Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On June 29, this House passed a significant motion recommending the development of a hiring north policy for public service positions within the Government of the N.W.T. I rise today to express my support for this principal. The hiring practice followed by this, and previous governments, has appeared at least to me to favour the southern transient population for far too long. It is now time to see the people of the Northwest Territories manage the public service on behalf of the government.
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With the July 29 motion, this House gave the cabinet direction to develop a policy that would make it standard practice to hire long term northerners. Under circumstances where specific expertise is presently not available within our northern workforce, it may be necessary to consider other candidates. The decision to advertise and recruit from southern Canada should be the exception rather than the rule, no different than the tendering of contracts. Hence to this, where managers choose southern recruitment solely for the sake of expediency such as the secretarial competition in Inuvik with the regional health board, to me, borders on ridiculous. This decision to recruit southern candidates should become a political, rather than a bureaucratic judgement. Consideration should be given to hiring southerners only on a term basis, and only with a formal plan for eventual replacement by northern workers. Mr. Speaker, during the debate on June 29 my honourable colleague from Mackenzie Delta stated that it is incumbent on this Assembly to provide all northern people with hope that they can find permanent employment as a result of their efforts to obtain a sound education and develop a professional career. Now is the time to make hope a reality. Thank you.
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