Thank you, Madam Speaker. I appreciate my colleagues' comments today and the Minister. I am confident that we will create targets in our departments and review the Affirmative Action Policy and make some progress on this. I think you have to recognize that this is a systemic problem that has multiple solutions and there are multiple tools. One of those which I believe we can use is the tool of secondments. In 2015, the Minister for human resources announced secondments to Indigenous governments and really brought this up as a win-win situation, and it allowed us to send GNWT employees into our communities to get them out of Yellowknife, to build capacity in those Indigenous governments, and hopefully, ultimately, devolve some of those powers. My question for the Minister of Finance is: how many GNWT employees are presently seconded to Indigenous governments?
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
[Micropnone turned off] …right now with Indigenous governments. Thank you.
Minister of Finance, can you repeat that? You didn't have the microphone.
I'm sorry. Eight, Madam Speaker.
I do view this as a tool that ultimately allows many of our public servants, the majority of which are in Yellowknife, to get into our communities to work with Indigenous governments. I believe partnerships could work the other way, where we bring Indigenous governments, employees into the public service. I think we in this House agree that self-government is the future, but we also need to build that agreement and understanding within both bureaucracies. My question for the Minister of Finance is: is she willing to put together something and reach out to our Indigenous governments and make sure they are aware and are willing to partnership on this tool we have?
That's an easy yes. I'm more than happy to continue that kind of engagement, and I say "continue" because there is already the building capacity in Indigenous governments program. It is an effort to do precisely what the Member is getting at, to support secondment arrangements with Indigenous governments across regions. There will be funding from the Department of Finance for up to 10 placements a year and then up to $40,000 placement. It is certainly my hope that that will be a successful program to encourage the exchange of knowledge, the exchange of experience, and the increasing of capacity across both governments.
Yes. I'm glad to hear that. I think part of my reason for talking about this is just so that everyone in the public service listening, knows that they can go to their management and asked to be placed in an Indigenous government for a period of time, that they can go into the communities and get first-hand experience because, as much as I think cultural awareness training is a step in the right direction, there's really nothing that replaces going to work for an Indigenous government and seeing their struggles. Is the Minister willing, as part of our whole public service renewal and a number of initiatives that we are doing, to set targets for secondments?
I'm inclined to say "yes," but I want to be cautious. That also requires ensuring that the Indigenous governments are prepared and interested and willing to be receiving, hopefully, all these many, many employees who want to go and participate in this program. What I will say is that I, certainly, want to see that the 10 placements that are available get filled. In and of itself, there's a target there, and I'll certainly commit to keeping that 10 placements as a target.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.
No further questions, Madam Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
