EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
If Mr. Joanasie is referring to restricted competitions and this only started last year, just for beneficiaries we’ve had 52.
The current status is 28 are active, 19 were successful, 1 was cancelled, and 4 were unsuccessful. If you go to GN employees, we have 21, but we’ve had since the beginning of November 2015 to the end of December this past year 73 restricted competitions run across Nunavut.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Minister Peterson. (interpretation ends) I’m not arbitrarily trying to change your name. I just called you Mr. Patterson and I apologize.
We know this is a new directive that just started last year. As the minister stated, they are trying to fill some positions and the job competitions are still out there. I believe he stated that there are 19 active competitions right now.
Will you be continuing with this program as a government?
Hon. Keith Peterson: Mr. Chairman, we have seen that running restricted competitions is helpful.
We know that if you have a casual in a position and if you run a competition, there may be other people interested in that position as well. The casual employee and other people in the community may be interested. It gives everybody a fair and equitable chance of applying on the same job.
I would like to move on to something else.
The Public Service Annual Report for 2015-16, starting on page 12, states that some government employees go on education leave and in 2015-16 there were 35 staff members. It doesn’t say if they were beneficiaries or not. Can the minister state whether or not they are beneficiaries?
I’m sorry about the 78 pages of the report or more.
I don’t know if we anticipated having that level of detail, but we don’t have it here. I can get that information if the member is interested.
Mr. Joanasie (interpretation): Thank you. Yes, I will be expecting to get that information.
Where was it now?
Pages 23 and 24.
What I really noticed and talked about recently was my reply to the finance minister’s Budget Address.
It’s around 50 percent Inuit employment right now. On pages 23 and 24 it indicates that there is no change in the numbers.
Even though that’s the case, there are the Sivumuaqatigiit Division and Sivuliqtiksat intern program. Even though those programs are in place, maybe there’s not enough of that happening and that’s why the numbers are not changing.
It doesn’t really say here what other efforts you are going to take.
We all know that part of the $50 million NTI just got will be going to the government.
Have you started making considerations on how you will use this money to turn jobs toward Inuit? I was talking about the 1,200 vacant jobs in the government and how those jobs can be given to Inuit who want to work. Can the system be set up with the $50 million?
I’m not involved myself as part of the board that oversees that $50 million, but I understand that there will be funds available to the Government of Nunavut to train Nunavut Inuit.
That would help us if they get trained and that would help us with our recruitment.
We do have the jobs available for people to apply on.
If they get the proper training and they’re priority hire under the land claims agreement, it would help us.
I’m sure that 50 percent would increase over time.
I do have to point out, though, that although the percentage doesn’t seem to be changing over time, we’re creating more jobs and then more Inuit are applying for jobs.
The actual numbers are going up, but the percentage isn’t changing.
As the minister responsible for human resources, have you considered other things, for instance, if you look at the $50 million, what other programs or initiatives you can introduce as a government to fill more of those vacant positions, especially by Nunavut Inuit?
I apologize to Mr. Joanasie, but training and development has come under Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs. They’re leading the government on that area. Again, like I said in my earlier answer, as a government we’re supportive of priority hiring.
If people can get the training that they need to qualify for the jobs, then there are a lot of good opportunities in the Government of Nunavut at all levels.
We certainly look forward to supporting whatever the final decision is on the programs to train people are.
For the benefit of the listening audience, as the Minister of Finance and responsible for human resources and the collective bargaining for the entire government, he stated that the training of employees is under another department.
Why is it set up in an unnecessarily separate fashion?
My question is concerning human resources. It would seem that my questions on human resources should be under his department, but I get referred to another department.
Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs, because it has a higher profile, has a link to a relationship with NTI. It felt at the time that training and development should be in EIA to give it a high profile, and then they would look after the Inuit employment statistics.
We’re in the staffing and recruitment and labour relations portion of it. That was the purpose of that.
In meeting with a consultant a couple of weeks ago, he was suggesting that maybe training should go back under Finance. That’s just a preliminary discussion.
It would be more preferable to have it under one department.
Perhaps that should be considered in the future.
In the Public Service Annual Report I really noticed this also.
For instance, job competitions are put out. It’s on page 32.
There were 5,059 Nunavummiut who applied for jobs in 2015-16; 412 job competitions were advertised and 327 employees were hired.
I really noticed that there were 5,000 applicants, but there were 6,000 applicants from outside of Nunavut. It also states that 177 were Nunavut beneficiaries hired, but there were also 150 non-beneficiaries who were hired.
Of those 150, can the minister indicate how many were from outside Nunavut?
Before I respond, I have to compliment my officials for this very detailed report. In fact this report was tabled within seven months of the fiscal year-end.
It’s the most comprehensive Public Service Annual Report of the three territories.
I’m very pleased that we provided information that Mr. Joanasie can use to ask us questions. We could probably put 100 pages in this thing and I don’t know if it would cover everything.
Mr. Chairman, when there’s a competition run, it is always priority hire first.
We don’t even look at the second applications until we have thoroughly exhausted the first avenue of priority hire.
I don’t know if we have the breakdown of who are non-beneficiaries from the south. There could be non-beneficiaries in Nunavut that actually applied on jobs as well because there are non-beneficiaries working for the Government of Nunavut.
There are non-beneficiaries living in the communities who, because we’re a public government, are eligible to apply for government jobs, but they know full well that it is priority hire that comes first.
We are still on page C-7. (interpretation ends) We are still at C-7.
I have a short question and I think it was asked yesterday, but I would like clarification. Summer students are hired at the end of the school year.
Can the minister indicate how long the students are hired for?
The program runs from some time in April, I don’t have a specific date, to usually the end of August for summer students.
Again, it could depend on whether the student is in high school grade 10, 11, or 12.
They would have to attend school before they can apply for or get a summer job. Of course for university or other post-secondary students, typically their school year ends some time in April.
They can start work in April pretty much right until the end of August.
That is more or less the time frame.
Let’s say there is more than one summer student applying for a job. There are not too many jobs in the smaller communities. They have the hamlet or the Co-op or the housing organization or the weather station.
Do they all provide jobs for summer students? Can the minister respond to that?
The Summer Student Employment Equity Program is primarily for government departments and public agencies where they have offices in the different communities.
I think Family Services has a pilot project where they would work with entities like hamlets or other employers in town to support them with funding to hire summer students.
When that kind of project is going to be undertaken, who provides the information to the hamlets? If the person is an Inuk, where does this person provide information from about the program to the smaller communities?
I made a Minister’s Statement yesterday about the program so that Nunavummiut and the communities are aware and the students or their parents will become aware.
We’re putting that information out now to let the students know that this program is available again this year.
As I said, it was our most successful year last year with 249 summer students, of which 202 were Nunavut Inuit.
I don’t think he answered my question fully.
It’s part of this. The smaller communities don’t have too many jobs available.
If they wanted to get into, for example, construction or something else, who can they approach?
Who would they approach if they wanted to look for such a job?
The potential employers with those types of jobs available could approach the directors of family services in the different regions, and then they would put them in touch with the appropriate official in the department that could work with them to explain to them the application process and develop their proposal.
Moving on, Ms. Angnakak.
Ms. Angnakak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Good afternoon and welcome.
Under Recruiting and Staffing that I see in your business plan on page 30, I think it’s a fair comment to say that housing is a real issue when it comes to hiring and it’s a complex problem that really doesn’t have an easy answer to it, I don’t think.
I would like to ask the minister: what changes do you feel need to be made so that the PYs that need housing can get the housing?
For example, we hear of instances where nurses or teachers have to room together. They could be strangers, but because there’s a lack of housing, they’re asked to room in one house and sometimes that makes one end up quitting.
What’s the minister’s view on that?
Mr. Chairman, I have been around long enough that I can remember back to the GNWT days, back to the ‘80s or even the late ‘70s with the same problem where there wasn’t enough housing and people had to share houses.
Here we are today with the same problem.
As I said earlier, we require 900 staff houses for all the positions.
A couple of years ago, because we had a surplus, we were able to transfer $20 million to the housing corporation and asked them if they could build staff housing, but that was just putting a dent in the demand for staff housing.
At the community level or the regional level, there are priority housing levels for nurses, doctors, and teachers. I know that’s in there. They have staffing allocation committees in all the regions where the departments have to meet and assign housing to a position.
The only real solution would be more houses. The government has to build more houses. We know that’s a challenge.
We’re already challenged to build public houses and houses for people on social income. Building staff houses is going to be complex.
We have asked the Government of Canada for help to build more houses.
If you’re in a community such as Iqaluit where there is a housing market, we have been encouraging people to buy or build their own houses and move out of their staff houses. That would free up a lot of housing.
There is no easy solution.
This is a decades-old concern on so many fronts in Nunavut.
If you take into account all the housing we need for our residents plus the staff housing, we’re probably looking at over 4,000 housing units.
At an average cost of $450,000 to $500,000 per unit, it’s a very costly proposition.
I agree with you. It’s a difficult problem.
Recently I had somebody get in touch with me that they have been a teacher for quite a while and they thought that it would be a good idea to, perhaps, look at a position in one of the smaller communities, but the problem of the housing issue came up, that there wasn’t a house that came with the teaching position.
I just want you to confirm: are we advertising teacher positions now without housing?
Without knowing specific details about that competition, I really can’t comment.
Well, this person brought that up for me.
He saw that it was advertised without housing.
I think that’s a real concern if we’re starting to go that route for those priority positions.
Since this is a complex issue and there are no easy solutions, has the department thought about looking at this from an independent point of view, perhaps, of what could be done when it comes to positions and housing, and how they affect each other in such a dramatic way?
Of course we do know it’s a serious issue.
As I spoke briefly on it a few minutes ago, it has been a problem for decades, an issue not a problem, but a serious issue, not just for government staff housing; for all categories and even the private sector.
The private sector has struggles with houses for their own employees.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation has the blueprint for action that will allow government departments to work together and come up with plans for how we can address these large issues.
As I said, I have put business cases to the Government of Canada numerous times over the years and we have made solid arguments for why we need investment in housing in Nunavut by the Government of Canada.
We got a little bit, but certainly not enough that addresses all our needs.
I have said in my Budget Address that there is severe overcrowding in housing in Nunavut.
Certainly when nurses, doctors, and teachers are sharing their accommodations, it speaks to that issue.
Yes, I guess it’s a matter of if you take from one pot to put into another, which pot do you take from?
I understand it really does come down to us having to have more resources.
I want to go on to page 31 of your business plan where you talk about an online database for behavioural descriptive interview questions which are underway. You talk about developing, I guess, more to have the culture and that in it.
My question is: how has the culture and the nature of Nunavummiut been taken into consideration when it comes to developing these interview questions?
I’ll ask my Associate Deputy Minister, Ms. Power, to answer that question.
Chairman: Ms. Power.
Behavioural descriptive interviews are really interview questions that allow people to tell a story instead of saying, “Did you do A, B, or C?”
It says, “Tell us about a time that you were able to do A, B, or C.” It’s really more in line with how this culture speaks about themselves.
It’s not putting yourself above other people.
It does give people an opportunity to tell a different story.
We have also changed the way we mark our interview questions.
We have also added two additional points for people who can demonstrate knowledge of the north and Nunavut, Inuit and Inuit societal values, and experience with Nunavut.
Do beneficiaries automatically get those two extra marks?
I’ll ask Ms. Power to answer that question.
Yes, they do in my experience.
Again on the same page you talk about the “profile and branding the Government of Nunavut as an Employer of Choice through social media tools.” How are you going about doing this?
One of the things I have noticed right away when you look on TV, there are ads for Newfoundland and Labrador and the NWT, but we really don’t see Nunavut too much.
What are you doing on that front?
Well, I can tell you from my own experience, I have a Twitter account and although I don’t tweet, I have links to the Government of Nunavut. Regularly I see all the job ads and they come out in all four languages. I get that and through other sources.
I know that they are doing that.
We’re planning through the GN and are encouraged to be the employer of choice.
We’re going to expand on that and create a GN employer page and link it to LinkedIn to ensure maximum visibility so that will get out there. We will continue work in collaboration with Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs to ensure that all the social media outlets are utilized.
I think most of us know that Facebook is pretty dominant in Nunavut communities and that is an area to reach people and again, Twitter and the news outlets. There are a number of areas. That’s what we plan to continue to do.
I appreciate the minister’s response. Just because you’re advertising doesn’t mean it makes me want to actually go work for the GN. What are you doing to say, “Hey, come and work for us because you’re going to get this, this, and that. It’s beneficial for you to come and work for us”?
Where is that message? Is that going to come out and what message are you going to say?
Why should I choose the GN over GNWT, for example, or the Yukon government?
Why should I come to Nunavut?
That’s kind of where I’m going with this.
I understand where you’re coming at.
You can choose Nunavut because there’s lots of vast, open space or you can go to the Yukon, where there are lots of forests and mountains. Here we don’t have forests. It’s similar in the Northwest Territories.
If you’re talking about attracting people from the south, in my opinion, you have to market yourself as a place where you can come and get away from the three-hour one-way commute, let’s say, in Toronto. You can be at work in Nunavut, let’s say in Iqaluit here, in less than 10 minutes.
There are wide open spaces. You sell it as an adventure. There are lots of opportunities.
I recall one time reading the newspaper a few years ago in the south this organization ranked Iqaluit, and I’m just speaking about Iqaluit, as the number two city in Canada for professionals aged 30 and under.
As you can well imagine, I was surprised to read that, but then I thought about it. There are lots of opportunities for young people in Iqaluit and lots to do.
We have to market our territory and our communities, but how you do that is something that we have to keep working on and come put with a plan.
I think, perhaps, one suggestion I could give is if you can ask the present employees for suggestions because they know why they like to work for the GN. It might be at least one small way of being able to then promote that because it would be something that had been tried and confirmed by the actual employees that work for the GN.
I would like to go on page 32 of your business plan where you talk about a GN employee engagement survey. This is to help develop action items for the updated Human Resource Strategy.
What do you feel is missing from the strategy presently?
Our four-year Human Resource Strategy expires in 2018.
As Ms. Angnakak has said, we are engaging employees. We are talking to our employees.
We do send the employees to trade shows to talk to other potential employees who might want to work for the Government of Nunavut.
We do have voluntary employee exit surveys that we ask people what was your experience working for the government who work for particular departments.
We do read those surveys and then incorporate that information into our future planning and strategies.
I want to go to something else now and that is to do with the Summer Student Employment Equity Program.
In 2016 you had 249 students participate and of that 202 were beneficiaries.
I’m wondering: out of the 202 beneficiaries, was that predominantly in the decentralized communities or not?
I don’t know if I have a breakdown of where all the beneficiaries are from.
In Iqaluit, for example, there were 92 summer students, Rankin Inlet had 34, Cambridge Bay had 17, Pond Inlet had 11, and Resolute Bay was the only one that didn’t have any summer students. Sanikiluaq had five, Coral Harbour had three, Gjoa Haven had eight, Cape Dorset had seven, Arviat had nine, Baker Lake had eight, and Arctic Bay had one.
I don’t have the stats in front of me, so I can’t tell who the beneficiaries were in those communities. I just have a global amount. I would presume that the bulk of the numbers in those communities were beneficiaries.
When the hiring of summer students begins, what is the process used? Is that the same process of hiring anybody else, that there’s a hiring committee and all of that?
It’s a little different than our normal hiring process in that the students submit applications unsolicited, then we ask departments to provide us with a listing of where they would like summer students, what role they would like them to play, and then we try to match the skills that they’re looking for with opportunities for students to either use what they’re learning in their schooling or for new opportunities.
It’s just I have heard of students who are in, let’s say, a nursing program and they have a summer job doing some kind of office work totally somewhere else. I’m wondering if that could be looked at too.
I understand where Ms. Angnakak is coming from on that.
Departments can only create so many jobs within a field of study for, let’s say, a nursing student or an engineering student.
If you’re an engineering student, the only opportunities might be in Community and Government Services in a certain community. If you’re an IT student, again, you’re limited by the opportunities there, but you may benefit from some experience working in a department.
I remember being a summer student. I wasn’t too worried about working in accounting in the summer.
I tried to find other jobs because it was all about making money, because you had to pay your way at college or university. If there is not a position that is directly related to the job, we will still try to accommodate them in a job and get them some experience.
I would certainly hope that the department or public agency isn’t just hiring summer students to have them photocopy papers and things like that, but give them some meaningful work. We certainly encourage public agencies and departments, if they’re hiring a summer student, to create a work plan, give them some meaningful work, and then make sure that they get constructive feedback.
At the end of it all, as I said the other day, we want these youngsters, when they do graduate from high school and then post secondary, to come back and consider working for the Government of Nunavut, and then our investment in them would be fulfilled.
I’ve got to talk fast here; I’ve only got two minutes.
Are performance appraisals done on a yearly basis for all employees, including casual and relief workers?
That’s a loaded question from Ms. Angnakak.
They’re supposed to be. We know that they’re not in all cases on indeterminate employees, but they’re supposed to be and there are all kinds of reasons why. It’s beneficial to the employer and employee.
You get constructive feedback. You can identify training needs for the employee.
They can tell you how they feel in their current job and what career opportunities they’re looking for.
They’re supposed to be, but we know they’re not. We keep encouraging the departments to do them. All the managers and deputy ministers certainly know that it’s required.
For the relief workers and casuals, I don’t believe it’s mandatory, but in some cases there will be some feedback to the casual employee about how they’re doing and what they need to do to improve themselves to become qualified for other jobs or higher up jobs as a casual or even an indeterminate employee.
We talked a little bit today about the Auditor General’s report that was just tabled.
I was reading that too and it talked about the Department of Health lacked documented procedures, service standards, or an effective system for tracking and managing staffing actions.
My question is this: does the department of HR have all of these factors in place for the GN overall employment management?
I could state to say yes, but I know Ms. Angnakak is going to want details.
I’m going to ask Ms. Power to provide a detailed explanation.
Chairman: Ms. Power, detailed information, please.