Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Human Resources. I would like to follow up on some of the thoughts in my Member’s statement. I spoke about the diversity within our territory and the need for our service providers to have an understanding of the diversity that exists, of the different languages and the different cultures that exist within our territory. I feel that we as a government have to change our mindset and we also have to change our mindset as workers. What programs exist now that go to training our service providers to be culturally aware so that they can provide culturally relevant service to our clients? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To date there is no standardized GNWT training available to staff to make sure that they are aware of the different cultures and are prepared to deal with those situations here in the Northwest Territories. But in our strategic plan, 20/20, building a public service, we are committed to actually pursue that training and put that training into place.
To that end, a request proposal for Aboriginal cultural awareness training has just been concluded. We are about to award that contract and develop appropriate culturally relevant training here in the Northwest Territories for GNWT staff so that they can be aware of the different cultures here in the North, just like the Member is suggesting.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that we may not have anything at this point and he is going to work towards something, but in the interim we have nothing. We put people into a job where they are required to deal with clients, particularly in Yellowknife where they are dealing with an extremely diverse group of clients. In the interim, until we get this training that we are going to do, what does the Department of Human Resources do to help our client service providers?
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, we have done an RFP and we are concluding that right now. We will have training. We are planning to roll out a pilot in the fall of 2012 that will be available to employees in the Northwest Territories of the GNWT so that they are aware of the different cultures and aware of the realities that they have to deal with here in the Northwest Territories.
As far as other departments, other departments have different programs, depending on the types of programs they are responsible for. The Department of Justice does have cultural sensitivity training as part of their corrections officer training in the facilities. So different departments have different types of training, but the Department of Human Resources doesn’t have, as I indicated, a territorial-wide program and that is what we are working on now.
Thanks to the Minister. Everything I have heard is in the future. I’m looking for something that is going to happen a little sooner than the fall of this year, although I’m glad to hear that there will be something even though it is a small thing and it’s a pilot.
The people who come to our service providers are very often in pain, they are struggling, they are at wits’ end. If they are not adequately understood, we see the horrendous ramifications that we have experienced in the last several months, particularly here in Yellowknife. I feel that the Department of Human Resources should be taking the lead on training for all of the government. They certainly provide training in many other areas. Does the Minister recognize that this is an area – and I would hope he would say yes, because he is going to develop a territorial-wide policy – but can we not do something now that will assist our client service providers, even though it’s not a fully developed training program? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, obviously we agree. Obviously this is something that is important and needs to be done, but it does take time to develop appropriate training. We can’t snap our fingers and have this done overnight. We need to engage the Aboriginal groups. We need to look at the different Aboriginal groups throughout the territory and make sure the training is specific to all the different regions in the Northwest Territories and then we have to put it into place. We have committed to have something in place. We pilot it in the fall. I stand by that commitment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Again, everything is in the future. I would hope that the Minister would recognize that the need is now, and yes, we can plan and develop and put frameworks in place, but again I would ask the Minister if he would commit to try to develop something for our service providers before they start the pilot in the fall. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we will have a program in place in the fall to be piloted. I can’t create something with a snap of my fingers. It takes time. We have to consult with the different Aboriginal groups. We have to make sure we have proper input. We have to make sure that the program is going to work. We can put something in place overnight, but I can pretty much guarantee that it’s going to be a failure.
Give us a bit of time to get this done right. The fall is not that far away. It’s May. Summer is here. We will have something ready in the fall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
