Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it is time the Government of the Northwest Territories had a close-up look at itself. This government expects industry to maintain a workforce with a high percentage of Northerners and aboriginal people through their socio-economic agreements. Yet the Northwest Territories government itself is lagging far behind the private sector in this regard.
When BHP Diamonds signed its socio-economic agreement, this government required it maintain a target of 62 percent Northerners during its operations phase. BHP has exceeded this and it is at 79 percent. Of those Northerners, 32 percent are aboriginal people.
Aurora College similarly has had many aboriginal graduates of management studies in the past years. This year alone they had 20 graduates in the diploma program at three campuses. Eleven of those were aboriginal, Mr. Speaker.
I wonder if any of these graduates are unemployed or working for the territorial government?
I find it hypocritical that the government can force other organizations to hire northern and aboriginal, yet the government is not even doing the same thing.
It seems to me the government does not make it a priority for itself, Mr. Speaker. Nor does it invest the time to train northern aboriginal people already working for the government so that they can advance to higher positions.
What you have, Mr. Speaker, is a situation where many qualified northern aboriginal people are either under-utilized or not utilized at all. I will be asking the Minister responsible several questions related to this issue during question period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause