Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Finance Minister tell us if the Government of the Northwest Territories has sought any feedback from Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, on the new Indigenous Employment Policy or the Employment Equity Policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, a letter was sent, firstly, to all Indigenous governments back in October. Around that time, there was also a letter sent to colleagues from all of the Assembly, letting them know that this work was underway. This was, of course, in response to a commitment made in this House, I believe by the Premier, with respect to the Affirmative Action Policy and saying that it was high time to get this work moving. And so that consultative process, as I said, began in October and is continuing now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess maybe the Indigenous governments haven't read it yet. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if she is confident that the Dene, Inuit, and Metis people from the NWT will be supportive of the new Indigenous Employment Policy and the Employment Equity Policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had two Indigenous governments reach out directly to my office to confirm that they wanted an opportunity to have a direct engagement on this. And I know that officials have also spoken with officials from the Department of Finance with respect to the engagements. And, Mr. Speaker, beyond that, though, with respect to what the reaction of individual members, groups, governments might be, that is not mine to presume or assume. What we have attempted to do, Mr. Speaker, is to design having both an Indigenous Employment Policy that is specific and to the Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories as well as an Employment Equity Policy which would finally modernize our system and bring us up to speed with how much of the rest of Canada, or arguably the rest of Canada is functioning, but in keeping with having the Indigenous Employment Policy here is to be reflective of the northern distinctive features that we have. And so it is my hope that we will finally be able to see some change and some movement in the public service so that it can be representative of the people here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why her department did not bring the new Indigenous Employment Policy and the Employment Equity Policy to Regular Members for feedback before it was announced publicly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I do have a letter that I understood had gone to Members in October. Obviously, things don't always go perfectly, and I don't know where those letters sometimes go on the other side. But it was sent in October, alerting them to the fact this was coming. More correspondence was sent in January and February to update as to the progress. I don't have a final policy yet. That's exactly where we're at. We've got a sense of the two policies and what we expect to see in them and how they might work. But as for the final drafts, I don't have them yet. Before they are in a fully final state, I'd be certainly happy to have a briefing with my colleagues to go over what we've heard, what information we've received, and apply that to, again, to the outline that we have before putting that final pen to paper. And so again, certainly looking forward to doing that. I certainly find that it is a helpful process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Thebacha.
Mr. Speaker, if Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, or a majority of the NWT population rejects these two new policies mentioned, will the Finance Minister take that criticism seriously and amend these proposed policies to better reflect the will of the people of the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the human resources and the representation of the population of the North within the public service has been something I've taken very seriously in this role and that the department takes seriously. The Affirmative Action Policy, as it is now, was from 1989. It is woefully out of date. It is not in keeping with best practices. It arguably may not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And it's not showing achievement. We know we're sitting at 30 percent representation of Indigenous people in a territory with 50 percent representation. So we know there's work to be done.
What the policy is seeking to do by splitting it out is having an Indigenous Employment Policy so that we can continue to give a priority to a preference to people of the Northwest Territories the Indigenous people of the Northwest Territories while also bringing in an equity policy because we are recognizing that there's distinct groups that are also disadvantaged, including in the Northwest Territories. So people who may be LGBTQ2IA+ peoples, disabled peoples, who aren't right now reflected and given that kind of priority. So it is my hope that we will see that the new way of approaching this targets groups that are underrepresented, does so in a way that is, you know, reflective of the values of the North, and I hope will start to get us to a place where we have a representative public service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
