This is page numbers 6089 - 6140 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.

Topics

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories, for the purpose of capacity building, make it a standard policy to ensure that an Indigenous person consistently occupies at least one assistant deputy minister position within all departments; consistently staffs all regional supervisor positions with Indigenous employees; promotes and requires, where possible, that all public boards and agencies have a minimum level of Indigenous representation within the overall makeup of their board of directors; requires, where possible, for agencies to invest in hiring Indigenous employees and follow the Affirmative Action Policy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. The motion is in order. To the motion. MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you. We've just seen this in the lands -- or environment and climate change. They've targeted a position, a regional ADM position that is -- it gives the room for somebody in the region to -- an Indigenous person to grow into an ADM position, which gives them that experience. And I think the thing is that in the government, sometimes the Indigenous people are left to the side because all of the positions are in Yellowknife and not necessarily are they known and their experience is known to move up into these roles. So this is where -- you know, this might not happen overnight. But this is -- this is a plan. This is a goal. And this is a motion. So we're asking it to be looked at seriously, that this can be done, so we can see more Indigenous people in our senior management. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

MLA YK North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories attract Indigenous professionals with roots and relations in the Northwest Territories to take public service positions with the GNWT by creating an outreach campaign targeting Northwest Territories residents studying outside the Northwest Territories; offering incentives to returning students; and, requiring that hiring managers are aware of the campaign. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Question has been called. Is that a question? No, okay. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

MLA Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories and all departments update the job descriptions of all public service positions to ensure the inclusion of value statements which affirms the importance of Indigenous knowledge and community experience; update job information section of all job descriptions to ensure that only plain language is used; ensure that each job information section provides an equivalency formula that is publicly accessible and demonstrates concrete examples of what education equivalencies will be accepted in place of university education; create a mechanism that requires offering qualifying priority 1 candidates who participated in a competition a training path into the position before submitting the job to a non-priority candidate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. The motion is order. MLA Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with this recommendation, a lot of people when you look at the GNWT's job descriptions, they don't make a lot of sense. They're -- not a lot of them are in plain language. You read them and somebody -- you can't meet the qualifications. Like, I don't -- like, it just seems like you just -- there's not a target that you can meet. So that's why with this one -- and then equivalencies. We talk about equivalencies in many job descriptions. But as somebody who's applied on jobs, I have never been able to understand how I measure up to an equivalency. And if that was built into job descriptions -- like, when you're creating your job description, you're creating what equivalency could be for this job, then at least when I'm applying I can say well, this is my equivalency because sometimes hiring managers and hiring HR, they don't use equivalencies and so you're not included into that competition because they only put the people that have the schooling criteria. And so this way it could be appealed, have another mechanism of appealing because you would be able to say I met those equivalencies and I didn't even get a job interview. So that is why those -- this motion is there and it's important because Indigenous people, you know, they need to feel confident when they're applying on a job. And women -- it's known that women will not apply on a job if they don't think they meet the qualifications statistically whereas men will apply on a job even if they don't meet all the qualifications. So Indigenous people are probably worse off because they already don't trust that they're going to get even an interview. So that's why this one is there. Thank you, Mr. Chair

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

MLA Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories commit to transparent retention practices by requiring all departments to develop and follow succession planning guidelines; maintain and share internal position tracking; track and share information about transfer assignments, and/or promotions; ensure that departmental succession planning is informed by employees' goals and expectations by connecting with development goals expressed by employees in the annual performance appraisals; ensure that all Indigenous employees in senior management positions are well supported by their supervisors and are given training opportunities that are suited to their employees interests and can career goals; create a mechanism to ensure Indigenous employees/applicants receive preferred and priority hiring when replacing outgoing employees leaving the public service. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

MLA Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories requires all departments to conduct exit interviews with all Indigenous employees, including interns and summer students; ensures exit interviews with Indigenous employees leaving a department are conducted by Indigenous staff of the diversity inclusion unit; and, requires that all public service annual reports include a section with an analysis of why priority 1 employees are leaving the public service. Thank you, Mr. Chair

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

MLA for Yellowknife North.