Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The same line of questioning on this from me, as I am still not clear on how the positions, the PYs, are being reported. I just want clarification on why there are only nine positions in headquarters Yellowknife, and 136 positions in the region, and also 69 positions in the Fort Smith region. I am trying to determine if the department is counting these positions by where the individual is located or if it is a question of function.

Mr. Chair, I have another line. First of all, just before I close off on the human resource planning, I think it’s essential that all departments that develop human resource plans are operating with the same system. If one department has a comprehensive section in how affirmative action is applied and how they apply affirmative action, then all departments should do it. If one department has a requirement to cross-culturally train their employees who come from the south, who are hired from the south, then every department should have it. Okay? That’s enough said on human resource planning.

Some...

I’d like to know how much involvement in human resource planning the Department of Human Resources has. I don’t see a human resource plan as something that has some statistics in it and some intentions. I see a human resource plan as something that’s comprehensive, that looks at career development, internal careers — looking at exactly what types of human resources will be needed to continue operations and so on — a comprehensive human resource plan. The support for human resource planning….

Maybe I should I get the Minister to answer that. How much involvement is in human resource planning?...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m kind of waiting for the right spots in the budget to come up, in order to ask some questions, but I think the questions have been fairly general, so I’ll go through my list here.

First, I’d like to talk a bit about the self-service system that’s in place with the GNWT. I feel like the self-service is an exercise of frustrating employees. I wanted to know if the department has done anything to evaluate the feasibility of going back to the simple system that was in place previous to the self-service system, or if they’ve looked at other options that are more economical...

Does the department have, as a standard, an assessment of the skills of the unemployed people in the smaller communities — or unemployed people, period, I suppose?

Mahsi. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke of the unemployment and employment picture in Tu Nedhe communities. I’d like to follow up with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

The employment section of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in Yellowknife has career development officers who work closely with Income Support officers as a part of the Income Support Program. How does the department plan to reconcile the problem as far as career development in small communities where there are no career development officers?

I don’t have much time left, so I’ll be more, I guess, to the point with this question. Human resource planning: is there an across-the-board standard the department provides to other departments — including such things as an affirmative action plan or policy inside the human resource plan, any sort of cross-cultural training that may be required for southern recruits and so on — like you said, from the time they start their career until their career is over?

That’s good. That’s, I guess, some career-pathing. I guess my question is: does Human Resources have a standard or a framework that each...

Thank you, Minister. I think the self-service system is more than just pay. I think that’s the only time I’ve heard anything positive said about it: that it’s easy and it’s timely for shift workers to get their pay. There are all kinds of other problems with the system that can’t pick up a person who works through a holiday without that person having to enter into the system and so on.

Also, within the management of the GNWT, unless you have another backup system — a pack of paper system, which is what we had already before we spent all this money on this system — you really can’t keep track of...

Can the Minister provide this Member with a plan on what happens with the Income Support program and the clients in the Income Support Program in the area of career and employment development?

What tools do the career development officers have? I know the Minister’s responding as to what they do, but what tools do they have at their disposal for dealing with industry replacing Income Support clients and jobs with industry and industry-related employers?