Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week the Minister of Justice made a statement on the success of a new approach to corrections training and recruitment and I wanted to say I was listening quite closely to that statement. The department has to be applauded for getting the Recruitment Program initiated. Sadly, the reality for aboriginal employees in corrections today is that some are still having a very difficult time at advancing their careers.
I have a constituent who is aboriginal, born and raised in the Northwest Territories. He’s worked in corrections for over 17 years. He has solid performance appraisals throughout his years in corrections and he’s getting very frustrated at consistently being passed over for advancement. He doesn’t understand it and neither do I.
His story is one that I have seen many times across government. We like to say that we’re hiring aboriginal people, but, really, what support, encouragement, training and planning is really taking place? Why aren’t we seeing more aboriginal persons in senior management roles with this government?
In my constituent’s case, he and his family are now planning on leaving the North. It really is troubling to know that we are losing long-term aboriginal employees to the South when they are consistently being passed over for advancement. The sad thing is that opportunities are going to individuals with no priority hiring status. This is just not right.
Seventeen years is a long time for an employee to keep trying to advance himself, applying on numerous positions to no avail, frustrated because he’s watching others with no priority hiring status getting hired. He’s watching direct appointments being made by the department and wonders how and why this continues to happen.
I’ll have questions for the Minister of Justice at the appropriate time.
