Thank you, Madam Chair. I know that many Members have raised many different issues, but I think I will take a different approach this time. I am going to try to be specific.
I think within the last several years, I have had constituents approach me, and also other residents of the Northwest Territories, and their P1 and P2 residents are having difficulties getting through the new HR process because HR is handling all of the hiring for all of the different departments. They list numerous issues about applying for jobs, doing the test, and as well as the HR not disclosing to the applicants what their test results were. It kind of creates a difficulty because the client doesn’t know where they could excel. At the same time, it also raises the spectre of unfair assessments for people at getting jobs, because they will say oh, their friends got the jobs.
When you are an applicant, you can’t dispute something that you cannot see. Often, they are getting frustrated and they’re saying P1, P2 and non-residents are getting our jobs. In fact, I think earlier in our session last week, I posed a written question. I wanted to see how many P1 and P2 applicants are getting hired over the last couple of years. That might be a little bit of work for the department, but they have those stats and I want to see those stats too. So that’s my initial concern, is how come my constituents and how come residents that are P1 and P2 are failing to get into the jobs that they’re applying for. Granted, while there may be some not actually qualified, I’m sure there’s some that are qualified and should be working there, and that’s still the case in our smallest communities, Madam Chair, where the outsiders come to the communities and they are given those jobs that my constituents never got a chance to apply for. When that happens, since they’re already there, they’re training for three to four months and they know the system and when the job gets tendered out or reapplied, the person that’s been there on a temporary basis has a better chance than often those on the outside.
So as an MLA, in my role I’m the appeal guy and they’re coming to me and saying, well, why is that person getting that job. I’ve been applying on it, I’ve been going on the website, I’ve been keeping an eye on this job, that’s something that I really want to do, I know I can do it, but they’re not given a chance. So I just wanted to see if the Minister can focus his response specifically around that area. Thank you, Madam Chair.