Robert Hawkins

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.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What can the Minister do to show us where that money is going? This Legislature votes for that particular money to be allocated for a very specific purpose. I don’t know the FMB rules that tightly to be able to say if you take that money and spend it somewhere else, you’ve breached that. I can’t say that today, but I am certainly going to look into it. How do we account for that money? If it’s not going to these jobs, the public sees it, rightly, as a slush fund to do whatever they want. So how do we know the money is going exactly to what it was designed for and passed...

Can the Minister say for certain that every one of these, whether it is 500, 800 or 1,000 jobs that are open today, that we know they are actively campaigning, because I am sure they are not flying around the country wasting people’s time.

Can the Minister guarantee that every one of these jobs is posted on our careers website, encouraging people to apply far and wide? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on what the Minister of Human Resources continues to keep talking about. He keeps talking about infrastructure.

I fail to understand why infrastructure is such an issue with Northerners being hired, but it’s okay to go to Ottawa to hire people even though we may not have infrastructure here. Maybe the Minister of Human Resources can explain what infrastructure means and, in that regard, why it matters when it comes to employing Northerners but infrastructure isn’t an issue when you go to Ottawa to hire those folks there. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Bureau of Stats website is an amazing source of information. It says there are about 2,000 people unemployed who are looking for work in the Northwest Territories. That 800 set of jobs would do significant damage to that 2,000 level of unemployed, Mr. Speaker.

The last point I will make, in the Handley government it was 5.65 percent unemployment; in the Roland government it was 6.625 percent unemployment; and now in the McLeod government we are now into 8.15 percent unemployment in the Northwest Territories.

What is this Minister going to do to put a dent into this huge level...