Mr. Speaker, I talked about women in general, and specifically in our communities, and the changing roles that women have with today’s society. I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources in regards to women in government positions specifically in senior management. I want to ask the Minister, in regards to the number of women in the Aboriginal Development Management Program, what type of percentage do we have in that program?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The indigenous Aboriginal women in all of management constitutes about 12 percent of all managers in senior management in the GNWT, and for senior managers it’s 8 percent, and for other management, middle management it’s at about 14 percent. Of course, the Aboriginal Development Program also includes women. Thank you.
In the Aboriginal Development Program this is something that programs choose to support women into senior management, and I’m speaking more for the senior Aboriginal women into the programs.
Does the GNWT have a succession program planning to help the Aboriginal employees move into management or senior management positions?
Each department in the GNWT is responsible for developing human resource plans. In each human resource plan there is succession planning. So, each of the plans actually identify positions in which they would complete a succession plan for successful individuals within their departments. It is also possible for using transfer assignments to move individuals from one department to another and put them into a succession plan which is intended to move individuals from lower levels into management positions and from management positions into senior management positions. Thank you.
What’s the strategy for filling vacant positions in small communities in regions outside of Yellowknife?
On a semi-annual basis, the Department of Human Resources prints out the vacancy rates in the GNWT. Inside those vacancy rates we break it down by department. We then work with the departments on vacancy rates, not only in the regional centres and the small communities but also in Yellowknife. So there’s a plan and a strategy to fill those vacancies.
As I indicated earlier in the House, there’s been a considerable drop of about 180 vacancies between the last two printings, which are about six months apart. We’re trying to maintain that pace. The strategy essentially is once the report is out, then we approach the various departments through HR and they have to determine the positions that are vacant. Regional recruitment is one of the tools we’re asking the departments to use to fill the positions. It’s a very good tool for filling vacant positions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask the Minister, how many Aboriginal women do we currently have in management, and what is our plan to increase the number of Aboriginal in senior management?
Counting both senior and regular management, we have about 80 Aboriginal women in management. The corporate nature of the GNWT, we have lots of women in management. Fifty percent of our deputy ministers are women.
What happens is when we become specific to how we’re going to fill positions, we always have affirmative action. The Affirmative Action Program looks at indigenous Aboriginal and also looks at women, who always have a priority. So, indigenous Aboriginal women would have the highest priority, and women also have a priority 1 or priority 2 category in this government. Using the Affirmative Action Program is how we hope to increase that number of Aboriginal women we have in management and senior management. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Bromley.
