Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to let you know how frustrated I am. I can't even keep track of how many times the Members in this house have talked about the vital importance to increase Indigenous hiring and the concerns that hiring managers are not even using the programs that have been created to increase Indigenous recruitment and retention.
Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Government Operation has set the following priority: Identify the systemic barriers to increasing the prepresentation of Indigenous people in the public service and review GNWT's human resource practices and policies.
It's 2022, Mr. Speaker. This is a territory of over the half the population is Indigenous. Why are we still having to do this.
This government makes statements, writes reports, offers recommendation to guide hiring personnel to do this, yet we are worse off than ever. The most recent public service annual report shows that in 2020 Indigenous representation in the GNWT reached an all time low of 29.3 percent. Mr. Speaker, how can we be going backwards? It is because of the barrier of systemic racism.
Mr. Speaker, this is a huge problem across the whole GNWT. But I want to focus on the problems at the Department of Justice.
While Indigenous people are over-represented in the justice system, they are vastly under-represented in the department staff. In fact, statistics from the public service annual report show that Indigenous representation has dropped significantly at the department. In 2013, there were 155 Indigenous employees making up 30 percent. In 2021, there were only 132 Indigenous employees making up 24 percent. In eight years, Mr. Speaker, Indigenous employment dropped by 23 while non-Indigenous employment increased by 61.
There are a lot of things that should be done but aren't and aren't being done but should.
One big issue I keep seeing is that entry level positions are posted while programs to train and provide Indigenous applications are not being used. For example, in the job ads today, court worker 1 position posted currently for -- meanwhile, Indigenous applications just sitting in casual pools and in the Indigenous career gateway pool with the department failing to reach out with opportunities for training that could lead to a career at the Justice department. Mr. Speaker, I request consent for unanimous consent.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, it is time we quit talking about it and start doing something.
As my colleague from Nunakput likes to say, the Minister should use his power and write down in his little notepad for ministerial directive so that hiring managers have to use these programs before advertising. There must be clear direction for hiring managers if we are going to achieve the vision of a public service that is truly representative of the population it services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister of Justice.