Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to know what steps the government are taking to increase the number of Indigenous youth working for the GNWT in their home communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's quite a number of things that -- different programs and services available. There's, of course, the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework which is an overarching way of looking at how the GNWT engages with potential employees, communities. There's also a number of programs, not the least of which is Indigenous Career Gateway Program. This is an opportunity that was not fully subscribed just a few years ago when I had started here and is now very fully subscribed which is a certainly positive circumstance. But it's entry level positions where we can actually go out and bring people into the public service or training positions where someone may not have the formal qualifications on paper, but we can set up a training program so that a person can actually join the public service, be trained in on the job over the course of two years, and then gain an indeterminate position. And further, Mr. Speaker, there's, of course, all of the student assistance programs which don't reside entirely within Finance but, again, we are engaged with my colleague here and with the Department of ECE so that students who are part of SFA, which is open to ordinary residents of the Northwest Territories, have outreach from recruitment, from human resources, and similarly so they have recruitment to come back and join our summer student programs which, I believe, are going to be announced fairly soon, and that is a serious gateway that a lot of people come use to come into the public service. I'll leave it there for now, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you. Will the new Indigenous employment policy apply to internships and summer students employment program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, just as the current affirmative action policy applies, so too will the Indigenous employment policy apply. And, Mr. Speaker, I can say anecdotally we do find that the bigger challenge is really bringing in students. We find often that students begin to go down the process and accept jobs more quickly than we can get to them. So it's more often than not that the students that are utilizing this are all getting scooped up which is, again, a good problem for us to have. We are looking, therefore, to have individuals who are members of the First Nations, Inuit, Metis people of the North having first priority and first access and, Mr. Speaker, again, we'll be continuing the outreach efforts that we undertake usually to students -- all students who are ordinary residents so that they are aware of these programs as soon as they come open again. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will an Indigenous young person from a small community like Gameti applying for GNWT jobs right out of high school have an advantage under this policy? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, yes, that is the expectation, is that an Indigenous person gets the advantage, an Indigenous person -- Indigenous to one of the member groups of the Northwest Territories does have -- would -- expected to have an advantage. And, Mr. Speaker, I take the comment earlier, I should acknowledge it with respect to some of the smaller communities we should be considering, and I'm happy to go back to the department and ensure, that, indeed, they -- students are aware of this program. The last plug I'll make is we also have the remote work policy. So, again, quite a lot of change, quite a lot of effort in the last few years to modernize our public service. Students, and in particular also residents in small communities, can consider applying and using the remote work policy so that they could potentially take a position outside their own community while still staying in their home community. So last comment on that, hopefully that also starts to see some uptake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
