This is page numbers 1769 - 1816 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 4th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was going.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use the opportunity today to talk about a January 7

th letter I wrote to Mr. Miltenberger regarding a

Financial Administration Manual breach of 3307. It refers to aircraft chartering.

In my January 7

th letter I wrote to Mr. Miltenberger

and said that it looks like Mr. Ramsay led a charter to Fort Providence and several Members attended that. According to Mr. Ramsay’s November 19

th letter, he encouraged Members to bring family members along. Although it was an occasion to celebrate – and that should not be forgotten on this occasion – the letter did not sort of proscribe as to who should pay for these particular rides.

The Financial Administration Manual –

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Mr. Hawkins, this matter you brought up is before the Conflict of Interest Commissioner. I will shut your statement down for the day. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Yakeleya.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’m very happy to recognize the leaders from the Sahtu: Chief Leonard Kenny from Deline, Chief Beaufort McNeely Jr. from Radili Ko Fort Good Hope, and Danny Gaudet, businessman and chief negotiator and good cousin of mine from Deline.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow my colleague from the Sahtu in recognizing two chiefs from the Sahtu, Mr. McNeely and Mr. Kenny. Welcome to the House. Also, a former colleague, Mr. David Krutko from the Mackenzie Delta, and a good friend, Mr. Danny Gaudet. Welcome.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Blake.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the former Member for Mackenzie Delta Mr. Krutko, also Danny Gaudet and the two chiefs from the Sahtu. Welcome.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. I, too, would like to welcome back Mr. Krutko. It’s always good to see you almost every day since we’ve been here. Good to have you back, David. I, too, would like to welcome Danny and Leonard. Welcome to the House here today.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask some questions to the Minister of Human Resources on the Aboriginal hire and Aboriginal senior management area of our government. I want to ask the Minister what plans he is working on to close the gap. There is a gap between the number or percentage of Aboriginal people in senior management within the Department of Human Resources already with the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Glen Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Minister of Human Resources

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of things that we’re doing. One of the things that we are doing is the Associate Director/Superintendent Program, which is actually an Affirmative Action Program to bring individuals in and train them for senior management roles. We have about three positions a year, six

ongoing at any time, and we are getting good results with that program.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Can the Minister advise the House and me what the percentage rates are now with the government with regard to the senior management hire but with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Minister of Human Resources

I don’t have that number memorized, but I will commit to getting that to the Member later today or early tomorrow.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

From last year I recall it varied from different departments. It’s not a very good record for us as a government to look at the population that we represent that falls well behind the numbers that we perceive should be going higher.

I want to ask the Minister if there are some concrete, measurable plans to raise this number. I’ve been here for nine years and we still haven’t done a significant amount of work to increase this number. Is the Minister confident that these numbers will be raised by the end of this Assembly?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Minister of Human Resources

The government is working and Cabinet has given direction to each of the departments to try and increase their numbers of Aboriginal representation. There clearly are some challenges. There isn’t a significant amount of turnover at the senior management level, which means there’s not a lot of people moving up. The Department of Human Resources has some expertise in succession planning and they’re happy to work with any department and they have made that offer to do some succession planning to move some individuals up through the system. We also have an Aboriginal Engagement Committee engaged by the Government of the Northwest Territories, which consists of Aboriginal employees from across the government. I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with them and discuss some of the challenges that we face, and I’ve encouraged them in coming forward with solutions and recommendations to think outside the box and help us come up with some solutions that will help increase the Aboriginal representation in our public service.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Department of Human Resources working with colleges and students to start successive planning for careers for students who have graduated from these post-secondary or high schools?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Minister of Human Resources

We do have a couple programs that are available to help students graduating from college – whether it’s Aurora College or another institution – transition into the workplace. Our Internship Program is that program

and it is an affirmative action-based program. We also work with the college to help us identify training within house, programs for GNWT employees to take. So we do work with the college, and as far as the students, we do have the Internship Program.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Furthermore to my Member’s statement and preparing for decentralization, but also preparing for some of the work that’s going on in the Northwest Territories, today I’m going to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment what we have planned and in store in terms of increasing our labour workforce. He did make a statement in the House the other day that there’s a labour market symposium going on right now, and I want to see what work this government is doing to prepare and increase labour skilled workforce to meet the needs of our regions that are flourishing right now: the Sahtu, Yellowknife with the diamond industry, in the future the Inuvik-Tuk highway, the fibre optic link. What is he doing right now to increase and develop our numbers in the skilled labour workforce?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Education, Culture and Employment

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for asking that question. I had an opportunity this morning to speak to that labour force symposium that’s happening over the next two days. We have over 80 delegates. What we talked about at that level was partnership across the Northwest Territories, across the national stage. That’s what it comes down to with five regional training committees that have been established in partnership with ECE, ITI, and also Aboriginal organizations, industry, the Mine Training Society and also the college.

They work on a regular basis to address regional labour market needs. These committees also collaborate with all the partners in the region to address training requirements and provide opportunities in the region, including safety courses, mine training programs, ready to work programs, upgrading the current workforce skills such as the financial literacy programming provided in the South Slave region. Those are just some of the examples that we currently deliver in the region. There is also a Labour Market Agreement and a Labour Market Development Agreement from the federal government that we work with.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I was very happy to hear the Minister make reference to working in partnership with ITI. We must not also forget that we need partnerships with Human Resources, the Department of Health and Social Services, ENR and with some of the energy initiatives that we move forward with.

Can the Minister outline any incentive programs that his department is currently putting through to encourage our young Aboriginal men and women, our young indigenous Northerners the opportunity to take some of these labour jobs in terms of getting ready and prepared for all of the development that’s happening in the Sahtu, all the future development that’s going to happen in our region, and also continue to meet the standards that we set out in our socio-economic agreements with the diamond mines? Are there any incentive programs that are going to increase our workforce?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Minister of Education, Culture and Employment

Again, creating partnerships in the regions in the Northwest Territories does have advantages and benefits. When it comes to providing incentives at the regional workforce development, we deal with the Mine Training Society, which deals with industries as well. We have industry representatives on there, ITI, ECE, and other Aboriginal organizations on the specific committee that delivers training in the regions. Not only that, there is also funding available through Aboriginal leadership, such as asset funding through the federal Minister. There is also, again, as highlighted earlier, labour market agreements that are for those individuals who would like to get training on the job who do not quality for EI subsidy. Also Labour Market Agreement. Labour Market Development Agreement is another program through the feds that is going through our ECE department to the communities. We’ll continue to push that into the communities because we know some of the communities, some of the regions are very active in oil and gas, other sectors, industries, activities. We’ll continue to develop those relationships in the communities.