Robert Hawkins

I’d like to ask what the Finance Minister is going to do if we know that deputy ministers are signing off human resources money that is designed, protected and passed in this Legislature by a duly elected body when they go behind the scenes and re-appropriate the money for their pet projects. What is the Finance Minister going to do?

Northern job opportunities continue to be denied to the everyday Northerner. Hardworking Northerners want these opportunities, so again I’m saying this not because I am frustrated but I can tell you that they’re frustrated. They’re frustrated because they hear about this job fair in Ottawa, but they are saying to me, why didn’t they do the whistle stops all throughout the Northwest Territories first? Does it mean we can’t go to Ottawa to look for special skills, certain types of hard areas to hire? Absolutely not. It doesn’t mean that. We should show Northerners we care about them first. What...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance.

Please list all examples for the last 10 years in the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs, Public Works and Services, and Transportation where approved human resources dollars, typically listed under the main estimates category “Compensation and Benefits,” appropriated by the Legislature of the day, where money or monies have been transferred from the intended human resources activity to an operations project, program, service or any other activity for which these funds were not originally approved nor intended.

Fur...

The department agencies can manage their vacancies and variances by meeting their goals, delivering their programs and services while staying within their budgets. So, what that’s saying is departments can manage their money by turning around and moving human resource money over to program money. I can tell you, the Finance Minister has witnessed a claim made by senior management where they’ve chosen to use HR money for program needs.

What is the Finance Minister going to do, after I’ve just heard his last response from the last question when he sat and heard the proof, because he was there...

Mr. Speaker, this Legislature approves money to be directed specifically to human resources. In other words, we dedicate money specifically for jobs. The Northwest Territories as of December 31st, had an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. We’ve heard that deputy ministers will move money that is intended for human resources over to projects because they want to fulfil their mandate within their department. My view is they are actually breaking direction laid out by the Legislature. In essence, it’s tantamount, in my view, of breaking the law.

My question to the Minister of Finance is: Will he...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister just said something really interesting, which is the departments can’t advertise all the positions all at once. That’s an interesting situation, because if you go to the career website, there’s barely 100 jobs there and the Minister just earlier said there is at least 1,150 jobs considered as a snapshot of vacancies. So there’s a variance of at least 1,000 jobs and we know that they are actively pursuing, although we can’t find it anywhere, 571 jobs.

So when I asked the question to the Minister – and I will ask it again – do we continue to fund these positions that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a reason I keep saying traditional and discovery math and I’ll leave that up for the Cabinet to figure out. So we work with the number provided by the Minister, which is 1,150, we minus the 571 they call it actively pursuing jobs, we also minus the 161 jobs that the Minister says, well, they’re vacant or dormant, we don’t know what’s happening with them, that still leaves us 418 jobs on the table. We have 20 percent of our government unstaffed and certainly funded.

So where are those human resource dollars going? Who is spending them and who is providing the...

I want to thank the Minister for laying out a clear number in front of us. So let’s work with 161 jobs that are not being pursued, of course. So we’ve ignored for just a moment the 571 jobs that are being pursued. Knowing that we have 161 jobs and we use the typical math of about $100,000 per person, that could now put us into the range of about $16 million are out there somewhere just sitting.

Would the Minister agree that some positions are not being filled by departments and that money is being used for other things that the department has on their wish list other than being directed for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think both Minister Ramsay and Lafferty already introduced him, but I wanted to once again reaffirm a welcome to Minister Okalik. I’ve come to know him over the last number of years and certainly have a great respect for him. One thing that hadn’t been mentioned was he’s also, I believe, the first lawyer in Nunavut, if not close to the top, but he’s had such a distinguished career as a politician and we’re certainly glad by all means to see him return to the House in the Nunavut Assembly and I look forward to the good things he’ll continue to do. It’s a great honour...

Most likely, maybe, who knows, we’re not sure and when would it happen.