decrease in participation since the program began.
What accounted for this drop in participation?
In regard to the Summer Student Employment Equity Program, we have increased it when the communities are involved. Unfortunately, we had a problem with funding last year.
The funds were not as available, I believe, to all departments within the government.
These were the reasons that this was the budget identified for the Summer Student Employment Equity Program and the amount was much smaller.
The funding amounts were smaller than last year in some of the departments.
The GN’s vacancy rate remains at around 20 percent with around 725 positions deemed unfilled.
When can the GN realistically expect to fill 90 percent of these positions?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will have to get back to the member because I don’t have the numbers with me at this time, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Kattuk: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation) When will he get back to us?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will try and get back to the member during this sitting with regards to the numbers.
We will need those numbers to work on up to December 31.
We will get back to the member, Mr. Chairman.
What specific factors account for the reality of the low level of Inuit employment in Iqaluit-based positions?
The question is quite difficult to answer for many reasons.
The specific factor to hire and retain within the Government of Nunavut, at headquarters, is that there are not too many who are qualified for the positions located in Iqaluit and we fight over some of the employees with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, and other organizations because they also want the same employees we are trying to get.
For those Inuit who may want to have employment within the government outside of Iqaluit, some of them don’t wish move to the community but are fully qualified for the position. Perhaps those potential employees are not using Inuktitut as much as English.
The services required by the Government of Nunavut at headquarters, of course, are for more senior positions and require higher qualifications.
Just to try and be brief, these and other factors explain why there are not more Inuit working for the Government of Nunavut, Mr. Chairman.
One out of three positions in the Department of Health and Social Services is vacant.
From the perspective of the Department of Human Resources, what accounts for this high vacancy rate and what can be done to address the problem?
For the Department of Health and Social Services, as I mentioned earlier, I have given my authority to hire employees to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
My authority is within the Department of Human Resources but I can consult with Health and Social Services and ask for information. People who are training to become teachers, doctors, and nurses are dealt by the department, but they don’t maintain the figures.
We can look into the matter of his question and maybe the Minister of Health and Social Services could give a better answer to that question. That’s where it’s at, Mr. Chairman.
The GN plans to increase its total size by almost 175 PYs in 2008-09.
The total number of PYs in the GN has increased by almost 575 since the 2004-05 budget.
Why is the department being allowed to increase the number of PYs in their organizational structure if almost one out of every five GN positions still remains vacant?
Mr. Tootoo: Good question.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): My deputy will answer the question, Mr. Chairman.
In terms of PY, the role of the Human Resources is to ensure that the funding is available to create the position before it is created. It is the departments that request that a position is created.
According to the most recent public service annual report, the GN-wide employee turnover rate has decreased to 16 percent. In 2006-07, approximately 474 employees left the GN. What reasons are people giving for their departure when they complete the GN’s exit interviews?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk: I will get my deputy to answer that.
To date, there have been 59 exit interviews collected.
In terms of the reasons why people leave employment of the Government of Nunavut, one of the reasons that employees indicate is that it’s due to the Staff Housing Policy, that it has impacted on their decision to leave.
Other reasons may include that they want to leave the territory and move somewhere south or home.
We have not been able to have a complete analysis of the exit surveys to this point, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Rojas.
How many employees have left the GN in the 2007-08 fiscal year to date and is the hiring keeping up with the departures?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): We don’t have those numbers with us, so we will have to get back to the member, Mr. Chairman.
In 2005-06, your department’s business plan had identified high rates of absenteeism as being a problem in the GN according to the government’s response to a Written Question asked by a Member of the Legislative Assembly… that question was asked by my colleague, so I’ll go to the next question.
I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman; I have one last question.
According to your department’s draft 2008-09 business plan, it is currently re-drafting the initial terms of reference for an Attendance Work Program that meets the duty to accommodate requirements.
What are the main elements of this initiative?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will get my deputy minister to answer the question.
Duty to accommodate means that the employer, the Government of Nunavut, has the legal duty to take reasonable steps in policies and/or conditions of work to accommodate the employees’ individual needs.
This would cover things that would require an employer to accommodate an employee due to something; they have become disabled, due to health reasons, or due to human rights reasons.
Chairman: Thank you, Ms. Rojas. (interpretation) Thank you, Mr. Kattuk. (interpretation ends) Branch Summary.
Page D-5.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. (interpretation) I would like to ask the minister in regard to the staffing policy because they indicated that they have contracts with consultants.
What exactly has the department asked those consultants to do? It seems like there’s more than one project. (interpretation ends) Thank you.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I will let my deputy respond, Mr. Chairman.
In terms of the reference to consultants I made earlier in terms of the leave and attendance consultant, that is an employee of the Government of Nunavut. The person is an employee of our department and their job title is Leave and Attendance Consultant. Many of the employees in our department have the consultant in their job titles, such as Staffing Consultant or Training and Development Consultant.
Mr. Curley: My follow-up to that is: has the department actually engaged, currently, any consultants with their HR staffing, or whatever, in your department, minister?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Code of conduct keeps coming up in the workplace. We are currently using a consultant on how we can deal with this, Mr. Chairman.
Can the minister tell us the amount of the contract and how long the consultants will be contracted?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): I believe our Director of Corporate Services is in a better position to answer that question.
I don’t have that information available at this time.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Loehr.
Mr. Curley: Surely, the minister and the staff have the terms of reference of the contract if they do have a consultant. Were these services requested tendered?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Thank you. Bob Loehr will respond to that question, Mr. Chairman.
For the legal services contract, we go through the Department of Justice to arrange that contract and we have to get that information from them to see how it was awarded.
I think the Assembly is not getting the proper information from the department because I believe all contracts are guided by the contract regulations as well as the Financial Administration Act that anything over $5,000, in my understanding, must be publicly tendered, or if it’s sole-sourced, there has to be a case and a reason for it.
Otherwise, the minister or any of his officials can choose to disregard the tendering policies and the contract regulations.
So I would like to ask again: what is the exact amount? If you have a memory or knowledge of it, what is the contract worth?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Bob Loehr will respond to that question, Mr. Chairman.
The value of that contract is $38,000.
Again, it was arranged by the Department of Justice, so we would have to verify or confirm how it was tendered.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. It appears to be a legal service contract.
Is that what it is and is that why the Department of Justice is responsible for issuing that contract? Who is actually the project manager? Normally, a contact person is specified in all government contracts.
Who exactly is the consultant reporting to?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Bob will respond to that, Mr. Chairman.
The Director of Policy and Planning for HR would coordinate the work, but the dealings with the contractor on the contract would still be back and forth with the Department of Justice.
Could the minister commit to providing more information on that contract and table it in this House?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk: Yes, I will do that, (interpretation) but I believe CGS is responsible for that.
The following question is important, so the minister must answer.
They indicated earlier that they did not have the terms of reference of the contract.
It appears that at one point, the minister’s staff indicated that they didn’t know about the details or whatnot.
I think it’s important that these consultants that are engaged are provided to the House one way or another because it’s important that we understand exactly what the work is being asked for by private consultants.
So will you be able to table the information further and explain to the House exactly what you expected of the consultant during this sitting?
We are in the process of reviewing the Public Service Act and its contents. The code of conduct in a workplace, how they should conduct themselves is in the Public Service Act and that’s why we were getting the help from the Department of Justice.
What we’re trying to do is to determine how those employees are affected by the Public Service Act.
The code of conduct would be best suited to be put in there.
For that reason, we needed someone who has experience in the field.
There are a lot of other things besides that that should be in the Public Service Act and we will be able to keep the members informed during the drafting stage, Mr. Chairman.
Can the minister tell us who has the contracts?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Darlene Johnson.
Is that the only contract you have with consultants within Human Resources, or do you have another contract with regards to the Staffing Policy?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): There are no others at all, Mr. Chairman.
I believe there was another contract about two years ago but the work didn’t amount to very many pages and it cost over $5,000 for one page.
So when it was finally completed, it was very expensive.
I want to ask the minister a question with regards to the staffing policy, what was asked about earlier.
The employees are well liked.
Minister, what I would like to ask is: when students apply for summer jobs, are they selected in the same manner as with term jobs and who does the interviews? How is it handled?
How is it exactly done?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): When we hire summer students, they have to fill out applications or submit a resume, and then their applications are screened. So it’s done basically the same way as term jobs, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. (interpretation) Mr. Chairman, I know that there are a lot of students who apply for summer jobs and I know that in Rankin Inlet, I have seen students who were hesitant because they weren’t going to be selected anyways.
There was nepotism and because of that, they were hesitant to apply.
I wonder if you can get an interview group or an interview committee who will do the actual interviews, possibly consisting of members from different organizations, because they know that summer jobs will open, but if it’s that way, they would have a fair competition and then they would be keener to apply as they get older.
So I would like the minister to inform this House if they do make improvements and how it has been improved. I realized that I didn’t know what to do in those situations because a lot of my constituents work for the government. Can you try and make some improvements?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): This has been an ongoing problem in our department, not only with the summer students but also with the people who are applying for jobs. We have problems with relatives and nepotism.
We have been trying to solve the problem by promotion, education and get it understood, and it is stated in our policy.
Usually, the problem is you might be related to an individual who works in the department and will be trained to be a replacement for a while.
The staffing consultants are part of the reviewing process. When you are applying for a job, it would go through the usual process, but it’s something that’s been an ongoing problem within our department.
It’s something that we will very likely have to look into again, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to thank the minister, Mr. Chairman, for that response.
If you’re going to be making some improvements or try to deal with the issue, is it possible for you to give a briefing to the House when they become available?
I think it’s going to be a lot fairer to the individuals who are applying for jobs.
Will we be informed in this House?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): We could brainstorm on how we can improve the system. I commit to making sure that I get the information to the members, Mr. Chairman.
>>Committee recessed at 17:42 and resumed at 18:16
Chairman (Mr. Evyagotailak): Welcome back. (interpretation) Thank you for coming back. (interpretation ends) D-5.
I just want to follow-up on the question that was asked by my colleague earlier and the minister indicated that they had only one consultant. I’m not sure if that was for the whole department or just on one certain topic or not. So I’m just wondering: in the department, do they have any employees that are on contract, and if so, how many?
I will have Bob Loehr respond to that question, Mr. Chairman.
We do have one contracted service working in a position and that is our chief negotiator contract. Again, that’s a legal services contract as well.
It leads right into my next question. I know the government has given the union its final offer and I know that the union has had their counter-offer on there.
Can the minister or his officials let us know what their final position was and what the final position of the union was as far as offers go?
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): Just a moment.
We have disagreements with the following: housing, how many years they have to work with the government in order to receive a bonus, compensation of the employees, and the Northern Allowance.
Those are the four main areas where we have disagreements, Mr. Chairman.