Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My line of questioning today will also be along the lines of affirmative action. We all recognize that we have a multitude of pressures on our social programs here and it would make obvious sense to take our aboriginal and long-time northern people and put them to work, as opposed to bringing people in from the south, so that they do not have to rely on this government for their basic needs in life. The Premier indicated in his comments that the affirmative action policy is not what it should be obviously by the statistics, but he also referred to specifics. I would like to ask a specific question of the Minister of Justice, with respect to a recent occurrence in my community, whereby I believe the details go like this. The young offenders' facility required a drug and alcohol counsellor to work with youth who are all northerners. They advertised in the north. They received applications, none of which they deemed to be qualified. They advertised again in the north and again did not have applicants which they considered suitable for the job or did not meet the strictest terms of the criteria in the job description. Ultimately, an individual was hired from Victoria, British Columbia, to come to Hay River to work with northern youth in a young offenders' facility and I understand that there were local people, from my riding, who applied for this job. Aboriginal people, who were qualified, who did not, perhaps, meet the strictest requirements of the job. If the Premier would like to hear specifics, this is one specific situation which alarms me greatly, that there are people, unemployed, qualified to do this work sitting in my community and someone is brought in from Victoria, British Columbia. I was wondering if the Minister of Justice could respond to that? Thank you.
Jane Groenewegen on Question 268-13(4): Drug And Alcohol Counsellor From South
In the Legislative Assembly on February 7th, 1997. See this statement in context.
Question 268-13(4): Drug And Alcohol Counsellor From South
Item 6: Oral Questions
February 6th, 1997
Page 476
See context to find out what was said next.