Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I detailed in my Member’s statement about the difficulties of Aboriginal people gaining employment. Well, the ones that remain unemployed. Getting employment with our Government of the Northwest Territories, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources questions in this regard.
Firstly, what is the department currently doing to meet the Government of the Northwest Territories’ commitment of a public service that is representative of 51 percent of our population that is Aboriginal?
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT is committed to developing a competent public service representative of the population it serves. There are a number of things that we are doing. We do have the Affirmative Action Policy that we apply to all staffing actions. But we’ve also put in things like the Associate Director/Superintendent Program and a few other programs. We also have the Aboriginal Employees Advisory Committee, which has been put together to provide some guidance and direction to myself and Cabinet on how to improve representation of Aboriginal peoples within our public service.
In the Member’s statement, he mentioned how difficult it is, or some of the frustrations that individuals who are going through the competition process have identified. One of the things we are doing to help address that is we put together How to Apply on a Government Job, which is a workshop, and there are some materials for reading as well. It is going to be made available throughout the Northwest Territories. I have shared the brochure with my colleagues.
I have indicated that we will be going out to all the regional centres and hopefully communities, as well, to provide this workshop to help individuals better understand the competition process in the Northwest Territories and what they can do to help strengthen their opportunities or chances of obtaining employment in those communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister is right; people are really frustrated about their chance of trying to get employment. As I detailed, a lot of them get screened out and don’t know why.
Can the Minister undertake a process to review the human resource hiring process to ensure Aboriginal candidates are continually engaged and involved and encouraged if they are not the successful candidate? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that is already being done. That is one of the things that the Aboriginal Employees Advisory Committee is looking at. They are looking at all of the processes that exist out there today and are trying to identify what some of the gaps might be, what some of the things that are occurring that might limit some of these candidates from actually taking the next step.
As I have indicated, we are doing the How to Apply on a Government Job, which we hope will help individuals understand the process better and what things they can do with their resumes and during interviews that will help strengthen their application and their bid for positions within the Government of the Northwest Territories. By way of review, that is one of the things that we are hoping to get advice and recommendations on from the advisory committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister truly understands the situation. I would like to know if this practice is currently being done right now. I have constituents that are screened out. They are hiding the test results from them, not showing them, not encouraging about how to better themselves for the next applications if they continue that.
I would like to know if this current practice that the Minister is talking about is being used by our front-line human resource and the departments that people are applying on. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to say yes. It is something that I have made clear to the deputy minister that I would like in the regional centres and Yellowknife, everywhere there is staff in action, for our staff to take that additional step in helping individuals understand why they are screened out. It doesn’t happen in every case, I can’t say that, but I will continue to encourage the deputy and his staff within the department to provide that extra step to help individuals understand why they may have been screened out and what they can do better.
I would encourage all the Members to encourage their residents and their constituents to please take the How to Apply on Government Jobs. It will help people understand some of the intricacies of our process and will hopefully help them make it through to the next step and get the jobs that they are qualified to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some of it is changing the processes too. One of the biggest issues is the inability of people that apply to appeal a job. I know that short-term positions are not appealable. Sometimes if they are an outside applicant, then they cannot appeal those jobs. I would like to know if they are going to improve that process too. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think the Member and I should sit down and just follow up, because I’m not sure I fully get that question.
There are appeal rights. All Aboriginal candidates have appeal rights for GNWT jobs, with the exception of casual jobs. There are no appeal rights on casual jobs. Any time that an individual applies on a term or an indeterminate position and they are Aboriginal or P2, they have the right to appeal that competition. If they are an existing employee and they have applied on a job and they are screened out, regardless of their affirmative action, they have a right to appeal that position. The appeal rights are there. Some people choose not to use them, but they should be notified of their appeal rights by the screening committee or the staffing officer responsible for that file.
I would be happy to sit down with the Member and have some more discussions around that so I better understand where the Member is coming from. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
