Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My member's statement today is in regards to the hiring practices of this government. Specifically, how they treat Aboriginal people in the P1 and P2 positions, especially with the lay-offs that have occurred. I will speak about individuals that have made a career move to get into fields, such as a managerial and technical trades, such as nurses, social workers, doctors, and dentists.

These individuals have made a choice by moving to southern institutions to take the training, and returning home. But, once they got home, there was a real mistrust by managers in regards to their experience or backgrounds because of the colour of their skin. I think we have made a decision to let managers manage. But we also have made a decision that there is an affirmative action policy, and this government has to implement that policy to its fullest, to ensure that people who are born and raised in the north will have the opportunities, so that we do keep those positions available to them. They will eventually be independent, and self-sufficient, by having the human resources from the north available to deliver those programs.

On one hand, we are telling the developer to hire north, maintain jobs for the north, but on the other hand, this government is not practising that. I believe that we have to make it clear to southern managers that we hire through this government, through our hiring practices, that there is affirmative action in place. We do have to educate them, about the opportunity available for those individuals who have gone to school for several years to come back either as dentists, nurses, social workers, or even teachers.

At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the minister for a statement on this.