Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of human resources or Finance. What is the GNWT doing to eliminate systemic racism in its hiring practices? Will the Minister commit to setting numerical targets for the hiring of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour within the GNWT at senior levels of management, not just in entry-level positions? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I had indicated earlier in my Minister's statement, I have two things I want to say. Firstly, is rolling out a very express anti-racism campaign, really speaking to the idea of challenging all of our own mindsets about what is racism and what is anti-racism, as a starting point. That is just one small starting point. Getting to the rub of what I think the MLA is asking me about targets, Mr. Speaker, I have also spoken in the House frequently about the Indigenous recruitment and retention framework that is being developed and put into place over the course of this next fiscal year. It will include targets. The idea of even including those targets is exactly that, that it's more than just the entry level; they are targets that are going to apply to each department, that each department is going to have a responsibility for, but that it will be coming back to human resources so that there is an overarching approach to what is happening in each department.
Mr. Speaker, although this is the Indigenous recruitment and retention framework and we are starting there, this is meant to be really a change of mindset in the way that we are -- representative of the way people think about the government, the way people think about public service, and it's only a starting point. It is really meant to be one that is going to make us more inclusive and more representative of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
All great news I am glad to hear. I just hope things go more quickly rather than dragging out. In our current Affirmative Action Policy, Indigenous Aboriginal men are not designated as a distinct priority group under that policy. Will the Minister commit to including this as part of the upcoming review of the Affirmative Action Policy, including the Indigenous retention and recruitment framework, and ensure that this should lead to ensuring that there is an increased representation within the GNWT itself for Indigenous Aboriginal men?
I have previously said we are going to take a review of the Affirmative Action Policy. Those reviews have been done many times and many ideas brought forward. There does need to then be collaboration on all sides of the House about bringing forward the actual changes and seeing them through. If, in the course of that review, it's brought to our attention that Indigenous men are a group that requires some specific attention over and above Indigenous persons generally and over above Indigenous women, I am open to receiving that feedback. For the time being, Mr. Speaker, again, I am going to say that going through that process of reviewing that policy is the direction I am going to go, and that is where we will see where that takes us. If, in fact, this is a group that is distinctions based, that requires specific attention. Then again, that review is underway.
I did not have the luxury of listening to the Minister's statement ahead of making my questions. Some of it might get a bit repetitive, but that never hurts, to repeat ourselves if we want to be heard. Often as MLAs, we hear of direct-appointment hires or non-hires for that matter, that seem to directly contradict the GNWT's own Affirmative Action Policy. Will a fairness review of direct-appointment hires be implemented as part of the new Affirmative Action Policy to oversee the ministerial appointments? What sort of corrections or sanctions will be built into the policy for individuals who do display racial bias in their hiring practices?
There are a couple of questions there, Mr. Speaker. I want to address the second one first, about people having sanctions for displaying racial bias in their hiring. There should not be racial bias in hiring. There should not be racism in hiring, and if that is happening, I want it brought forward. There are meant to be teams who work together. Human resources is involved precisely to ensure that the process is fair and that the policy of affirmative action is applied fairly and appropriately.
With respect to the first question, whether or not there will be some changes or a fairness review, again, Mr. Speaker, I made a previous commitment this session that the direct-appointment process is one that needs some information and some information-sharing, and I would like to bring that to committee. The direct appointments process right now has very specific rules, very specific targets of what is allowed and not allowed and right now actually achieves a higher percentage of affirmative action candidates than the usual hiring processes. All that said, though, to the extent that a fairness review should be part of it, that is still between the Affirmative Action Policy review that we are doing and the recruitment framework that we are doing. That is something that can be included in either one of those.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the ways that I get my opinions into those types of policies, reviews, et cetera, is to bring them up here in the House. This one is a little bit more on the philosophical plane, but we often hear that increasing the population of the Northwest Territories is a great way for us to increase our revenues by upping the number of transfer payments that we get from the federal government. However, our priority is to increase our local employment and hiring and keeping with northern businesses, et cetera. My question is: does the Minister find that these two goals are somewhat contradictory to each other, and if so, how do you plan to address that in your upcoming affirmative action and other policy reviews? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think that is exactly the kind of question that should be debated in the House, and I am pleased to have it brought to the floor and, frankly, pleased to have it come back, if necessary, for reconsideration or further discussion or debate. I don't think that they are necessarily in conflict with one another. I don't think they should be in opposition to one another. As a government, we want to do everything we can to ensure that Northerners have the skills, the training, the education, the underlying health, the housing, all of the parameters that are going to allow them to apply for any and every job in the public service. At the same time, I am well aware that, in this moment, we bring teachers, doctors, nurses, and various other professionals and individuals to the North to fill the positions that we are still not filling from amongst northern graduates.
I don't think they are mutually exclusive. If we're doing things right, we are creating a public service that is inclusive; we are creating communities that are inclusive; and we are building an economy that can grow so that everybody can be welcomed, so that every one of our graduates has a great job to go to, and so that people can continue to move to the North and stay here as residents, and not just come up as visitors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
