Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to return to the Minister of Human Resources, and I want to talk about remote working this time. Can the Minister help the Assembly understand their definition of remote working through sort of a policy example, and can she also explain what she highlights or, say, clarifies for the House how that policy is monitored when people request it? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Finance.
Okay, Mr. Speaker, well, I will try and get through all three of those as succinctly as I can. With respect first to what is remote work, that is defined for us within the remote work policy and guidelines. I don't have the remote work policy and guidelines in front of me, Mr. Speaker, but I certainly can say that it is online and can certainly be referenced. What was next? I've already forgotten, Mr. Speaker; I am sorry. Yeah, I should have written it down. I am sorry, Mr. Speaker. I -- yeah, I didn't write it down.
Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will accept the kind effort of -- so I am not going to give a -- to answer the question so I am not going to try to dig or quip on that process. My question was built around could she explain the policy, how it works and how it's monitored in the sense of transparency. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so I can say right now -- so the remote work policy and guidelines, it really was designed -- it came out during COVID, was an opportunity for folks to go on a formalized arrangement with their supervisor so that people could make a decision or a choice or apply to make the choice to work not necessarily in their office. It was at the time really conceived as an opportunity for people who might live in a community outside of headquarters or regional office to stay outside of the headquarters or regional offices and be able to then still apply for and receive a position. We only have a small number of public servants who are on the working remote work. I should also note one last comment, Mr. Speaker -- mindful of time -- that it is also -- it limits the ability to work outside of the territory. It really is an opportunity to focus on having remote work within the territory and to limit people working from outside of the territory as public servants. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. She got to my next question about the -- the question about how do we put controls on it and manage it.
Mr. Speaker, just clearly in short, the public service annual reports I pulled, both 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, it makes no particular mention of that process. My concern is, of course, it's not mentioned; and, second of all, can we get some better transparency on people working remotely but within the NWT and remotely outside of the NWT, because I've been informed that people are and there is no checks or balances. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, firstly, happy to say that this can go in the public service annual report. So this is one of those times where I can give a bit of a yes to that. We can certainly find -- find certain reporting into that -- into the annual report that we do. And, Mr. Speaker, with respect to out of territory work, that actually has to go -- those applications are scrutinized much more carefully. They do go through the Department of Finance so that there is consistency in the application of that, and we've actually cut down -- initially when the policy came out, I know we cut down on the number of out of territory remote work arrangements that there were and have continued to do so, which is this is why it is going through one department, to ensure that -- that is an area that we get some concerns raised, and so we want to make sure that it is absolutely consistent. But, yeah, we will, again, be able to report more on that in the annual report. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
