GN closing in on draft policy for remote work, HR minister says
Tununiq MLA says the policy should make working from home fair for all government employees
Tununiq MLA Karen Nutarak questions Human Resources Minister Adam Lightstone about Inuit employment policies within the Department of Human Resources. (Photo by David Venn)
Nunavut’s Department of Human Resources has almost finished a draft policy on remote working for Government of Nunavut employees, according to the minister for the department.
A finalized policy may be presented “within the coming months,” Adam Lightstone said Wednesday in the legislative assembly.
“[The pandemic] has shown that the Government of Nunavut is capable of allowing for and accommodating employees who wish to work remotely,” he said.
Lightstone made the announcement while responding to questions from Tununiq MLA Karen Nutarak about Inuit employment, but he did not give any details on what the policy may entail.
In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic sent government employees home, many people working for the GN chose to work from the south, Nutarak said in an interview.
“It was not fair for other staff, for the essential staff who had to work, [who] were not able to travel due to restrictions,” she said, adding that all government employees should be treated equally.
Nutarak wants to see a policy for government employees requiring them to stay in their communities while working from home.
She said such a policy would discourage southern workers from applying to government jobs in communities, and leave room for Inuit hires.
“We need to make every effort to increase the number of Inuit who are employed in our communities,” Nutarak said.
The Nunavut government has a goal to reach a 58-per-cent-Inuit workforce by next year, up from 50 per cent in 2020, according to report released that year.
The long-term goal, according to the report, is to reach an Inuit workforce that matches the proportion of Inuit across Nunavut, which is 85 per cent.
Nutarak also noted the government’s Inuit priority policy was due for a review last summer, and she asked Lightstone if the department plans on making any changes to it.
Lightstone said the Inuit priority hiring is working effectively, and the department isn’t looking to make any changes.
“Nutarak wants to see a policy for government employees requiring them to stay in their communities while working from home.
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She said such a policy would discourage southern workers from applying to government jobs in communities, and leave room for Inuit hires.”
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This is nothing but shortsighted, anti-south nonsense coming straight from an uninformed MLA. Do you really think anyone is going to opt to “work remote” from their 8×10 GN staff housing? Do you actually believe jobs like project managers, engineers, consultant, legal, comms, finance and other jobs requiring a university degree that are all done from a desk, more often by professionals on contract in the south, are taking Inuit jobs? Reality check: there are not enough Nunavummuit to occupy these fields so stop pretending there are.
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Anything short of a policy that says: “your job and your attitude indicate you can work remote, with minimal or no oversight, and you have put in enough years here in the North to understand the department and the public it serves, so feel free to work remote from anywhere in Canada” is pointless.
I fully agree with your comment. If anyone believe remote work is feasible then it should be working from places where there is high quality of internet for cheap prices. Working remotely in Nunavut means each staff wants internet devices from their departments and then complain how slow the internet speed here in Nunavut and to work remotely so they cant do much of the work.
This MLA should educate herself on how Canada is moving on remote work for half of their staff with lot of benefits for the employers. Just to say, office space is available for another use, staff working extra hours without being late to work on traffic. And for Nunavut there might be more benefits with less staff housing need which can be used to address homelessness and also GN can save on Northern allowance if long term job placements can be executed with staff working from south.
During the pandemic lock down I was living in Iqaluit while working remotely for outside of territory. Even teaching online using several online tools at the same time. Except for a couple of times with bad weather, I worked perfectly with the internet service provided. I was lucky enough that northwestel had raised the cap and I could work and teach without paying extra GB
As a certified PM and an Inuk, yes I do believe allowing these positions to be filled remotely would be taking(more) jobs away from Inuit.
The capacity of Inuit will grow over time and every opportunity for these positions to remain within this border is critical to future development. Tax dollars given to Nunavut need to stay in Nunavut. It is your vision that is short sighted on this matter.
Nonsense Darren. Priority inuit hiring policies already give any qualified Inuit the job over pile 2 and 3. I have seen them turn down 10 years experience from the south for new inuk grads. Seeing as there are probably 40 project management jobs at cgs available to be filled it is obvious you are an exception. Any remote policy could be adjusted over time when more locals are qualified, which is looking like maybe next generation.
With 99% of all tax dollars coming from outside on Nunavut your keep money local point rings hollow.
Explain how a remote work scheme would “take jobs away from Inuit”? There is still a hiring process that prioritizes Inuit, and we all know HR bends over backwards to ensure Inuit get those jobs. That won’t change.
So can you explain how this opens the door to Southerners taking away Inuit employment?
It doesn’t.
Like many comments here, yours is hasty, unreflective and lacks seriousness.
There are many Inuit I know who have opted to stay in their communities instead of moving to Iqaluit for higher level positions. They have university degrees capable of taking positions that would require them to live in Iqaluit but choose to stay home. I’m sure there are also Inuit in Iqaluit who would rather live in their home communities right now if they had the chance to do so. It would allow the wealth in Iqaluit to be spread out in Nunavut, every capital city hogs all the high paying positions. That also limits the economic growth in the smaller communities.
The way you are thinking is exactly the way we should expect the future to look. You’re right this is one way wealth could be more equitably redistributed.
Of course, there are jobs that can be done well remotely, and jobs that can’t. I think people are having a hard time reconciling themselves to the idea of “remote work” (really, work from home) because they have deeply felt beliefs that that work is a burden we inherit on good moral grounds, that we must occupy a certain space and time regardless of the pure drudgery. Work is hard and we must report to work because it is our duty.
Of course, this is a practical and functional position to hold. We do it, we believe in it, because it works. It keeps things going, and the discipline it takes to achieve it makes us better people. These are fair things to want to protect.
The problem, I think, is that from there we can’t see the possibilities of what good, productive work can look like. An 8 hour workday might not only be cumbersome, it might even be inefficient.
Working irregular, off hours, at one’s one choice (knowing when we are peaking and when we are slumping, and using that knowledge to work better) might actually be a better, more efficient system that might accomplish more for us as individuals, and as a society.
For the cynics, my job cannot possibly be done from home. I’m not arguing this because it suits me.
There are also a huge cohort of Nuanvut Inuit in Ottawa who could work too. Good for the GN’s inuit numbers and good for them to serve the public in their homeland.
What is the plan to encourage them to return? I’m thinking something along the lines of the provincial programs that the Gov of NB has run in the past to encourage diaspora NBers to return to NB from Alberta, etc. They used to advertise in Alberta newspapers something like “Come back to NB and buy a house…or two”.
What would a similar program for Nunavut look like?
By working remotely, they don’t have to return. I believe that is the point?
The GN’s IT system is about 15 years behind every other government in Canada. Good luck with this.
Also, they want to talk about how unfair the whole situation has been over the past few years? How about the people who stayed home every day with kids, simply because the daycares were closed, didn’t do a single second of work, but still got paid 100% of their salary while the rest of us did everything we could to try to keep the government running? How about making it so managers can actually fire the workers who take 50+ days off per year with ridiculous excuses as to why they’re taking those days off (or, most of the time, not even notifying their manager that they won’t be in)? The GN has employees getting 25 year service awards who haven’t even actually come in for 10 years worth of work days.
15? I don’t disagree with your premise, just the number. Closet to 20 I’d say..,
They were forced to update to office 365 after the ransomware attack in 2020. You can work anywhere with a personal laptop unless you need specialty access to the shared drive materials or certain non-cloud apps, in which case CGS issues laptops with the access required.
Ha! Talk to the college – they’re still running 2010 or 2016 in the communities – 365 is only in the bigger municipalities.
Some will disagree, but I wholeheartedly agree that people working for the GN should not be living in the south.
Maybe you can elaborate why? If this happened: no local jobs are being taken (there is no one qualified), no productivity is lost (awarded to high performers only), key staff are retained (proved their mettle over time in hard to replace positions), housing units are freed up for frontline staff (nurses, corrections) and social and NAC student housing, and the GN saves on average $20k/year in northern allowance and $40k for each staff relocation.
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Where is the negative? Are we still living in a fantasy that everyone will build and buy their own house and live in Nunavut forever?
They start by saying if you work for in Nunavut for the GN for 5 years(that is unfortunately viewed as a long time in Nunavut) and you work well you can be approved to work from the south. they leave. then they work a few more years (the average time anyone in Canada stays in the same job is from 3.5 – 5.5 years anyway) then they quite.
But it will be so easy for the GN to then say well the job was already being done in the south so why one keep it there. That means that new person has not gained any Nunavut Experience and will not understand even a bit of how life in Nunavut is.
Living here, feeling the cold, seeing blizzards, running out of water at home, not having food on the shelves at the stores, hearing first hand stores of over crowding(though i wish this was not a reality) they are part of Nunavut life, and ARE IMPORTANT.
The “slippery slope” idea you’re conveying is misplaced. Right now GN hiring policies make it so that managers don’t ever see candidates from outside the territory (pile 3) until all pile 1 (Inuit) and pile 2 (Nunavummuit) are tested and interviewed. If someone did quit after working in the south, the job would be available to Inuit and Nunvummuit first, failing which a southern hire might be considered. The policy could require them to work in Nunavut for a set amount of time to get an understanding of the territory and people. Think a bit bigger here,
I will briefly elaborate. You claim no local jobs are being taken, but for every GN employee located outside the territory, that means fewer dollars spent at Northern, or Coop, or the local gas station, the local hardware store, the local restaurant. Fewer dollars spent on local contractors, maybe fewer flights, fewer sealifts, fewer local guides hired. Jobs may not be taken, but they will be lost, and the economy will suffer.
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The reason that the Nunavut Public Service is highly bloated and subsidized by the feds, and we all know that it is bloated, is because it is used as an industry-starter. You can’t just start a restaurant for a small group of people with no jobs. But you pump in federal dollars and employ people, and those people will want to eat at a restaurant, they’ll need to buy groceries, and gas, and all of those other lovely private-sector supplied things. If you send the public service sector money down south, you will lose.
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I can agree that remote work may free up housing units in a place where the housing need is severe. But I think a better solution is to build proper infrastructure in the territory, not to remove assets (people) from it. You say that’s a fantasyland, well… Sure, but I’m going to work towards it, even if it won’t happen in my lifetime, rather than give up and work against it.
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I also think that if you’re not living in the territory, you don’t really know what’s going on. You don’t see the daily life. You don’t know the people. I just don’t think a public servant can’t effectively serve the public that they don’t know, in a place that they don’t understand.
With the GN having $15,000 per year per employee in Iqaluit free due to no northern allowance, and another 30,000 per employee in saved relocation, they can reinvest that into the community directly. There, the lost income tax to the GN has been recovered.
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The idea that a remote work policy, which will benefit a few high performing and skilled employees (think regulated professionals) will mean less cashiers, flight attendances etc have a job is nothing but hyperbole. There are simply not enough people working today, with no WFH policy, so it is clearly not going to make it “worse”. Every private store can hire 5-20 people today. Canadian North could hire a dozen more ground staff and many more flight attendants. There is work here, just not enough people willing to do it. WFH will not increase that. It will free up units and apartments for that. As you know, these types of “labour” roles at the GN have no associated housing – it is rightly allocated to professionals first.
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Also, the idea that “you don’t know what’s going on unless you are here” is a a bit unfounded too. Nunavut is the landmass of multiple provinces. People in Iqaluit do not know what it is happening on a daily level in Kitikmeot. They read the news. They can equally read it from the south. If you’re dialed in on a daily level doing project management in another community from Iqaluit, the fact that you go over to the Blackheart doesn’t make you more connected with the job or the people in the other community. An ‘extreme’ example for you: the vast majority of Nunavut Tungavik Inc’s senior management and staff live and work from Ottawa. They somehow advocate for Inuit while not living here. Seems to work for them, Arctic Coop, Northern, Sealift, Government of Canada, so why not the GN?
People in Iqaluit don’t know what’s going on in Kitikmeot, and Kitikmeotmiut resent them for it. NTI brass don’t know what’s going on in Nunavut, and Nunavummiut resent them for it.
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But they’re great examples of remote work working, sure.
This short-sighted is the reason for keeping housing issue for Inuit and make GN pay for the high cost of subsidizing staff house.
In addition pay for staff working remotely in Nunavut with high internet cost because they don’t want to use their internet for work, only for them to use it for all needs beyond GN work.
This is one of the best chances GN got to lessen the burden on subsidize housing and Job unable to fill because of housing shortages.
Many jobs can be done remotely. I applaud HR for starting a policy regarding remote work. Remote work, assuming work would involve working from southern cities, will free up for housing in every community.
Before the comments come along saying that people will do nothing at home. Lets be honest, people who show up for work would still do nothing.
“She said such a policy would discourage southern workers from applying to government jobs in communities, and leave room for Inuit hires”
These policies already exist. No southern worker will ever get a job with the GN over an equally qualified inuk. It’s in the NLCA.
Or, sometimes, an unequally qualified candidate. Since we are being honest.
I’m not sure I understand the argument here, maybe someone can help me work this out?
“Nutarak wants to see a policy for government employees requiring them to stay in their communities while working from home.”
Is Karen proposing that jobs that can be done remotely ONLY (this is key) be done in the community where they are located? So, in the case where a job is awarded to a southern hire, let’s call them ‘pile 3’—don’t forget, priority hiring gives Inuit first crack at all GN jobs—they will be forced to move to the community where their job is located, but once there they can work from their living room, not in the actual workplace?
How odd is this?
Think about this, that housing unit where they now live is one less space available for the people of the community. But you might say well, we don’t actually want southerners, we are trying to disincentivize them, we want to make sure they stay in the south, right?
But the southerners who want to move here will come as they already do. What exactly changes under this scheme? Are you proposing that pile 3 be eliminated altogether? How about pile 2 while we are at it? Is that what is being suggested?
Okay, what about the Inuk who lives in Igloolik and is hired by a department headquartered in Iqaluit? Would they be forced to move to Iqaluit, made to live in an apartment there, just so they could work from home?
This doesn’t seem well thought out
What about a person who works remotely from their home in Arviat, let’s say this person could be Inuk or non-Inuk (remember, they won their competition either way) and they want to move to Rankin Inlet. Despite the fact that they work remotely, would they have to give up their job?
Not only does this appear to negate the purpose around having a remote work policy, it also seems to negates the potential benefits. For one it might free up housing for people in our communities.
This seems poorly thought out, Karen… I mean very poorly. I am frankly a little embarrassed for you on this.
Adam’s policy will in all likelihood be a copy and paste job of the GNWT remote work policy released this year.
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It boils down to: can you do your job remote? Go ahead, so long as you reside in the Territory. It would be tokenism that will only help a single digit number of people in remote communities work from home for jobs located in Iqaluit (if their wifi works).
that would be amazing to eliminate pile 3 all together 🙂
It would also be illegal and in breach to every free trade treaty in force in Canada, including ones the GN is a signatory. Local contract preferences are prohibited in most cases.
The Nunatsiaq edgelords think they say intelligent things, but only show how bitter, dissatisfied and unable to accomplish much of anything tangible in life they are. So, they project their misery and dissatisfaction onto a world that for some inexplicable reason hasn’t rushed out to meet and coddle them.
Poor children they are, it must be “pile 3” to blame for all this…
This post would be an accurate example of irony.
Dear meohmy, I am with you.
Why stop at eliminating pile 3? Let’s really show them and eliminate all transfers of cash to the GN from the federal government; let them keep their 2 billion a year.
Our GDP will be on par with Burundi, but it will be our GDP!
Because you could never hope to compete?
It’s ok, I get it; I Article 23’d into my current job too.
The GN is closing in on a work from home policy.
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I expect it to get there the same day it gets to 85% Inuit employment.
Maybe everyone should have a reality check that 85% is not required under the land claim, is not attainable unless you abolish child labour laws, and would be more challenging than ever seeing as in 2022 you basically need a masters degree to do anything other than flip burgers (vs 1999 when if you could spell your name you were hired) and Inuit by and large are not going post secondary.
She seems to be completely out of touch with reality. Some MLAs will say just about anything to fuel resentment. It is a strategy that works well to get votes. How else did Trump win in 2018?
What are we doing when we arrive at a place where we come to think disincentivizing educated and experienced people to come work for us is a serious, forward moving strategy?
We should not be looking to cut people out of the equation. No where in this scheme does the quality of our workforce ever come into question or is it ever imagined. And why not? In Nunavut job distribution is always viewed as a zero-sum game. In other words: what you get is what I lose.
Our attention should be turned to a longer-term strategy that improves the quality and the preparedness of our work force. We should be devising ways to make ourselves better, instead, we scheme to artificially exclude people, to inflate numbers just to make us feel like we are winning some cosmic struggle over the parasitic ‘outsider.’
I wonder when will our ‘leaders’ ever speak up against it? Are they too cowardly? I think they are. But more than that, I think many of them hold this same mind set. So, it is not simple cowardice, it is a deeply cultivated ignorance.
I suspect that people who use tactics like this must feel it is an easy way to ingratiate themselves to public sentiment, and to a good measure that probably works. But it is not just a sentiment, it is our zeitgeist, and if you can see that, you must see what an ugly thing we have become.
Thought we were fighting systemic/Institutional discrimination and racism. Oh well.
Why is the GN lying? There are already several employees who are working outside of the territory under private arrangements
The author of the article, David Venn, wrote:
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“Nutarak wants to see a policy for government employees requiring them to stay in their communities while working from home. She said such a policy would discourage southern workers from applying to government jobs in communities, and leave room for Inuit hires.”
DAVID, what, exactly, did Ms. Nutarak say? I want to know precisely what she said on the matter of remote work before I comment
What’s all the noise about this? GN already has people “unofficially: working from outside the territory including HR staff through cronyism.
I’m shocked at the number of people commenting on this thread who seem to support the idea of Nunavut public servants living in southern Canada while working remotely for the government. Sure, modern technology could allow Nunavut to outsource most of its public service, but this concept is beyond ridiculous and runs completely contrary to the whole purpose of having created Nunavut in the first place. If you work for this government and make a living from it, it goes without saying that you should be happy to live in the place which is giving you your livelihood. How selfish and hypocritical could you be to say on the one hand that you are a proud GN public servant but, on the other hand, you would never be caught living in such a place!! My God, do people who support such an idea actually think about that!!!
“ …it goes without saying that you should be happy to live in the place which is giving you your livelihood. How selfish and hypocritical could you be to say on the one hand that you are a proud GN public servant but, on the other hand, you would never be caught living in such a place…”
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It does not go without saying that you must live where you work. I enjoy the work, but I like having potable water, useable internet and reasonably priced goods. I want a house I own. I have family and connections to attend to. It is not selfish to want better living conditions to have a family. I do a great job. I provide work above and beyond. I am not easily replaceable.
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If this was a one way street I would agree with you but The GN desperately needs to do something different. Housing crisis. Staffing crisis. Competence crisis. Time to think big and get with the times. If Departments area authorized and actually pay consulting contracts for remote workers there is no reason why the same departments don’t offer the same to tenured, loyal and high performing employees. There are no pitfalls.
The irony is that these consultants are only needed because the GN fills positions requiring some level of competence with people that have no level of competence. This results in the work needing to be completed regardless, so the only option is to hire consultants to do the work that the initially hired individual was unable to do. This ends up with the GN worker sitting back and collecting pay, while the southern consultants make tons of money that could have stayed in nunavut if the GN had hired the right person in the first place.
Should I never have an opportunity to work for the public service? I live in Edmonton Alberta in order to receive life saving medical treatment. Nunavut is my original home, where I was born. I’m also an educated executive with 25+years experience. I have to live in the south to survive. Should I not ever deserve an opportunity as a Nunavut beneficiary? Think outside the box. Many of us cannot contribute to the territory we lived in for so many years. Urban Inuit are never considered ilaa. Think beyond, u must pivot in business. This is how business is done today.
I guess I’m a little confused about the purpose of this policy. I initially thought it was to develop a policy to develop some guidelines for working from home during pandemics or other crisis/public emergency but it seems to be going in another direction. If you can work remotely from home effectively you could be living in Istanbul or Beijing or wherever . It wouldn’t matter where you are living if the contract is allowing you to work remotely. A lot of people do in fact work that way in this technological age. If all you need is your laptop/desktop computer and a phone there is no need for you to be in a specific location only that you meet the expected level of productivity. I don’t know how sticking the section about Inuit in there helps this discussion. Inuit can also work from home or a different location if they chose to do so (but if you live in my house with all these kids you would be happy to go the office for a while LOL). The number of Inuit in GN jobs has increased dramatically since 1999 and will continue to increase as years go by and people get more education, learn a skill/trade. It is not going to happen overnight and we don’t help anyone by putting uneducated/untrained people into positions they are unequipped to handle. They will inevitably quit because the stress of not being able to perform will weigh on them. I say use the working remotely option to fill some of those skilled positions that the GN can’t seem to fill. Educated/skilled labour might be more accessible from different locations around Canada if they didn’t have to move to Nunavut, uprooting their family etc….. maybe they could jst come to the location a few time a year? That would be a lot cheaper than paying for removals etc….
Why are working from home anyways?
Work from home will always get abused. There are doctors working from the south right now (not specialist doctors, but doctors who are hired full time in Iqaluit who want to live in Toronto and get paid the same amount). I want my doctor to be in the territory. It is insane on so many levels.
There are only a few positions where this would be feasible, not every job can be done remotely.
But doctors are not GN employees, they are paid on locum contracts at absurd rates ($1000 per day minimum). Health Department can justify it because they are not “employees”. This is the irony: the GN already pays doctors, project managers, engineers, and basically everyone in HR senior management through contracts that allow them to work remote and fill employee roles as consultants. Certain employees should be afforded the same option, since they’ll just leave or become consultants like those who are. Let’s stop pretending it isn’t already happening and let’s expand a policy that retains high performers at the GN.
Instead of 7 out of 10 GN workers staying home on leave or without notifying their supervisors, let’s get that number to 10 and let’s get them paid.
I can agree with you that something like 70% of employees should never be eligible for working from home. Their jobs don’t fit (custodian) or their personality doesn’t fit (a ton of AWOL and sick leave, need helicopter management). However, there are a good portion of employees in certain professions and divisions who could and should be afforded the opportunity. The GN can’t run without them, or at least can’t run well, and retention should allow performers and those who understand Nunavut from living her for a few years the opportunity to carry on from wherever they like.
If the GN did away with social passing, students in Nunavut and the students were graduating with real grades as opposed to coached fluffed up departmental pass marks, the comment would have substance. Most Inui student’s unfortunately do not continue on to post secondary institutions, whereas students from other ethnic origins even from Nunavut seem to have no problems continuing on. In small communities, local programs suffer due to lack of trained or educated office administrators. Educating and training locals into the mainstream workforce should become a Nunavut GN priority. When Nunavut was being created, it seemed like it was going to be for the people by the people but sadly it is for those w/ education who come up and enjoy our playgrounds.
This well-reasoned, down-to-earth and sensible comment resonates loudly and should be pinned to the top for all to read.
You’ve seen the movie right? Picture a bunch of 14 year olds still in grade 3 because they can’t meet learning outcomes. The bullying is bad enough as it is