Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Human Resources. It’s in regard to my Member’s statement where I showed a wage disparity between P1s and P2s somewhere in excess of almost $20,000. These are employees of the government.
We just went through a major court case on pay equity across the country between the federal employees and Government of the Northwest Territories employees. It seems there’s a discretion between P1s and P2s. I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources why there is such a discretion between the P1 employees and P2 employees of an excess of $20,000.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
We don’t pay employees based on race. The way we calculate the remuneration for jobs is we have a job evaluation system that’s consistent throughout the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Again, the whole argument under pay equity was because there was such a discretion between gender from the wages that men were getting compared to women and they tried to bring that in line with the reality of the time. From what the information being provided is, there is a $20,000 difference between two classes of people that are employed in the government under the different classification of P1 and P2. I’d like to ask why there is such a discretion. Is it because of education levels? Is it because of where they’re located? The majority of these individuals under P1 are located in the smaller communities. Why is there such a discretion on the base? You can call it race, you can call it whatever, but there’s a difference of almost 30 percent wages between one group and another.
The Member is trying to make an issue that is complex into a very simplistic one. I think you have to understand what pay equity is all about. When you compare pay equity that was undertaken by this government with regard to female employees, it was for work of equal value. People with degrees, doctors, what have you, it was based on comparing job skills of equal value. When you take P1, P2 and you compare salaries, well, it’s based on the merits and requirements of the job. For example, anybody will tell you that the level of education you have determines the type of job that you have, your ability to get a job and the remuneration that you get. That’s how the evaluation of jobs works. It’s based on the job requirements, the educational requirements, and we’ve done all kinds of things to eliminate systemic barriers in hiring. We’ve put in equivalent experience, we’ve evaluated all of the different jobs.
I’d like to ask the Minister what this government is doing to enhance Aboriginal employees in the government so that they can see their wages increase by offering them education and skill development so they are able to move up the ladder, be on the same wages as the people they’re working with in the same room, yet we don’t have this discretion between one level and another. How much money are we spending to enhance the Aboriginal employees in this government to make sure they are getting the fair treatment as everyone else in the government services?
I think the Member is asking a very timely question following up on the questions asked by his colleague MLA Beaulieu. The way I see it is a good economy provides for the land and for the people. I think what we need is an economy that will create jobs. As a government we are spending a lot of money on education so that people in the Northwest Territories, young people will be able to get good jobs, good paying jobs. In order to do that, you have to have an economy that creates jobs.
As a government we have an Affirmative Action Policy. We’ve identified an Affirmative Action Advisory Group that will help us to improve on it. We are taking a number of different steps to increase the percentages so that we have a representative public service. We have more Aboriginal people working for our government. As you said, we’ve been flat-lined at 31 percent for over 10 years. Obviously we have to take a different approach. We’re also spending money to put Aboriginal people into senior management positions. I’m hoping as we go forward that we can put more money into that area so that we can move from 14 percent to 50 percent. Those are the kinds of things that we’re doing as a government.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask, the majority of government employees reside here in Yellowknife but only make up 16 percent the workforce as Aboriginal. I’d like to ask the Minister why so few Aboriginal people are working here in Yellowknife, headquarters, where the majority of government employees are, but they only make up 16 percent of the workforce here in Yellowknife. What are we doing to get more people working in headquarters and increase that 16 percent number here in Yellowknife so that it actually reflects the people that we serve?
We’ve been working on a territorial-wide system when we calculate our statistics. We haven’t looked at having a representative public service in every community. I think if you look at Yellowknife, probably the percentage of Aboriginal people in Yellowknife are probably, I don’t know if it’s 16 percent but it’s probably not that high. That’s a different approach to calculating our employment statistics.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
