Thirty per cent of the jobs in Nunavut's Community and Government Services Department are vacant, and government officials say they have had a difficult time finding all the people they need.

Senior staff told the legislative assembly Tuesday that 105 of the department's 345 positions are vacant.

"Turnover has been relatively high in the past number of years," Michael Rafter, the department's director of financial services, told MLAs.

Rafter added that recruitment and retention have been especially challenging for technical and professional positions, as well as for construction projects.

"A lot of this is said to be attributable to some of the major economic booms that are happening in Western Canada," he said.

Extra recruitment efforts

The Community and Government Services Department oversees, among other things, community infrastructure planning, emergency management and the import and distribution of gasoline and fuel in the territory.

Assistant deputy minister Brent Boddy told MLAs that it has put a lot of effort into finding people for the vacant positions, advertising across northern and southern Canada and trying to recruit more Inuit land claim beneficiaries.

In the meantime, Boddy said the high number of unstaffed jobs has put extra work on current staff.

"The most obvious challenge is we do require our project officers to work extra hours," he said. "There's overtime involved, especially during the peak seasons, like when the tenders are rolling out."

Earlier this year, officials with Nunavut's Health Department reported that one-third of its positions were vacant. They cited an overall shortage of health professionals in Canada, especially nurses.