Mr.
Chair, as we know, this
department also has the Status of Women Council. We have the Native Women’s Association, which falls under the responsibility of this department.
I think it’s important that we also have a workforce that…. Basically, for the people we serve, whether it’s aboriginal or a women’s group, we have to have some presence in the bureaucracy.
I’ll use an illustration. If you’re affected by a policy in government and you know what that policy is supposedly going to do for you…. I’ll use the affirmative action policy. If you don’t have people at the top levels of government, who really are supposed to be effectively making decisions around policies of government, are those policies that don’t affect you as an individual? I don’t think it really means much to you what the advantages or disadvantages of those policies are.
I think that as a reflection of the workforce we have, we need to ensure we have people who know what these policies are, whether it’s a question of affirmative action or dealing with the fundamental rights and representation by way of population or gender or whatever. We have to be reflective, especially in the senior management level of these departments that, we know, make decisions that affect people. They affect rights. They affect those types of services we provide.
I’d just like to ask the Premier: is there any attempt made to revamp or relook at exactly how the positions are held and how those positions are being filled in light of these policies and other responsibilities, that government has to ensure we are representative of those people within the government and not simply saying we represent them?