Mr. Chair, I just wanted to speak very briefly on the topic.
I think this is a good motion. I recognize that there are difficulties in getting this number up. I don’t mean difficulties; I just mean that it’s not an easy task. However, I think that if the government overall actually set a target....
I believe that the Affirmative Action Policy has been in place since 1983, actually. That’s what I believe. I heard the number 1989 here. However, in 1983, as I recall, the numbers of aboriginal hires were 17 per cent of the government. Soon after the Affirmative Action Policy was put into place, the effectiveness of that policy came to fruition, and we got the number to around 30 per cent. I think we actually hit 34 per cent across the government at one point, but we’ve been levelled off at 31 per cent for a few years, from what I understand.
I agree with the MLA for Mackenzie Delta. Maybe instead of just having the number out there that says that it should be representative of the population and that it should be 50
per cent,
51 per cent, maybe a target of 40 per cent, that we have not achieved yet, might be something we could actively try to achieve.
If the departments were to determine successive targets by year, then break down the targets department by department and then rate the departments based on those targets, it’s actually achievable. If the targets are reasonable and they’re spread out over a good time period, I think they’re achievable.
If we said that departments had to be at 40 per cent next year, then everybody will fail. But if we said, “Well, we could be at 33 per cent at the end of the next fiscal year,” then I would say that we’d have a high per cent of success.
So with that, I support the motion because I think it’s possible. Thank you.