Yes, Mr. Chairman. In 1996 the department produced, and was the first to produce, an Inuit employment plan identifying a number of activities that would be undertaken. The first among them were to review all job descriptions, to remove all systemic barriers. The department developed a corrections officer basic training course where interested aboriginal candidates would be trained for a three week period, paid between $14 and $15 dollars an hour, and all of those who successfully completed the course were hired. If the course was set up as a competition, then they were hired to pursue into a competition and if it was not, they were directly appointed. We have dedicated considerable effort in Nunavut to advertising these career opportunities, to preparing materials and disseminating those materials and explaining what is involved in this kind of career. We have recently, in the late fall, just completed what is now called a correction entry level training program in the Baffin. Just the nature of what I described. The name is changed because it now includes not just corrections officers in adult facilities but also in the young offenders facilities.
I am told that 11 Inuit applied for the positions. Six were declared suitable. Two were hired. We have another four officers that are going to be hired as a result of a rebasing exercise that took place last year. We are confident that we will be able to hire some candidates, but to be frank with the Member, it seems we have difficulty attracting a lot of Inuit people to this kind of career path. It could be because, it has been mentioned, there is some stigma attached to corrections or a combination of that and other factors such as working indoors all day long. Whatever it is, we have attempted to meet the challenge head on. We are working at it as hard as we can and with great earnestness and sincerity to try and fill the positions as best we can. I can say that 25 percent of the staff at the Baffin Correctional Centre are indigenous, aboriginal people. I am not sure if that has gone up or down. I do not believe it has gone down. It is not a representative number, but it does I believe, show progress from the past. Thank you.