Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will ask Ms. Beard to respond to that.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right is Ms. Shirley Desjardins, deputy minister, Human Resources; and to my left, Ms. Michelle Beard, director, corporate affairs, Human Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this time, the time frame for recruitment is the same.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The $688,000 increase is increases and decreases that appear in our business plan. The majority of that increase is the Collective Agreement increase which is $689,000. Also this year, we are going into the next contract so we have to bring some people in to negotiate the next contract and we budgeted $434,000 bringing people in for the contract.

PeopleSoft maintenance and support, we’ve budgeted $21,000. So those are increases of $1.1 million.

We also bring in French language communication services, as I indicated in my opening comments. We also are requesting more money...

I am pleased to present the 2015-2016 Main Estimates for the Department of Human Resources. Overall, the department’s estimates propose an increase of $688,000, or 2.9 percent, over the 2014-2015 Main Estimates. These estimates continue to support the objectives of limiting expenditure growth in order to sustain the long-term sustainability of the fiscal framework.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

the decentralization of a web technologies specialist position from headquarters to Fort Simpson;

the addition of one new position to help us meet our French language services obligations...

The details on position of decentralized positions can be best answered by the Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m going to have a go at responding to as many of these as possible, then have the officials also assist me in that.

Regional Recruitment is a good program. I did anticipate more uptake. We are making some changes that the deputy minister is just going to touch on that we think will improve the uptake as a result of the recent changes that we’re going to be making to that program. Right now we’ve appointed three people and we’re in the process of various stages of hiring six more people and we’re looking at a total of 16 departmental applications. When we are able to...

I do believe that the department feels that they have been assisting with the situation. My understanding is that although the unit that was in jeopardy was moved, the member does not live in that unit so it continues to be in an area where it has flooded or has flooded frequently. We are looking at that now, as I indicated. We do plan to resolve the issue if we can, if we can work in that area and do something with the culvert, as the Member advised. If that is a solution, then we’ll work towards that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that both ourselves and the Housing Corporation have spent substantial sums of money to resituate the house, rent equipment to remove ice from that area. Recently, the Member has indicated to me that there may be a solution, so we’ve just begun discussions with the department from my office to talk about that solution of maybe placing the culvert at a different angle and maybe using some heat trace so it doesn’t freeze in there. We’re just beginning to look at that now, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we are anticipating that the cost of gasoline will be lowered in the communities as well. In the case of gasoline, we want to deliver the gas before we make the adjustment. It appears to be a little more volatile and the gas price could actually go back up and we do believe that some of the gas prices have been rising down south and we could feel the impacts here and in other communities. We are going to wait until we do purchase and deliver before we lower it, but we do anticipate that it would be coming down from what the current prices are now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.