Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I spoke of the Affirmative Action Policy, indicating that I feel that Affirmative Action Policy is not working. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance questions on that. I will begin by asking the Minister of Finance if the Minister can get the department to look at other forms of preferential hiring processes as an alternative to affirmative action?
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For many of us who started our careers in the public service in the government way back in the day, and that was quite a while ago, we have seen a lot of involvement amongst the Aboriginal people. The jobs that we would get, there were very few working in the system back in the day. I think the Affirmative Action is one way that it's working. We have, I think, 5,289 employees. Of that, there are about 1,500, I believe, who are P1 candidates, so that tells me, that is an indication, that we have come a long way. There is still some work to do, obviously, but there are opportunities now throughout the government system for those P1 candidates who want to try through their merit and their hard work to work their way through the system, and I think there are opportunities for them to do that.
I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister will review the regional recruitment program to see if the regional recruitment program is being followed by the various departments, following the initial intent of the regional recruitment program.
I can commit. We are always trying to have a look at our programs to see what's working and what needs to be improved. Under the program, we had up to four Aboriginal Indigenous employees who were targeted each year. With the new Indigenous management development program introduced in October of 2018, we already have seven Aboriginals enrolled in the program. The desired intake for that is actually 15, so there is a bit more uptake on that, and we are looking forward to seeing the results of this particular program.
Previously, the GNWT had a program for emerging managers or emerging directors, a program that placed some Indigenous employees into higher positions. I would like to ask the Minister: how many Priority 1 candidates are enrolled or have been enrolled in the emerging managers or directors program?
That detail of information, I would have to gather. We did compile some information here on some of the questions we were expecting, but, that level of detail, I did not get. I will endeavour to work with the department to get the details shared with the Member.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just shifting gears a little, but still along the human resources and priority candidates, I was wondering if the Minister could share preliminary results of the Priority 1, 2, and other students hired by the GNWT for the summer student program this year?
The summer student program is one that we promote and we are quite proud of. Last year, I think we had some of the best numbers we have had in the past. The year before, I think we had some very good numbers. I can say that, as of today, we have a total of 247 students who have been hired and job offers pending for another 36, as well, we also know of 21 students who have been hired from our student listing by other organizations, such as NTPC, the LHO, and some with the federal government. So I think we are in a good position to hopefully equal or eclipse last year's number. As far as the P1 candidates, of the 247, I think there are 119 who are P1, 122 are P2, and I think there were about six of them with no priority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
