Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to improving Indigenous representation in the public service, and ensuring Indigenous employees are genuinely included, celebrated, and given opportunities to succeed. We are committed to creating a public service that is welcoming, culturally competent, and free of discrimination; one that serves in a way that respects and includes the Indigenous peoples and communities of this territory.
Today, I am pleased to announce that the Department of Finance is launching the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework and Action Plan, by developing business practices that include recruitment and retention strategies. The framework will empower departments to recognize the importance of Indigenous perspectives within their policies, programs, and services. The framework will encompass and support existing GNWT programs designed to recruit and retain Indigenous employees while also providing opportunities for innovation to address recruitment and employment barriers for Indigenous residents, applicants and employees. By providing the tools to develop detailed implementation plans, this framework will support departments as they incorporate these valuable Indigenous perspectives into their teams at all levels and result in a workforce that is representative of the people and the population it serves.
The action plan will take a whole-of-government approach where each department and agency will work together and share the responsibility to reach the goals and action items to improve Indigenous peoples' success within the recruitment process and within the public service as a whole. Each department and agency will be required to create an Indigenous Employment Plan to address the objectives and set attainable benchmarks for success. The development of unique department-specific Indigenous Employment Plans allows departments to address barriers to employment, retention, and advancement of Indigenous people that are specific to their departments and communities.
Mr. Speaker, the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework and Action Plan were developed collaboratively. Representatives from the Department of Finance worked with officials from Indigenous governments and utilized targeted internal engagement to hear firsthand what they identify as barriers to employment for Indigenous people.
The top barrier identified by Indigenous governments was the over inflation of job descriptions. We have listened to what we heard, Mr. Speaker, and our very first action item is to conduct a detailed review of all GNWT job descriptions.
We also heard that we need to ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to enact meaningful, attainable change throughout the public service. As I noted, each department will be required to complete department-specific Indigenous Employment Plans with specific Indigenous employment targets, and we will hold ourselves accountable by ensuring that those plans and targets are tied to deputy head and senior management performance appraisals.
Mr. Speaker, these are only two examples of the eleven action items we developed in collaboration with Indigenous governments. This collaborative approach ensures the framework and action plan will meet the concerns of Indigenous governments and the people we all serve. It will allow us to become more engaged, more responsive, more aware of the residents' needs, and provide flexibility in our responses and the development of programs and policies to ensure meaningful changes are made within the public service and felt within our communities and by our employees.
Mr. Speaker, the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework and Action Plan will improve Indigenous representation and ensure that the public service is diverse and inclusive. It supports continual improvement in our recruitment and retention practices and provides opportunities to celebrate our progress as we move forward in setting our sights on new levels of success in Indigenous representation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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