This is page numbers 3897 - 3946 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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 know.

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Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation.

Yesterday, the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation said that on April 1st, 2020, the Housing Corporation amended its construction contracts to require general contractors to support at least one northern apprentice on work assignments for the duration of the construction project.

The Minister identified 33 new apprentices working on assignments to date. This is great news, Mr. Speaker, and I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to how they are monitoring general contractors, what the reporting requirements are, and what are the consequences for not hiring a local apprentice on a project? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question as well too.

When we were looking at the 90-unit delivery throughout the Northwest Territories and looking at our repairs as well, I wanted to make sure that we did have opportunity for smaller communities and employment. So just to answer the Member's questions that she had asked, the requirement to provide an apprentice work assignment applies to the Housing Corporation's new construction contracts. So in all of our contracts, there is a requirement that they have to hire local and we need to include an apprentice as well too. The contractor is required under this term of the contract to report all labour content, including apprentices, to the Housing Corporation as part of their interim progress payment request, providing an apprentice work assignment, it is a contractual requirement, and if not satisfied, the contractor could be deemed in breach of the contract. To date, I am pleased to advise that the Housing Corporation has not seen these issues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And that's great news from the Housing Corporation.

My next question is about supporting these apprentices beyond the project. So how is Housing Corporation helping see these apprentices through to their completion of their program to become journey persons? Thank you.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The apprentices would have a range of opportunities to continue to advance in their program. Opportunities would include future construction projects with the government, private sector and others, including Indigenous governments. The Housing Corporation also continues to promote apprentices -- apprentice opportunities with the local housing authorities. Currently, the Housing Corporation supports up to 12 apprentice positions in our local housing organization each year. Each apprentice is supported by a career development officer out of ECE regional service centre, who can advise an apprentice on employment opportunities and job -- and jobs in demand across the Northwest Territories. The career development officer supports the apprentices through their apprenticeship typically three to four years. These supports include career counselling, resume writing, access to technical for each level of their apprenticeship, financial supports during the technical training, academic supports during their technical training. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering -- and I'm happy the Minister brought up the relationship with ECE because I think that's a really important one in order to build local trades capacity. So I'm wondering if the Housing Corporation works along ECE to maintain a list of apprentices within each community that contractors can access? And I'm also wondering is if as part of that relationship with ECE if career advisors actually have access to the needs of a community as far as trades development so that they can encourage high school students, when they go into high schools, to take on these roles in their communities? Thank you.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I heard three questions in that question. But it's good to get the information out to the public as well too.

The Housing Corporation continues to work closely with ECE in providing opportunities for apprenticeship with our local housing organizations. The Housing Corporation also plans to participate in upcoming career fairs and other venues to promote these apprenticeship opportunities.

The Housing Corporation participates in a departmental working group with ECE and provides regular reporting to ECE on apprenticeship hires with local housing organizations as well as those supports through our new construction contracts.

The Housing Corporation works with ECE to verify the apprentice hires under the new construction contracts and the Northwest Territories registered apprentices. ECE administers the apprenticeships, trades and occupation certificates, which includes registration of apprentices.

Due to the privacy legislation, ECE does not share names of apprentices with employers; however, ECE does provide advice to employers who are looking for apprentices.

Further, each apprentice is supported by a career development officer who can advise an apprentice on employment opportunities and jobs in demand across the Northwest Territories. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for my 7th question today, I was wondering if the Minister can share if maintenance and repair plans are shared with the community in order to engage local residents on what the plans are of Housing Corporation and how people can get involved in that? Thank you.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Housing Corporation district offices work closely with the local housing organizations to identify priority repair projects in the community. In addition, the Housing Corporation continues to work with development of community housing plans with communities that identify priority investment areas, including repairs project priorities. The Housing Corporation continues to report -- promote, sorry, the Community Housing Support Initiative Program that engages community leadership to identify housing solutions for their community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Richard Edjericon

Richard Edjericon Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to just touch a little bit on the Affirmative Action Policy. It was first discussed back in 1976 when Stuart Hodgson was still the -- was still around. And back in that time, they felt the need of creating a policy. So it's been 46 years now since that discussion's been ongoing and it's something that needs to be looked at. And at this point, I'm not too happy the way it's -- where it's going. It's -- it needs a lot of work and I'm hoping that the recruitment and retention action policy plan that the Minister of Finance spoke about the other day, they will take that into consideration.

Anyway, I have a question but I had mentioned earlier the GNWT holds the diamond mines to high standards for their employment targets, also in reporting. Can the Minister commit to producing annual reports that demonstrate whether the GNWT has reached the employment targets by department and brought to this House? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister responsible for Finance.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the entire government's financial -- or human resources plan in front of me. I do have the Department of Finance with me, Mr. Speaker, and the way that it is being broken down, so that we can achieve the targets that we've committed to set in the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework, is to include senior management, middle management, positions that require university equivalency, positions that require college trades equivalency, and positions requiring high school equivalency. And that is then broken down between Indigenous employees/non-Indigenous employees so that there's an understanding of what the targets are and an understanding of where we are at in achieving them. As I said, I have the Finance one here. But this is a template that's been determined to apply to the whole-of-government now, which is part of what is different, is actually having those targets in a way that is, you know, again, the whole-of-government has the same template, the same approach, and each department is going to have its own target, and they will be recorded to report back on them year after year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Richard Edjericon

Richard Edjericon Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When you look at the diamond mines and how they report it by job category, you'll see the opportunity to better track how employees progress in their careers. Establishing job categories is a very useful HR tool where oversight can be managed. Can the Minister commit to reviewing the jobs under the public sector and categorizing them in a way that separates out entry-level position from middle management and senior management, etcetera? Mahsi.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So again, we are right now doing exactly that, right, with the purpose of having these templates in every business plan for every department is so that they are looking at the different categories, because the representation of Indigenous northerners in different categories is not the same. And we want to ensure that they are moving forward so that we have Indigenous employees who are reaching positions of middle management and ultimately senior management and that there's a succession plan that goes with that. So by tracking this differently and putting it in there, we will be in a position to see what we're achieving. We will be in a position to have a succession plan. And we will be in a position to be held account for it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Richard Edjericon

Richard Edjericon Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister commit to establishing an employee targets by job category by department and including this information under the annual report? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, yes, that's -- yes, that's an easy yes. That's how we -- that's exactly where I want this to go so that, again, it's more -- better understood. And there's the public service annual report. There's the business plan process that we go through. But it may well be that we need to find another mechanism by which we can continue to provide this information. It is very apparent that it's of great interest, and it should be, and it's really -- if we're going to achieve the kind of see change that we want in terms of being a representative workforce, having those numbers out there so that they're well known, I think that will be very powerful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Richard Edjericon

Richard Edjericon Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister commit to establishing an internal oversight in the hiring process where, for example, in an entry-level job is filled by a non-Indigenous applicant, the hiring committee needs to be able to explain this to oversight committee why? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are some internal processes already that do strive to achieve that. So for instance, if -- again, there's certainly the appeal process that can apply to some which would go through a very formal evaluation of whether or not the Affirmative Action Policy was properly applied. And then there's also with the targets that we have now, there is a greater expectation on hiring managers and on their supervisors about whether and or how they're achieving this. So -- and then of course, there's also other less formal mechanisms, Mr. Speaker, such as the Indigenous employee advisory committee who I know we've been quite relying on in order to get to the point of having this framework ready. So I do believe there are some of those processes in place. I will go back to the department now, though. I'm certainly happy to commit to go back and just to ensure that we are in fact going to be able to achieve the goals of meeting these targets or if we're not meeting them, that we're able to truly analyze where we're not and why we're not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Written questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

The use of traditional names on vital statistics documents like birth certificates and driver's licences is incredibly important to both the recognition of the importance of traditional names and the revitalization and preservation of Indigenous languages. It is my understanding that an Indigenous font working group was established to complete work required to pursue the use of traditional names on vital statistics documents.

My questions are:

  1. Who sits on the Indigenous fonts working group;
  2. What GNWT systems will be impacted;
  3. What are the technical needs of the Government of the Northwest Territories to see this change;
  4. How are other jurisdictions implementing Indigenous fonts on vital statistics documents; and
  5. What impact will this change have on a national level.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Replies to Commissioner's address. Petitions. Reports of committees on the review of bills. Member for Yellowknife North.

Bill 37: Information and Protection of privacy act
Reports Of Committees On The Review Of Bills

Page 3905

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 37: An Act to Amend the Information and Protection of Privacy Act is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.