Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I was reviewing senior management within the GNWT, I noticed that 15 per cent were aboriginal, and this was after 20 years of Affirmative Action. I was appalled at the numbers that I’ve seen. I use the word “appalled” because it sounds better than “totally disgusted.”
A few years ago they had the Public Service Career Training Program, which helped some of these people who had experience but lacked some technical skills. This helped them work their way up the ladder. It was a good program. My understanding is that it had a fairly good success rate. The program is no longer in existence.
I’d like to direct my questions today to the Minister of Human Resources. I’d like to ask him why the decision was made to cancel the program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that it was a decision made at the time of division, at which time there was legislation that prevented the Legislature from going into a deficit position. At that time it was one of the reductions. There was a small portion that was left over that went into Education for training.
I’m not quite sure if I understand the answer, but since division our public service has grown quite a bit more than we had when Nunavut was still a part of the Northwest Territories.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he is aware of where that direction came from to cancel that program. Was it a decision made by the Legislative Assembly?
As part of a budget reduction exercise, it was a proposal that was put forward as part of the transition planning process from one government to the next incoming government. It was a proposal that was accepted and passed by the Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that. We have a lot of good, hard-working aboriginals out there who want the opportunity to move up based on the merit of their work. Some of them can go to school, but a lot of them, like I said before, with experience to do the work, just need a little more training. By training them, I think this government would realize savings by not having to pay SFA if they’re going to school. They’d be taking the training and doing the work at the same time.
I’d like to ask the Minister what opportunities there are today for aboriginal employees of the government who wish to gain more training without having to go to school and to be able to work their way up the ladder.
The government still has programs that are available to be accessed. One is the Management Assignment Program, which has an intake of, I believe, 20 people per year, and I think it had taken input in until last year. Anybody who applies or whose name is put forward has to be assessed with regard to the skills they have. Then, basically, they obtain experience through transfer assignments and work assignments of that ilk.
Also, senior managers or departments have the ability to identify aboriginal people who have the potential to move up, and they can develop a training plan for them so that they can go out to university and get their graduate degree or what have you. These are the kinds of things that are usually negotiated at the deputy minister level. Other than that, they can take training, and the government will reimburse them when they successfully complete the course.
I said that I’d never endorse the practice of hiring aboriginals just to fill a quota, but there are many good, qualified and willing people out there. The Minister spoke of the transfer assignments. I think that’s just another way of getting specific people into specific positions. I don’t think it’s designed for aboriginals. I may pose that as a written question.
I’d like to ask the Minister if Affirmative Action applies to the MAP program.
The Affirmative Action Policy applies to the MAP program, but generally, it’s application-based. If an aboriginal person doesn’t apply, then they don’t have an opportunity to be selected.
I should point out that our government is looking at a number of different ways to try to address the problem. One is the employment equity program, whereby we would target specific groups and sectors to increase the number of aboriginal people. Also, we’re reviewing the Public Service Career Training Program, which was cut some years ago, to see if it could still apply.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
