Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has announced that there are new changes to the Indigenous employment -- or Indigenous recruitment policy -- thank you -- which replaces the affirmative action policy. We're going to be bringing back P1s essentially and allow Indigenous Northerners to have priority status. Before that wasn't possible because of the Constitution. Has the Constitution changed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Finance.
No, the Constitution hasn't changed, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, then how has the government derisked this issue? It was unconstitutional before, that was the concern that changed the policy, now the policy remains the same, at least for one class of individuals. Can the Minister explain why that decision was made?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is the issue of residency that creates the risk that we would be concerned with respect to the mobility rights under the Constitution, so section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provide that all Canadian residents have mobility rights. And so it is specifically with respect to saying that persons who are living in the North or have lived in the North or have lived here for some period of time, that classification is the concern. But membership in a group that is historically disadvantaged, so this is where Indigenous Canadians and Indigenous Canadians who are Inuit, First Nation, Metis members particularly from a group within the Northwest Territories, that group membership can still be one that is, under section 15 of the Charter, allowed to have an ameliorative program; in other words, preferential hiring. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the change and support it, just to be clear, but, Mr. Speaker, there are other people of groups that are similarly disadvantaged or similarly of minority status, including people with disabilities. The disabilities council has come out and made it clear that they do not think this is a good move to make for the community. So why can we not include other protected minority groups under the Constitution in the affirmative action policy -- or in the priority action policy? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I agree, an excellent question and appreciate it, Mr. Speaker, and there will be divergence of views on this. I recognize that. It is an area that when we did engagement over a year and some, 2023-2024, it's an area that I, frankly, found interesting to read and learn more about. There is, again, divergence of view on it. But one of the views that the Department of Finance has here ultimately adopted is that folks who may experience some form of disability don't want to have to self-disclose in order to be able to gain advantage, and so what we would like to be in a position, under the diversity and inclusion framework, is to say firstly that there is an opportunity for recruitment and for staffing officers to positively provide accommodations to someone rather than wait for the person to have to self-identify and as such, we can create a workplace where people are naturally accommodated from the moment of applying through to their work time, and they can do that through the duty to accommodate and through the diversity and inclusion framework rather than relying on having them to have to self-identify to participate in affirmative action type program. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
