Jane Groenewegen

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. Chairman. The committee would like to deal with Committee Report 5-16(6). Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thank you. I understand that the Minister does have that information. Will he make it available now? Later? Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, it’s very reassuring to hear that it isn’t just looking for tasks that have languished on the back burner throughout the rest of the year and then looking at perhaps getting summer students to different jobs that perhaps are not departmental specific, but that we could take specific training that our post-secondary students are involved in and then apply that to initiatives being undertaken by that department to contribute to that. That’s very reassuring to hear.

Mr. Speaker, do you think it would be at all reasonably possible that we might get a total of five students between the...

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. I’d like to direct my questions on this topic today to the Premier, the Minister responsible for the Executive and for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. The Department of Executive and DAAIR hired two summer students last year. To date how many students have been hired for this year?

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?

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?

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...