Mr. Speaker, I’m very pleased to hear the Minister of Human Resources indicate in his statement that his department is currently determining areas of its mandate that “need additional work.” I look forward to those survey results in June.
As I mentioned in my statement, I feel that there’s a group of residents in the Territory that are currently disadvantaged in terms of employment. Where other jurisdictions can have far more persons with disabilities employed than can the G.N.W.T., can the Minister advise why we have so few people employed and why we have such a poor record of employing persons with disabilities?
Mr. Speaker, I guess there’s a number of reasons for that. I certainly concur with the Member that we need to do a better job to improve our employment of persons with disabilities. I guess the large part of the problem — and she’s already alluded to it — is self-identification. I do know that we have employees who are not self-identified, but that doesn’t make the situation any better, as the Member says.
I think that what we need to do is to work very closely with the groups that work with persons with disabilities and work with individuals to improve the situation. I think the Affirmative Action Policy that we have doesn’t lend itself to improving the representation of persons with disabilities in the workforce.
Mr. Speaker, I’m glad to hear that the Minister is open to working with the Council of Persons with Disabilities. I’d be most pleased to help him facilitate that.
I mentioned in my statement that I believe that persons with disabilities priority ought to be changed. I would like to know whether or not the Minister would consider that for revision, changing the priority for persons with disabilities from P2 to P1?
Mr. Speaker, I guess I would like to point out to the Members that we have been a bit proactive in this area. We have identified a special liaison person to deal with persons with disabilities.
I would have to look at the Affirmative Action Policy. I don’t know whether that’s the best way to improve the representation of persons with disabilities in the government workforce. We’re still working on our strategic plan.
In the past, governments have been presented with a draft employment equity strategy, which I think is more suited to dealing with these types of situations. As we go forward, I think I would like to present that again to see if we could get the support of the Members to go forward with it — I guess, specifically, to deal with persons with disabilities.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s reluctance to state an answer right here. But I would urge that we move forward on changing the priority.
For me, it’s a no-cost item. We’re simply encouraging. We are giving people employment who deserve it, and we’re not actually spending any extra money.
One of the things I discovered in looking at this issue is there’s an interesting item on the Human Resources department’s online manual, which shows that, for management positions, persons with disabilities are not listed as P2; they’re listed as P3. They come after indigenous aboriginals and women.
I wonder if the Minister can explain to me why we have a discrepancy between the priority for non-management positions and management positions for persons with disabilities.
I would have to look at that. I think it is an issue of reporting. I don’t think I said I ruled out the question of looking at having persons with disabilities listed as P1s or something. That is something we’d be prepared to look at.
