Caroline Wawzonek

That's not a new request, and I certainly want to begin by acknowledging my own awareness of the depth of the problem and the challenge. I've spoken to it at the Ministers' meetings that I've attended already thus far. I do know that the federal government has a strategy and they're in the midst of developing an action plan, and I expect that it would be prudent for us to at least see what progress there is made at a federal level to ensure that, if there is funding associated with whatever might be happening at that level, we can ensure that the identified departmental lead can then try to...

There is no shortage of resources put together often by the GNWT. The challenge that I acknowledge exists is that there are so many different resources put together by different agencies in different departments of the GNWT. Yes, again, I am prepared to commit that we do a better job of organizing them. I don't know what that package might look like or what the source will be, but I hear the Member's point, and, again, that is not an unreasonable request.

That specific request is one that is very large in terms of the numbers and the scope. What I would suggest is that I will speak to the Member and make sure that we can identify, perhaps, the core of the issue that we want to look at here. I agree that succession planning is critical, and I agree that we can always do a better job of it. These are human systems, and they can always be improved. What I was referencing in my previous answer was the fact that there has been some work done, but the work isn't finished yet. It is still being developed. There is much more to come. What I will do is...

The Department of Finance does work with its regional offices, across all of the territories, in order to use the tools that we have at our hands currently, which includes everything from mentorship to secondments and transfer assignments, but also to be gathering the information to consider, indeed, what kind of succession plans need to happen. It is an ongoing process. Again, as I have said, I am grateful to have that alerted to me. It is one that we are going to have to pay attention to, given some of the demographics we are facing.

Merci, monsieur le President. [Translation] This Sunday is the International Day for Women. [End of translation] The Minister responsible for the Status of Women spoke to the theme selected by the Status of Women Canada for this year, Because of You, recognizing the socio-economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and girls.

There are other themes for International Women's Day. First, the United Nations Women's theme for this year is: I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women's Rights. Another, the global campaign theme, is: Each for Equal. This theme highlights that we are all...

I have seen that date, but I don't remember if offhand, to be very honest. I will find out. I will get back to the Member. Certainly, to this point, it has been my practice to try to get all of these types of reports and evaluations over to the other Members as quickly as possible. Not quite a commitment, but that has at least been my intent and my working practice thus far. Unless there's something about this report that I am unaware of, being that it was commissioned by an outside entity, that would otherwise be my expectation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Departments of Justice and Finance will be so excited today. As I have said, I already have committed to ensuring that I will report back to this House as to the best place in which we are going to house the issue of domestic violence and solving domestic violence, and when I make that report, I will report back on where and who will be working to bring the resources together.

There are times where having a specific and defined resource is to the benefit of someone with a specific, defined issue; there may be other times where an individual wants to get all of the...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am very confident in the skills and abilities and dedication of the staff in the human resources department. These individuals work hard. They are working hard to be developing a representative workforce. That doesn't mean that that work happens over a day, and it doesn't mean that we have a representative workforce right now. Not to take away for a moment from the hard work that happens within that department. I do have every confidence that they are working toward that goal. That goal, however, as was already noted, has been noted more than once in this House, is...

The Department of Human Resources is constantly working to ensure that it is doing the best it can to be a representative workforce. To that end, as I've said before in this House in the last month, there are a variety of programs. They are continuously making efforts to be responsive as new ideas arise to be innovative. For instance, developing the building capacity in Indigenous governments program that is being worked on right now is one where it's helping to build capacity in communities with secondments between the GNWT and Indigenous governments.

There's a constant effort to find new and...

The Affirmative Action Policy is one that has different classifications depending on the types of jobs to which someone is applying. A P1 individual, for example, is someone who is Indigenous Aboriginal to the territory or someone who is Aboriginal and spent more than half their life in the Northwest Territories. There are also the P2 classifications. Depending, for a management position, there are 1A and 1B classifications. They are quite rigorous. They are clearly stated and, indeed, if someone meets one of those classifications and passes the requirements for a position, they are hired even...