Jane Groenewegen

I’m glad the Minister clarified that, because that is a very important point. How do we then, as a government, reconcile the fact that most government jobs are centralized in the capital and the regional centres where the majority of the people are not Aboriginal? The majority of the Aboriginal people, on a percentage basis, are outside; perhaps don’t want to move to a regional centre or to Yellowknife. I mean, are our goals realistic, given those factors?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t plan to have my Member’s statement coincide with the Minister of Human Resources’ statement today, but the Minister’s statement did cover quite a few of the areas that we’ve been discussing and have concerns about.

When we talk about a representative GNWT workforce, I’d like to ask the Minister what this government’s definition of that would be. Are we only talking about numbers?

I’m sure that although this information was available to the Members, it is good for the public to know that and it is very good news. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to try to discuss a sometimes misunderstood program that we call Affirmative Action. This policy is our government’s attempt to achieve a representative workforce. The GNWT is a huge employer in the Northwest Territories and officials may tell me that the GNWT is not the employer of choice in the North, but I can assure you that GNWT jobs are highly sought after and valued by most people that I know.

The population of the NWT is split approximately 50/50 between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Since the GNWT is a large employer providing services to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Cabinet and Premier have been extremely helpful today in providing information. Obviously, they were prepared for these questions.

I have a question. This is something I get asked about a lot in my constituency when it comes to summer student hires. Could they give us a breakdown, please, between P1 candidates and P2 and other candidates for summer students hired by this government for this upcoming summer season?

It will be good to see some summer students working especially in DAAIR that are P1 candidates, because I’ve often found it curious that when DAAIR comes before us as committee and so on, that amongst their management there has been on occasion no Aboriginal representation in a department that actually oversees Aboriginal affairs and relations.

I’d like to ask the Premier when the planning for hiring summer students started, what does the department do? Do they look around at jobs that have been set aside? How is the planning? Take us behind the scenes and how the planning is done for summer...

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is such a complex issue. We as a government say that we want sustainable, prosperous communities, yet we don’t talk about decentralization. We don’t talk about taking those public service jobs and moving them out of the capital. We don’t look at departments and activities that can take place in the smaller communities. We don’t look at that. That would change the numbers of our representative workforce quite dramatically if people didn’t have to move to Fort Smith or Yellowknife to get a government job. I’d like to ask the Minister if he sees us looking at that...

I’m sure that although this information was available to the Members, it is good for the public to know that and it is very good news. Thank you very much.