David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let’s just talk about this government then. Let’s talk about this government and its practice of direct appointments to people under the affirmative action policy. It doesn’t include very many disabled persons that I’m aware of; maybe one, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if indeed he can provide any targets or any type of scenario that would see an increase to the number of disabled persons -- and I’ve got a couple of constituents, Mr. Speaker, that have faced nothing but barriers when it comes to employment with the Government of the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for Human Resources, the Honourable Floyd Roland, and I do hope that the rest of Cabinet is paying close attention to the questions that I have today. Two numbers to keep in mind, Mr. Minister, as I outlined in my Member’s statement earlier, 13 percent of our population suffers from a disability of some kind and only .4 percent of our current workforce is comprised of persons with disabilities. Mr. Minister, this only confirms that any existing measures to increase these numbers are woefully inadequate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let’s just talk about this government then. Let’s talk about this government and its practice of direct appointments to people under the affirmative action policy. It doesn’t include very many disabled persons that I’m aware of; maybe one, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if indeed he can provide any targets or any type of scenario that would see an increase to the number of disabled persons -- and I’ve got a couple of constituents, Mr. Speaker, that have faced nothing but barriers when it comes to employment with the Government of the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for Human Resources, the Honourable Floyd Roland, and I do hope that the rest of Cabinet is paying close attention to the questions that I have today. Two numbers to keep in mind, Mr. Minister, as I outlined in my Member’s statement earlier, 13 percent of our population suffers from a disability of some kind and only .4 percent of our current workforce is comprised of persons with disabilities. Mr. Minister, this only confirms that any existing measures to increase these numbers are woefully inadequate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I take issue with what the Minister has to say because if you use his rationale, you know, it’s completely backwards here because I know this government tries to get a workforce that’s representative of the population that it serves. Direct appointments are made under the affirmative action policy to P1 candidates. It happens all the time and this government does it. I’ve seen it happen. But yet when it comes to persons with disabilities, direct appointments are nowhere to be found, Mr. Speaker, absolutely nowhere to be found. I’d like to ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just wondering and the Minister has made it abundantly clear how useless the current affirmative action and where we place disabled persons in that four-tiered approach to affirmative action as a priority two, how useless it is to persons with disabilities in trying to gain employment with the government and for him to stand up and say that they don’t self identify, I think that’s just taking the first escape route that he can see as to why the government hasn’t come up with some other policy or some other means to increase the number of disabled persons that are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In all GNWT reports on the public service from 1996 to 2004, there is not one single, solitary sentence about the governments’ efforts to hire disabled persons. Perhaps the Minister responsible for the public service can look through these reports and he’ll note that there is no text on efforts to hire disabled persons.

As the Human Resources department likes to display in any literature that I have read, they like to flaunt the affirmative action policy. Mr. Speaker, disabled individuals are second only to indigenous aboriginal persons in that policy. Mr. Speaker, it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to discuss the issue of disability awareness. I listened quite closely to Minister Miltenberger’s statement yesterday on the occasion of Disability Awareness Week. The theme, Mr. Speaker, this year is Living, Working and Educating Together - Include People with Disabilities.

Mr. Speaker I want to start by acknowledging the good work of organizations like the NWT Council of Persons with Disabilities and EmployABILITY who provide such valuable services to many of our residents.

Noticeably absent from the Minister’s statement yesterday was...