Nunavut needs more local, qualified social services staff, MLAs say

Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu MLA Pat Angnakak questions officials from Nunavut’s Department of Family Services in the legislative assembly’s standing committee hearings on child and family services Sept. 17. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

John MacDonald, acting deputy minister of the Nunavut government’s Family Services department, prepares for another round of questions from members of the legislative assembly Sept. 17, with Mark Arnold, left, deputy director of children and family services, and Ambrose Ojah, child protection specialist. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

A March 2014 report by the Auditor General of Canada says the Government of Nunavut has improved staffing of social service workers in all communities of the territory, but some members of Nunavut’s legislative assembly are sceptical about the quality of those staff members.

Documented figures on casual employees, staff hiring and staff training methods for social workers sparked questions from a handful of MLAs in day two of hearings before the Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on Oversight of Operations on Public Accounts Sept 17.

MLAs posed questions to staff of Nunavut’s Department of Family Services, which employs the territory’s social workers, and also visiting staff from Canada’s Office of the Auditor General.

Discussions revolved around the findings of the Auditor General’s 2014 Follow-up Report on Child and Family Services.

MLAs were dismayed to discover that within the Family Services division that handles child protection, half of the staff were hired by letters of authority.

Letters of authority are used to hire people who do not meet the normal qualifications for social work.

“The reason we issue letters of authority is that these individuals have not at this point in time, complied with the full requirements [qualifications] of an appointed status,” Ambrose Ojah, child protection specialist for the Department of Family Services, told the committee on day one of the hearings Sept. 16.

John MacDonald, acting deputy minister of Family Services, said the department faces an uphill battle to attract and hire fully-qualified staff.

Letters of authority allow the department to hire employees who are “deemed capable” of doing the job under supervision, he said, Sept. 17.

The department, “much like other government departments and employers across the territory,” faces steep human resource challenges, he added.

“We’re dealing with a very competitive labour market, where there are often skill shortages,” he told MLAs.

Joe Savikataaq, MLA for Arviat South, questioned whether the under-qualified employees receive on-the-job training.

MacDonald replied that all employees receive “statutory training” once a year, in October. New employees hired on letters of authority can start work anytime, but won’t receive training until that month, he said.

The auditor general’s staff had little to say on the quality of the training, since it was not part of their 2014 follow-up report.

Still, Simeon Mikkungwak, MLA for Baker Lake, asked the Assistant Auditor General of Canada, Ronnie Campbell, for his opinion on “best practices” for training in Nunavut.

Although the OAG reported in its 2014 audit on family services that community social service worker positions were filled, “we were not able to assess whether or not the training had been achieved in a timely fashion,” Campbell said.

Moreover, “we weren’t 100 per cent certain whether everyone had received the training,” he said.

The share of “casual” social services workers is also high – amounting to 18 of the 60 positions throughout Nunavut.

Casuals are temporary workers employed for fixed periods. Such employees usually fill positions in communities that have no qualified social workers.

“Our position is that in the long term, we want to have indeterminate, stable, local employees, so that we can depend on that workforce,” MacDonald said.

Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu MLA Pat Angnakak questioned why the department doesn’t focus on persuading more Nunavummiut to become social workers in their own communities, instead of hiring largely from the south.

“When it really comes down to communities, it’s about talking to people, and getting them interested in the positions, face to face,” Angnakak said.

Hiring employees straight out of the communities will not be possible without greater help from Nunavut Arctic College, which offers the only program in the territory that teaches social work, MacDonald said.

MLAs agreed that the college’s social work program, unlike other such programs outside the territory, would help ensure that social workers are more in tune with Inuit values and social problems specific to the territory.