Tom Beaulieu

I recognize that the Minister of Human Resources is not solely responsible for the Affirmative Action Policy. I would like to know if the Minister is prepared to have a regular role, maybe during committee or anything, on a regular basis conferring with other Ministers of other departments to ensure that each department has a human resources plan that also has the contents of what is needed in order to increase Priority 1 hires in the GNWT. Thank you.

No, that's what I'm looking for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member's statement I talked about the Priority 1 candidates in the GNWT, or employees in the GNWT. I would like to ask the Minister of Human Resources, would the Minister reexamine all the programs, policies, and initiatives that are designed to increase the number of Priority 1 employees in the GNWT to ensure their efficiency? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask the Minister who's responsible, which Minister or is it the Premier, that's responsible to give direction to the Ministers to ensure that their departments do have human resource plans?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister at the Department of Human Resources is made aware by other departments if other departments are considering reducing the amount of PYs in any particular community, especially the small communities. I would like to know if the Ministers have an obligation to advise this Minister or the Premier when they are reducing PYs, not necessarily people, but the position in various communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, that is where we run into problems. If you have a qualified Priority 1 candidate, but there is only one, because for some reason the department makes a decision that it would not be appropriate to only interview one person, I wouldn't know what the problem would be, but if that is a decision made, as the Minister just indicated, there is a possibility of a Priority 1 or non-priority candidate who would be interviewed. And that is where the problem comes. With that scenario, then, if the Priority 1 candidate passes the interview but is way behind in the scoring against...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, under this category I want to ask more questions about recruitments since this category includes recruitment. I am not going to request to go back to the previous category, but I do have an additional question on a Priority 1 candidate and the Affirmative Action Policy. Could the Minister advise me why it would be necessary to go beyond interviewing anyone else if you have Priority 1 candidates that are qualified for the jobs that they are applying for? Whether it be a Priority 1 candidate individual or whether there be several Priority 1 candidates, why...

What I am saying is a qualified Priority 1 candidate goes to interview and does fail the interview, it has nothing to do with the procedure of it, went through all of the procedure, but the individual is feeling that whether it was the written assignment that, according to the individual, was not given a fair assessment on the written assignment, or that during the interview the individual was not considered to be a good candidate by the people doing the interview and got a failing grade. A person that doesn't have a priority status wins the job over the person. The person is feeling that that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I want to just dig a little deeper into the appeal process. I recognize that the appeal process is appealing procedural errors, but many of the people that actually launch the appeal thing to appeal process is something else, sometimes like perhaps maybe feeling that they weren't being treated fairly or that there is a bias in the process because the individual that just happens to be the casual that comes out to be the best candidate for the job most times which is kind of indicating to us that maybe if you get your foot in the door and you learn a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask if the Minister would consider developing a new strategy for increasing Priority 1 employees across the GNWT public service, including the development of a human resources plan by each department. Thank you.