Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to wish everybody a Happy International Women's Day, and with that, Mr. Speaker, I have a different topic.

Mr. Speaker, the Affirmative Action Policy has existed in the Government of the Northwest Territories for 33 years now. The purpose of the policy is to hire more Indigenous people in the public service, which sounds simple enough, but has not been so easy in practice.

Since affirmative action was created, the number of Indigenous employees across the Northwest Territories has remained stagnant at about 30 percent every year. Mr. Speaker, the Affirmative Action Policy is not fulfilling its stated purpose. It simply is not working for many Indigenous people. I hear stories all the time from Indigenous people in my community about folks being screened out of jobs or trying to appeal hiring decisions or trying to move up to a higher-level management positions but they run into roadblocks every step of the way.

It is not easy for Indigenous people to move up to higher-level jobs within our government.

Mr. Speaker, in January the Standing Committee on Government Operations had a public meeting on the Affirmative Action Policy, which had some very insightful presenters. Among the presenters was the Fort Smith Metis Council who stated that there needs to be serious consequences for employees and managers who do not follow the Affirmative Action Policy. I agree with that statement.

Employees and managers need to know that by not following affirmative action, they will be reprimanded in some way. With mechanisms like that built into the policy, perhaps we will see more Indigenous hires into the public service.

Mr. Speaker, another point that was mentioned at that public meeting was the need for the government to accept education equivalencies more broadly within all or most job descriptions. Again, I agree with that statement, and I've mentioned that several times here.

In many cases, Indigenous peoples are screened out of the job application process simply because their education level does not match exactly what is stated in the job description. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, another aspect of Indigenous hire in the public service, which is not talked about often, is mentorship. It is extremely important for managers in every department to mentor and provide every opportunity for professional development with all Indigenous employees. Indigenous employees need to be supported and treated as valuable Members of the team.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I know that the Minister of Finance has been working on a new Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework and Action Plan. She tabled those documents in November. While it is good to see those plans advancing, I hope to start seeing some results from those plans sooner rather than later. I will have questions for the Minister of Finance later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.