I would like to bring to the attention of this House an inequality that exists in the N.W.T. public service. For quite a few years now, we’ve had an Affirmative Action Policy in place to enable the hiring of certain target groups of Northerners as G.N.W.T. employees. This policy is not working for a specific, disadvantaged group of N.W.T. residents who need to be recognized.
Persons with disabilities in the G.N.W.T. public service make up a paltry 0.4 per cent of the total number of employees. The percentage of persons with disabilities in the general population of the N.W.T., however, is 13 per cent — hardly an equal representation.
Statistics from October 31, 2007, show a total of 4,688 employees in the G.N.W.T. and only 19 persons with disabilities employed by the G.N.W.T. By comparison, the civil service in several other provinces have per cent employment for persons with disabilities at rates seven to ten times higher than ours. In this instance, the G.N.W.T. is at the bottom of barrel.
“But you can’t compare provinces to the N.W.T.,” they say. “We’re not like them.” How about the statistics for the federal public service in the N.W.T. then? That’s a fair comparison. Persons with disabilities working for the federal public service in the N.W.T. are 4.3 per cent of the workforce. That’s 11 times our rate.
The argument is often made that persons with disabilities must self-identify, so we really don’t know the true numbers. All the jurisdictions I used for comparison also use self-identification, so I think it’s fair.
The G.N.W.T. Affirmative Action Policy states, in part: “…committed to a public service that is representative of the population that it serves.” We can’t be that committed to equal representation when persons with disabilities are only 0.4 per cent of our public service.
The policy also references target groups and identifies persons with disabilities as one of those groups who should receive preferential hiring, but persons with disabilities are listed as P2, second on the priority list of three groups and in the same category as indigenous non-aboriginals, a rather large group.
Persons with disabilities are the most disadvantaged affirmative action group in Canada in terms of education, employment, income and so on. We need to remedy this situation as soon as possible.
I seek unanimous approval to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues.
We need to remedy this situation as soon as possible and can do that by removing barriers to hiring persons with disabilities. We must: (1) change the Affirmative Action Policy to show persons with disabilities as P1 priority — a no-cost budget item, and (2) establish a career assistance program for persons with disabilities. I can provide information on that to the Minister of Human Resources for whom I will have questions later on.
