EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I have that clarification. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for giving me this opportunity.
Mr. Chairman, the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Services has reviewed the main estimates and business plan for the Department of Human Resources for the 2003/2004 fiscal year.
I’m pleased to provide you with the committee’s comments.
The committee notes that the proposed 2003/2004 budget for the department is $19 million, 358 thousand which represents the 78% increase over the department’s initial 1999/2000 budget allocation of $10 million, 836 thousand.
Last year the committee expressed its concern over the impact of the staff housing shortage has had on the ability of the Government of Nunavut to fill its vacant positions.
Members recognize that the staff housing function now rests with the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
This issue none the less has significant impact on the operations of the Department of Human Resources.
In Iqaluit, for example, Mr. Chairman, over 230 positions were vacant at the end of last year.
Members note from the December 2002, Inuit Employment Plan statistics that the Government of Nunavut’s overall vacancy remains around at the 20 percent level.
In other one in every five jobs at the Government of Nunavut stands vacant.
Members remain unclear as to when, and if ever, we can expect to see if the capacity rate of 90 percent, or better.
Members also note that the Inuit employment rate remains stuck at approximately the 40 percent level.
Members note with particular concern that the fact that the Inuit employment rate for Headquarters positions in Iqaluit, is now at only 28 percent. In other words, only 3 out of every 10 Government of Nunavut jobs in Iqaluit is filled with Inuit beneficiaries.
Members would be interested to learn of the work and accomplishments to date of the Government of Nunavut, NTI, and Article 23 Working Group.
According to the department’s Business Plan, the Terms of Reference for this Working Group have been approved.
Mr. Chairman, the Committee was pleased to see the department again table its Annual Public Service Report, and encourages those departments that have not fulfilled their own statutory tabling obligations to follow this example.
Members continue to note with concern the striking gap between the number of beneficiary males and the number of beneficiary females employed by the Government of Nunavut.
According to the most recent public service annual report, while close to 700 female beneficiaries were employed as of March 2002; fewer than 300 male beneficiaries were employed.
It is disturbing that so few male beneficiaries are having success entering and staying in the public service.
Mr. Chairman, the Committee has noted with approval the departmental business plan’s focus on the Inuit Employment Plan.
Members await with interest the tabling of the final Inuit Employment Plan in the House, and look forward to clarification as to whether an official at the Assistant Deputy Minister level will be charged with the task of moving this forward.
Members would also wish to see greater clarity as to how the Inuit Employment Plan division’s 2003-04 budget of $4.7 million will be spent.
Members are supportive of efforts in this area, and remain supportive of such mentoring opportunities as the Summer Student Employment Program.
Members also look forward to an update on the success of the Senior Managers Development program, which was announced last year, and was to have created 15 intern positions across the Government.
Members also look forward to an update on the Workplace Wellness Program.
Last year, the Committee expressed concern over the Government’s turnover rate, which has been as high as 29%.
Although the Committee understand that this rate has recently dropped, it remains concerned that the issue of employee retention be addressed seriously.
Members would also wish to see the public service annual report provide a department-by-department breakdown of the turnover rate brings with it a number of significant costs.
Members note, for example, that the department’s budget for employee relocation remains approximately the same in 2003/20004 as it was for 2002/2003.
This suggests that the number of employees entering and leaving the Government of Nunavut may be approximately the same next year as it was in 2002-2003.
Mr. Chairman, the Committee suggested last year that the department explore the concept of establishing some sort of Ombudsman-like position within the Government of Nunavut to whom employees can go to for assistance – especially for those employees without access to the formal grievance process.
We have not seen any movement on this suggestion.
Members are aware that the department’s business plan states that one of it’s priorities in 2003/2004, is to undertake the process of collective bargaining with the Nunavut Employee's Union.
Given that this major collective agreement expires next week, members will be interested to learn when this process will start.
Mr. Chairman, members have noted that one of the department’s priorities for the coming year was to introduce amendments to the Public Service Act.
I look forward, with great interest to reviewing these and finding out exactly what changes are being planned. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my opening comments.
Individual members may have their own comments or questions as we proceed.
Chairperson (interpretation): Thank you. At this time the Minister and his officials can now proceed to the witness table.
Mr. Kilabuk, if you could introduce your staff.
On my right is Carmen Levi who is my Deputy Minister and Mr. Tom Thompson, Assistant Deputy Minister.
In Committee of the Whole I will give members a chance to speak for ten minutes and once your ten minutes is up, a member may speak more than once to a matter under discussion but not until every member wishing to speak has spoken.
Any general comments for the Department of Human Resources?
I’d like to make a short comment.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and thank you Minister and your staff as well for coming and welcome.
I just wanted to comment on the staff at the Government of Nunavut in terms of the Inuit employment, not just at the present moment but for the future.
It’s encouraging to hear that we’re continuing to increase our Inuit employment.
I want to commend the Minister as well as his ministerial colleagues.
I just want to touch a little bit on the senior management positions in terms of the Deputy Ministers.
I apologise, I don’t have the Innuinaqtut terms for those.
Just on that, perhaps we can do some training for the staff for senior management in that regard in terms of training on the job.
If we had programs like on the job training, I think that would increase the Inuit employment plan.
On the other hand, when you’re looking for staff to fill positions, there’s always the concern where a person hasn’t completed grade 12 or they’re in grade 10.
As well, there’s always that concern where a person looking for employment is afraid that because they don’t have a university degree, for example, when an Inuk is looking for a job and they look at a job add, they get quite concerned because they don’t have the qualifications if it states in the job add that you need a university degree.
I understand for some positions you need a university degree but on the other hand not all jobs require a university degree and when Inuit were looking for a job, looking at where there is a university degree required these people have a set back although they are quite qualified to fill a position, they can train on the job.
As we know, the Members of the Legislative Assembly, when were starting out as young people, we start at a low level and then once you gain that experience of employment, you begin to challenge yourself and you progress.
I just want to stress that, to encourage you to keep Inuit in mind when you’re filling out a job.
We heard from the Minister in his opening comments, we heard from the chairperson, in terms of the 40 percent, because the percentage of Inuit employment seems to be decreasing from where we started in 1999.
I don’t have any other comments but I just wanted to comment on that in terms of the youth who are going to high school.
They don’t have any activities during the summer and I would encourage you to keep in mind that we need summer jobs for our youth.
In some areas or some communities in Nunavut, when they don’t have the information for a summer job, they lose out.
Some summer students in my constituency have asked me and told me that they’re going to high school and would like to find a summer job.
This is a good initiative where the high school students that are going to school get a summer job, it would be a good incentive for them to continue their education; having said that, we should be looking for summer employment for our students.
That’s all I have for now.
Mr. Irqittuq (interpretation): Thank you very much for appearing before the committee.
This is not the first time that I’m not working with your officials Ms. Levi.
I’ve worked with her before that.
I do know that you’re working extremely hard to provide the services and the programs through your department.
In your department there are probably the people who do the interviewing who have a lot more hiring power than you do as the top officials and I think that has to be rectified.
They’ll have to take direction from the top instead of the other way around.
I asked some questions to the Minister of Health and Socials Services and then it was referred to your department and when I started asking the same question to the Department of Human Resources it got lost somewhere along the shuffle.
I do know that each department works extremely hard to provide the best services and programs and for example, if the Health and Services Department asks you to fill a position or to look for a candidate for a position and gives you the required qualifications of that individual or for that position you will have to follow the criteria that’s provided to by the appropriate department.
Though we work extremely hard to fill the positions with capable individuals the Minister of Finance at one time at the first week that the first assembly have their session, I asked the Minister of Finance about how the Government of Nunavut will be recognizing the qualifications of an individual and I will never forget the response that I got from the Minister and it was this.
They said that a qualified individual who has the experience without the necessary qualifications will be recognized and if you don’t believe me you can look in the Hansard in the first week of the session if you would like to look back at those responses that I received.
That was very interesting and I was very receptive to that idea but apparently the rules and regulations and the policies have not been changed to conform to that response that I received the first week.
I think that we have to hire those people.
I do know about jobs out there that require degrees and qualifications and diplomas and so on for professional like doctors and nurses and other professional.
I have no problems with that but what I’m worried about is the ordinary jobs that could be filled by people who have the experience but not necessarily the degrees and so on.
I think that we have to put a little bit more emphasis on that portion.
All Inuit of course would like to be retained once they’re employed and I think that it is up to the employers to train employees so that they go up the ladder.
And there are training positions that are served by Inuit, but they never get out of that training mode, possibly because the one that is decided to go out of that position wants to keep that job.
So of course since election time is coming around we are preening a little bit now and making sure that we look good out there.
If we want to retain our jobs, or if we want to go into the workforce, we have to be aggressive about it.
That is something that is very important to me.
It is something else that I would like to work on.
I will leave it at that for now.
I would like to welcome the Minister, the Deputy Minister, and the Assistant Deputy Minister.
I would like to make a very brief comment regarding the employees that are in the administrative field, the required qualifications, degrees, and so on.
They have to be properly educated.
We have to see more skilled trades people being produced in Nunavut.
I know that in my community there is a qualified mechanic that is a unilingual Inuk.
He does not speak English, but there is a qualified mechanic in my community.
Anyone can get a Trades certificate through training-on-the-job, or through an Apprenticeship Program.
Once I was told by an individual who said that even though some individuals are very educated, they do not have the experience, but then there might be an uneducated individual who has the experience and the capability to fill the position.
I have been in the labour force for 24 years, even though I have never been in a formal school system.
There is a high unemployment rate in the communities, but I think that training is a very important aspect with the new economic opportunities coming up to Nunavut.
I am glad that the Department of Human Resources is able to appear before the Committee of the Whole.
I recognize the Minister, and the Deputy Minister, and the Assistant Deputy Minister.
I support them fully in what they are doing in their Department.
I know that they have a heavy responsibility as the Department of Human Resources because of course you have to be well qualified to fill your positions.
In Nunavut, for those communities that do not have Arctic Colleges, they know job opportunities or upgrading opportunities.
We are communities that do not have much, but we do look for people that are as qualified when we are going to be filling our positions.
When you have very few job opportunities, it is very hard.
And when an individual comes from the south with the required qualifications, they have to be assisted by the local people to help them out in whatever they came up for even though he has the qualifications.
They are employees who, in their job description, are not required to do the interpreting and the translating, but they end up doing it all the time because of lack of resources.
And usually what happens is that because of the help that they receive from the local people, they start going up the ladder and the people who have given him assistance through the whole time are in the same position for a long time.
That is what usually happens in the smaller communities to date.
I am sure it is the same case with your Department.
Today, the Nunavut Government, I think that they should to integrate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
So, as the Department of Human Resources, who will be giving you advice on Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit?
You will have to rely on the Inuit to get the definition of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in your Department and is the case, the people of Nunavut.
And their ambition and their drive to be a part of the workforce are going to be looking at opportunities with your Department.
It is said that there is only 44% that are filled.
As Members of the Legislative Assembly, we want to treat everybody fairly, but it is hard when we cannot get what we want.
We are proud of our employees, but if we look at the Bathurst Mandate and the spirit and intent of the creation of Nunavut, we seem to be going out of track.
We want to be able to work together with the other Nunavummiut to achieve this that is our focus.
We know that in the future, we will not have the Inuit custom in the Human Resources Department, but we would be satisfied if we use the Inuktitut in the workplace.
Using my grand parents as an example, they use to say that some time in the future we might have the looks of an Inuk but we will have a European custom that we will be adapting to.
It is becoming reality.
We have our own language but we are adapting to the changing times, with that we have to use that as a foundation and with that the southern employees have to rely in the Inuit who don’t have any qualifications to help them go through the steps and then we work together, we have to do the same thing with the people of Nunavut.
We have to be able to fill the positions that we want to get into because there is someone that in there in that department who could be a model.
Its something we can achieve.
We have to work on it to make it a reality and you’ll open to more options once you open up.
I am glad that we’re starting to fill up positions with Inuit but I have known a lot of Inuit also who have resigned from the government but we haven’t got the stats of why they resigned.
We don’t know what the reasons are to date.
They have had to be removed and the confidential clause is applied when you’re dealing with employees as that is the case we have to work closely together in order to have everything going and it’s something that is foreign to the Inuit culture so we have to make some adaptations so that we can put in Inuit culture into the government.
We have grand fathered the act from the Government of the Northwest Territories and we’ll have to make amendments to those acts so that they are Nunavummiut and to include Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
With that we are very proud of what you have achieved as a department and I do know that you’ll make adaptations so that it would be meeting Nunavut.
I might seem like I’m against you but we have to work together to achieve a common goal.
I’m just basing my comments on the experiences and what I’ve seen and experienced.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman for giving me the opportunity to make my comments.
General comments. Mr. Alakannuark.
Page 4-5.
Human Resources, main estimates.
Are you on the page now?
Total Operation and Maintenance. $1 million, 960 thousand do you agree?
Total Operations and Maintenance. $5 million, 993 thousand dollars.
Purchased services $2 million, 380 thousand dollars.
In the previous year it was $2 million, 564 thousand dollars.
Is it because you’ll be using less purchased services within the fiscal year 2003/2004?
There’s a reduction there by $184 thousand dollars.
It was in my opening comments, for the collection of data.
I have a question on the compensation and benefits, I see it went up about $200 thousand dollars.
Are those for the new positions or are you creating new positions or is it on the plan that you have hired to date?
Yes, for the new PYs.
Mr. Havioyak: If they’re new, what type of positions are we putting into this?
I’m sure there are one or two positions there, can you just touch on what type of positions.
Yes, I also mentioned it, for the data collection inputting and also for a position to handle transfer in our department.
On page 4-6, I would like to ask a question because in the briefing here it states that the staffing branch, develops recruitment procedures to all the departments of government.
I would like to ask if the Minister can clarify how many teachers we have in Nunavut, how many doctors we have and how many set of nurses we have.
The reason why I’m asking this question is because they’re not hired through the Department of Human Resources.
Before I ask the Minister to respond, also in the business plan, there’s an explanation in the business plan and they start off with the page 4-1, just to give you more information.
I don’t have that detailed information with me right now but I do want to say that in my opening comments, I stated that there was going to be a computer data entry person and once that is in place, we’ll have all that information.
Since we don’t have that information right now, there was one in my other portfolio, which is the Department of Education.
Can I ask a question from this document?
The reason why I am asking this question is there are many employees who work for the Government.
There are close to 2,000 employees.
I am not saying that the teachers are the ones with the majority positions.
Once all the teachers are gone, there are not very many positions.
Where the department did hire these individuals?
That is the reason why I wanted to know the difference between the two.
Also my second question, Mr. Chairman, that the Nunavut Government departments, do they have a Human Resources Officer in each department?
In regards to the first question that you had posed, the Minister had not tabled that information, that is why I did not allow to ask that question.
Once they have been tabled, you can ask questions to those.
In regards to the first question, teachers, doctors, the professionals, they are not hired through the department.
They are following the agreement.
All the departments do have a Human Resources Officer in each department.
Some departments vary in sizes.
Perhaps if I can ask a question.
Community Government and Transportation department, how many personnel officers would they have?
And also for the Department of Health and Social Services, do they have one or two Personnel Officers?
The departments each has one Personnel Officer.
The bigger departments, such as the Department of Education and Health and Social Services have two Personnel Officers.
In your business plan on page 4-10, Summer Student Employment.
You have budgeted $700 thousand dollars, correct me if I am wrong on that, but that is what I see in here.
Were you able to use most of that?
Or were you over last summer on this line here?
Summer Student Employment.
The funding for this Summer Student Employment Program, the funding was not depleted.
How much did you use out of that $700 thousand?
Although we did not expend all of this funding all the applicants were provided funding.
Mr. Havioyak: Maybe another way of trying to get more applicants.
How are you promoting this program within the communities?
Is it through each Department or is there a Department doing all of the advertising on this program?
Yes, our Colleagues here, we are quite concerned about that as well as the Standing Committee.
Yes, we would like to work within the concerns.
In regards to promoting this student summer employment, we do it through the schools, not just within the schools, but we try to utilize all of the public outlets to put this out to the public, we also use pamphlets too.
Yes, I like to the program and so on and you should continue to support it because I know some of our students are not getting employment at other places and this is the program within.
I take it this is only within the Government of Nunavut or are we looking at other businesses that can apply on behalf of the students?
This is just for within Nunavut Government Departments.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regards to my friend’s question, in the Department of Community Government and Transportation and also in Public Works Department, I am looking to see if the students can work within those various Departments.
Like for example, for Community Government and Transportation, if the Department is willing to provide some funding so that they could hire summer students.
They do not provide those kinds of allocations to the Department?
At this time, we only have programs that are run for the Government.
For the summer student employment, they are for all the Departments of Government.
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): For example, there is nothing in Coral Harbour.
There is no Nunavut Government office in Coral Harbour, only the Municipality has the office in my community and it is likewise like that in the smaller communities, for the communities that are non-decentralized.
So, does that mean that the Government will not provide funding for summer student employment for this coming summer?
I would like to clarify to the Member; the students apply for summer employment.
Yes, we have been getting very interesting suggestions on these issues and also, we are looking at ways on how to implement them.
This is not the first time that we have heard this issue from the Member. We have also heard from the various people, but we have not come up with a program for that.
Chairperson (interpretation): Mr. Arvaluk, do I understand that in the non-decentralized communities that the students will not be hired for the summer through this program?
Mr. Arvaluk (interpretation): There will not be summer students then?