Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I can pull those numbers out and give some information for the Member back to 2016 to 2017. Actually, before I do that, Madam Speaker, let me just take note that there are currently 5,922 employees in the public service, not including casuals. As for those that were direct appointment in 2016-2017, we have 122; 2017-2018, 97; 2018-2019, 124; and in 2019 and into 2020 the number changes quite a bit because there were significant changes to the collective agreement. The number is 301, owing to the fact that there were a number of modifications in response to the...

Madam Speaker, later today, I will be tabling a draft work plan that outlines how the Government of the Northwest Territories will undertake the preparation of an action plan to respond to the calls for justice presented in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This document represents this government's next steps forward in addressing the systemic causes of violence directed at Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

The 231 calls for justice are far-reaching and complex; developing a response is not simply a matter of reviewing...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wanted to speak briefly to the collaboration that was already described, and I appreciate that. The collaboration sometimes to the outside, to the public, isn't necessarily obviously or transparent. It's one of those things that we don't want it to be seen as something that happens behind closed doors; it doesn't. It happens between MLAs. It happens between the people who have been elected here and the conversations that are being had between Cabinet and between all of the Regular MLAs. Those conversations started all the way back in the summer. There have been...

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 22, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2021-2022 be read for the second time. This bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. It also sets out limits on amounts that may be borrowed by the Commissioner on behalf of the government, includes information with respect to all existing borrowing and all projected borrowing for the fiscal year, and authorizes the making of disbursements to...

Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following six documents: "What We Learned: Tourism Strategy Stakeholder Engagement Strategy (1) September to December 2019;" "What We Learned: Tourism Strategy Stakeholder Engagement Strategy (2) May to June 2020;" "Northwest Territories (NWT) Film Commission 2020 NWT Film & Media Sector Stakeholder Engagement Report: What We Heard;" Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1 to June 30, 2020);" "Public Service Annual Report 2019/2020;" and further to my return to Written Question 18-19(2), I also wish to table the "Summary of Capital Budget Carry...

What I want to commit to doing is ensuring that every department, in the chain of hiring that goes through that department in cooperation and in conjunction with staff from human resources, is indeed taking responsibility to ensure a representative public service and indeed is taking responsibility to follow the Affirmative Action Policy but also to be conscious of their own biases and act in such a way that we are not relying on them. The point of human resources is to try to create a system and a process that is fair, that is open, and that acknowledges that human beings will naturally at...

The work is already under way, and it is my expectation that both the framework and implementation plans for departments will be completed within the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Thank you.

I certainly would agree that every department, through its deputy minister, will need to take responsibility to help ensure that the GNWT continues to do better in terms of what we're doing to follow the Affirmative Action Policy. The goal here is to have a representative workforce. The Affirmative Action Policy is one of the tools that we use to achieve that. However, Madam Speaker, the way that we will do that through deputy ministers is by ensuring that there are some clear targets and a clear plan for each of them within their department that they can implement and that that can then be...

Yes. The Indigenous framework that we are developing for the recruitment and retention framework is meant to have targets, department by department. That's really the answer to the question, Madam Speaker. It will have hiring targets. I have not been given any sense that men over women is going to be part of the targeting, but Indigenous affirmative action candidates will be part of those targets.

I will certainly commit to reviewing the succession planning that is under way within the GNWT. As I have indicated at the beginning of the Member's questions, the direction right now is to develop the Indigenous framework, have that go department by department, and create some targets that will then be applicable to each department. Within that, of course, it includes the need for succession planning, the need for those targets to include management, so I will make the commitment that we are going to look at those targets. I want to provide some flexibility that we aren't necessarily doing...