Since the Minister touched on steps, one of the issues I hear quite a bit from aboriginal employees who are in the public workforce is they
are trying to enhance themselves, go back to school and take training, go to university, you know, get their doctorates, get their different degrees to basically move them up the ladder. But there seems to be a lot of reluctance from people from within the administration to see aboriginal people succeed and be able to be the bosses of their bosses. I think there is a threat out there that people are afraid that by moving these people up the workforce ladder, eventually they might take over their jobs. I hope that’s the intention of this government — that aboriginal people will someday through self-government, through running programs and services, be able to manage programs and services in the field that they are in. I find that in this day and age people almost have to quit their jobs to go to school. We shouldn’t have that.
I’d just like to ask the Minister in regard to the area of developing our human resources: what incentives are there to ensure that those numbers on affirmative action — numbers where you’re saying they’re staying at 31 per cent…. If you look at the bureaucracy as it is structured, there are very few aboriginal people in management positions, senior management positions, and a lot of these positions that we put out in the newspaper in regard to so-called policy specialists are earmarked for university students in the south. They know that they are developing these job descriptions for people that aren’t even here. I think that as a government we have to do a better job in that area.
I know the Minister touched on it. So since he touched on it, I’d just like to ask his response in regard to the question.