Mr. Speaker, the human resources and the representation of the population of the North within the public service has been something I've taken very seriously in this role and that the department takes seriously. The Affirmative Action Policy, as it is now, was from 1989. It is woefully out of date. It is not in keeping with best practices. It arguably may not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And it's not showing achievement. We know we're sitting at 30 percent representation of Indigenous people in a territory with 50 percent representation. So we know there's work to be done.

What the policy is seeking to do by splitting it out is having an Indigenous Employment Policy so that we can continue to give a priority to a preference to people of the Northwest Territories -- the Indigenous people of the Northwest Territories while also bringing in an equity policy because we are recognizing that there's distinct groups that are also disadvantaged, including in the Northwest Territories. So people who may be LGBTQ2IA+ peoples, disabled peoples, who aren't right now reflected and given that kind of priority. So it is my hope that we will see that the new way of approaching this targets groups that are underrepresented, does so in a way that is, you know, reflective of the values of the North, and I hope will start to get us to a place where we have a representative public service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.