Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister at the Department of Human Resources is made aware by other departments if other departments are considering reducing the amount of PYs in any particular community, especially the small communities. I would like to know if the Ministers have an obligation to advise this Minister or the Premier when they are reducing PYs, not necessarily people, but the position in various communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, that is where we run into problems. If you have a qualified Priority 1 candidate, but there is only one, because for some reason the department makes a decision that it would not be appropriate to only interview one person, I wouldn't know what the problem would be, but if that is a decision made, as the Minister just indicated, there is a possibility of a Priority 1 or non-priority candidate who would be interviewed. And that is where the problem comes. With that scenario, then, if the Priority 1 candidate passes the interview but is way behind in the scoring against...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, under this category I want to ask more questions about recruitments since this category includes recruitment. I am not going to request to go back to the previous category, but I do have an additional question on a Priority 1 candidate and the Affirmative Action Policy. Could the Minister advise me why it would be necessary to go beyond interviewing anyone else if you have Priority 1 candidates that are qualified for the jobs that they are applying for? Whether it be a Priority 1 candidate individual or whether there be several Priority 1 candidates, why...

What I am saying is a qualified Priority 1 candidate goes to interview and does fail the interview, it has nothing to do with the procedure of it, went through all of the procedure, but the individual is feeling that whether it was the written assignment that, according to the individual, was not given a fair assessment on the written assignment, or that during the interview the individual was not considered to be a good candidate by the people doing the interview and got a failing grade. A person that doesn't have a priority status wins the job over the person. The person is feeling that that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I want to just dig a little deeper into the appeal process. I recognize that the appeal process is appealing procedural errors, but many of the people that actually launch the appeal thing to appeal process is something else, sometimes like perhaps maybe feeling that they weren't being treated fairly or that there is a bias in the process because the individual that just happens to be the casual that comes out to be the best candidate for the job most times which is kind of indicating to us that maybe if you get your foot in the door and you learn a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask if the Minister would consider developing a new strategy for increasing Priority 1 employees across the GNWT public service, including the development of a human resources plan by each department. Thank you.

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

I'd like to thank the Minister for that response. I would like to know if the Minister is prepared to reexamine the role of the advisory committee on aboriginal employment in the GNWT, I don't know if that is the exact right term, and then try to give that committee a greater role in ensuring that the Priority 1 candidates continue to increase in the GNWT. I think that's a very good committee, so I'd like to ask the Minister if he's prepared to give a greater role to that committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairperson, I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister can provide a status report on that particular item and provide it to committee.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about the Aboriginal content in the GNWT public service. Mr. Speaker, the Minister responded to one of my questions this week on the percentage of Priority 1 employees we have in the public service. His response was 32 to 33 per cent. I think the GNWT lead by the Department of Human Resources must develop a strategy that will see the public service get closer to the GNWT's goal of having a public service that is representative of the people we serve. In other words, try to get the public service to as close to 51 per cent Priority...