Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'd like to recognize Eleese Scott, who is a guest in our gallery. She's the Chief Governance Officer with WSCC and a resident of Range Lake. I'd also like to take a moment to recognize the media, Madam Speaker, who have been here every day. Your work is critically important, and our work would be a lot harder without you. Thank you for being part of our work. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Absolutely not. The Affirmative Action Policy, deputy ministers are aware that this is a priority of this government, and they are aware that they will be evaluated when it comes up. They are aware that this is coming.

Max passed away peacefully on November 2, 2020, in Edmonton, Alberta at 98 years of age. His contribution to the Northwest Territories will forever be remembered. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I'm not really sure what else to say. When those matters come to my desk, we take them back, we follow it carefully, and I don't just accept the responses that come back from the department. We make enquiries, and those responses are that, when they are being told that something is being followed, I do believe that people are not lying to me from the public service and that they are, in fact, saying the truth when they say that they followed a policy. That doesn't mean that we don't have things to fix. Madam Speaker, again, there are a lot of things being done right now. Staffing appeals, as I...

Absolutely. We will make a commitment to reviewing the Affirmative Action Policy within the term of this government.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This government is committed to ensuring that we adhere to the Affirmative Action Policy. We have heard it for many, many years, and it's time to make sure that we do work on that. Deputy ministers are accountable for all of the hiring within their departments. They might not do it directly, but they are accountable for it.

Right now, as stated in the opening statement from the Minister's statement, the Department of Finance is currently developing a GNWT Indigenous recruitment and retention framework. Once that is done, this will be complemented by department-specific...

Madam Speaker, Max Ward was born on November 22, 1921, in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1940, Max joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and received his pilot's wings in 1941. Max worked as an instructor at various training bases during the Second World War until its end in 1945. After being discharged from the air force, Max received his commercial pilots licence and began his flying career as a bush pilot in Yellowknife.

In 1946, Max started Polaris Charter Company Ltd., carrying passengers throughout the Arctic, including prospectors and supplies into mining exploration camps. In 1948, Max and George...

I was just hoping to pull up the numbers for human resources in terms of number of Indigenous Aboriginal persons that are in human resources. I think their numbers actually are relatively good. Notwithstanding, I cannot say that every single hiring team has an Indigenous person on that team, but I am happy to say that, with the introduction of the cultural awareness and sensitivity training program that's coming out in the next few months, that that is going to be mandatory for all GNWT employees and that, once that is in place and once staff continue to go through it, it is certainly our hope...

I would like to defer that to the Minister responsible for the Status of Women or the Minister of Finance. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What we've done already is we've provided I believe it was AOC committee with a paper that talks about what we're doing now, going out and engaging with the stakeholders, the municipal and Indigenous governments, et cetera, to ask about the isolation centres. That work happened last week. It's happening this week. What I can commit to is, once we compile those results, which will be in the next couple of weeks, I'm pretty sure, it will go through Cabinet. Then I'll be offering committee a briefing, or we will provide the information to committee. However, at any time, if...