Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to discuss GNWT summer student employment and affirmative action. These jobs are extremely important for our post-secondary students, not only to assist with the cost of school, but these jobs provide opportunities to gain valuable work experience that will assist them when they have completed their studies.

I have experienced what the hiring process of the summer students from my previous roles. This process includes the hiring manager filling out an application to request to hire a summer student. The hiring manager would then receive a master list of all of the students who had submitted their resume. This list would include students' first and second choice of department where they would like to work and whether they are P1, P2, or P3. Then the manager would scan the entire list to identify their top choices and send the names of the applicants back to HR and receive their resumes. The hiring managers would then set up interviews and did not need to include human resource officers on this interview.

There was no mechanism in place to ensure hiring managers considered GNWT affirmative action policies when choosing who they will interview. I have heard many Indigenous students not getting summer student jobs or not even being interviewed for jobs in their field of study when the job was filled by a P2 student. In some cases, I have even heard a P3 student getting a summer student job ahead of a P1 candidate.

Mr. Speaker, the summer student hiring process needs to have strict mechanisms in place to ensure that government's Affirmative Action Policy is followed. I will have questions for the Minister of Finance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.