David Ramsay

Mr. Chairman, in the absence of a comprehensive human resource strategy or plan government-wide, I'm just wondering again how the government could make decisions in the area of staffing without a model to follow and how it is that they could just rely on deputy ministers and departments to come back with possible reduction scenarios. That's got to contravene some type of policy. It contravenes good judgment; I know that. But it's got to ring some alarm bells somewhere when we don't even have a comprehensive human resource plan for the future and we're out there hacking and slashing positions...

I’m not going to challenge your direction, Mr. Chairman; however, if the answers were sufficient, we wouldn’t be asking questions in this forum. It’s your prerogative, and perhaps we will ask those types of questions in question period.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll try to keep the question related to the estimates that are before us. The letters are the notification letters that went out to employees.

When we’re talking about the Main Estimates, Mr. Chairman, we’re talking about a reduction in staffing. Fundamental to that was the decision to either send the letters out or not send the letters out. The question I have for the Minister is: what advice did the Department of Human Resources give to the Minister and, in effect, Cabinet to either send the letters out or not send them out? That’s germane to the whole discussion we...

I’m happy to provide some opening comments under the Department of Human Resources. I welcome the Minister and his staff here with us this afternoon.

I do want to ask a number of questions when we get to the detail. One of the things I’m interested in knowing was what advice the Department of Human Resources gave to the government when we were dealing with the notification letters that went out to employees. I’d be very interested to know what the corporate take from HR was on whether or not those notification letters should have gone out in the manner that they did. Some of the blame, I guess...

I’m not a mathematician, but there are 380 employees, or thereabouts, at Stanton. With 12 payrolls that’s probably about six months’ worth of payroll that the department has been paying. That’s about $20 million. How is this transaction recorded between FMBS and the authority? How does it appear on the books? And where is this $20 million coming from?

Did the Department of Human Resources give any advice or recommendations to Cabinet prior to Cabinet making the staffing reductions? Mr. Chairman, I think that’s the crux of my question.

Mr. Speaker, I want to continue in my line of questioning for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets back to the $11.5 million accrued deficit that is currently at play at Stanton Territorial Hospital. I find it very disturbing to hear the Minister’s comments that FMBS has been stepping in to assume responsibility for paying the payroll at Stanton.

Mr. Speaker, this $11.5 million doesn’t accrue overnight. It builds up over years. I’m wondering: what has the Minister done and what has the government done to address the deficit at Stanton Territorial Hospital?

If the department is responsible for the legislation and the policies and procedures that govern Human Resources, you know, as a corporate entity, the GNWT, then it would just make sense to me that, you know, whether it’s a stamp of approval or not, the proposed staffing reductions see the experts at Human Resources to make sure they pass some kind of test, whether they pass the procedures and policies that are in place — or the government just rushes out and does what they want.

Again, I think what’s happening, Mr. Chairman, is I’m getting a picture that this reduction exercise wasn’t well...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank the Minister for letting everybody know that I attended that committee briefing. Thank you.

I also wanted to ask the Minister — and she mentioned it. Between a year and a half and two years ago, when it appeared through a supplementary appropriation, and today, what is causing the cost overruns and the accrued deficit in our health authorities? The Minister should know what is causing that, and we should be able to address it, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, some of the stories that Members have heard — and, again, we waited three weeks to actually get any information from the government in terms of the positions that were being impacted. I'm just wondering how that could happen. How could it take three weeks for the government to let Members know which positions were being impacted?

Some of the stories that Members have heard from constituents, where they're put into a situation where it's every man for himself or every woman for herself. There are three positions left in a shop and there are four people there, so somebody…. It's...