Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I might draw your attention back to the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework. This was put out I now believe back in December of a couple of years ago. That was the fruit of much research and consultation at that time, looking at a number of barriers across a number of areas that we were going to start to address. You now see, and you'll see in the main estimates, there are targets being set for each department. There are also in addition to that in order to set those targets, there was a labour force statistical analysis conducted in June of 2022, and that has provided a basis by which we can begin to have those targets. And now continuing with the work that we're in to evolve the public service, to be more representative, we've come forward to make good on the promise to review the affirmative action policy. So there's been much research done. The affirmative action policy has been looked at and reviewed multiple times. There's never been the will to get it over the line and to make it better, to try something better, to try to fix it. It hasn't delivered, very simply. We all know it hasn't delivered because the needle hasn't moved. It's not only because of this policy; I completely agree. But that's where we get into that recruitment and retention framework that does some of that work. This is one more step that's going to refocus attention on the hiring of Indigenous Northerners while also ensuring that there's other groups, including long-term Northerners, who also will be benefitting from an employment equity policy. So a lot of research went into all these pieces, Madam Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I've been getting a number of calls like this lately just because of the meetings that are happening in the communities, and people are very concerned. You know, what we seem to be doing is pitting Indigenous people against Indigenous people and others as well.

So, Madam Speaker, will the Minister confirm the rationale and the criteria used to support the need for this review and potential replacement of the current policy with two distinct policies, being the Indigenous employment policy and employment equity policy, when the whole intent is to increase the number of Indigenous people into the government sector? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, under the current policy, the affirmative action policy, there is still this ranking system that goes on, what everyone knows as the P1s, P2s, but within that you have P1A, P1B, and all these different sorts of ranking depending upon the position, depending upon who's in the position. So there's already complexity within there that categorizes people under different ways depending on the job and then creates this priority listing. Madam Speaker, what we're actually doing now is separating that out so that it is very clear that first there is the priority on the Indigenous employment policy that would take preference for the Indigenous Canadians in the Northwest Territories, within the boundaries of the Northwest Territories, while not losing the fact that we -- the Northerners, the long Northerners are also arguably subject to wanting to ensure that we continue to have them prioritized for the public service. But within that, Madam Speaker, there are other equity groups in Canada that we would like to see as members of the public service. There's not a flood of people coming to the Northwest Territories. If there were, I think that would be a good problem to have quite frankly, but there's not. The employment equity policy operates as a secondary policy to the Indigenous employment policy, and it matches numbers. So instead of just this blanket ranking, we're now going to say if there's positions, and we know that our labour market has ten people available and we have positions available, we can start to fill up our positions with the folks that we know are here. The Indigenous employment policy, again, comes first. The other one comes second. We're matching targets numbers now, not just ranking people. So this is actually a much more targeted way of going about it. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Yeah, you know, in the beginning, like I said last year I think in a statement, is that when this policy was first implemented, I think it was targeted towards Indigenous people and they had to add in the P2s I think to get it passed, and after talking to some of the drafters anyway. So I just want to make sure that we get it right.

So, Madam Speaker, will the Minister confirm if there was any consideration given to do away with the affirmative action policy or keep it or replace it with other forms of support or programs such as an Indigenous and northern training and recruitment policy, an Indigenous and northern post-secondary student hire policy, Indigenous and northern internship policy, or using a majority Indigenous hiring committee to support Indigenous hires? Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I think my first two answers were already long so I'm going to try and get this one shorter, but this one could be longer than the last two.

I'm happy to say that really, we have a lot of those policies. And I certainly wouldn't want the fact that we are now at the next stage of really developing our attention on Indigenous hiring, and of being a representative workforce, to lose sight again of the fact that we do now have the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework. In that, there are action items, and within all of that as well and in conjunction with that, we still have the internship program that does operate, and which would apply these equity programs just as it does now with the affirmative action policy. We have the internship approach that we use. There is, of course -- there is, in fact, a proposed increase for the secondment program for Indigenous governments to be working together with the GNWT to have capacity building on both sides. There is the career gateway program. So, again, no shortage of programs that are looking at each of the individual different barriers, targeting some of those individual barriers whether at a student level, whether within community capacity, to try to bring up the hiring. So I do think we need to look at all those things, I agree completely, and we do have a number of those programs already employed. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. You know, I understand that we have -- like, we have this policy already in place. We have all these programs in place. And I guess I ask myself why haven't we been able to meet that target? And, you know, I look at one of the areas that I -- you know, I think that hasn't been mentioned is the lack of accountability of DMs and management. Like, they are the ones there that have to make sure that those policies are being followed. And when I talk to people, I don't think that's happening. But anyways, Madam Speaker, residents are concerned that the notice of meetings in the communities have been left wanting.

So will the Minister confirm what level of notice and consultation has or will take place with Indigenous governments, communities, NGOs, and residents during this review? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. So, Madam Speaker, there was a letter sent out to Indigenous governments back in October of 2022, and I know I've heard back directly myself from some, and others I know, or I believe are going to be participating in the community consultations. There's two months' worth of community engagement sessions happening now through to the end of March. And, Madam Speaker, I just want to also note I had also heard that some people of course can't necessarily make it to a specific date. I've asked that we had a virtual session towards the end which would hopefully capture folks who were unable to attend in person at some of these. And, of course, as is the usual practice with the GNWT, there is an open portal on the GNWT finance website around receiving feedback. And, Madam Speaker, certainly most of us are easily to find by way of email if people simply want to write in. Madam Speaker, I'm happy to take people's recommendations and comments in that regard as well. So there are a lot of -- a number of ways that people can submit their feedback, and I hope that they do that. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.