Debates of Feb. 24th, 2026

Thank you. You know, there's -- I don't want to take from other regions, but there's a lot of jobs allocated or there's a lot of jobs in the headquarters and some in North Slave. Tlicho is not part of North Slave for -- and there's one job for economic development diversification, and there's about 53 jobs, you know -- and when -- from last fiscal to upcoming fiscal year, 53 jobs created. I mean, there's one job that's added, or two jobs, and nothing in all the other regions. So I just want to ask the Minister do they have a plan in place, or are there -- are they going to transfer or thought about doing -- decentralizing some of the jobs to the regions because in Yellowknife or in the headquarters, you know and I know there's no resources, but all the resources are in this -- in outside of Yellowknife, in the Sahtu, in Tlicho, in the Delta. You know, we have all these resources. I would like to see some of these headquarters position moved to the regions, so I just wanted to ask the Minister if -- have they -- are they working with the Indigenous government or other regions to, you know -- to build relationship to transfer some of these jobs to the -- outside of Yellowknife. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker -- or sorry. I keep doing that today. Mr. Chair. So ITI funds Tlicho government, for example, and other governments across the territory for -- through the community transfer initiatives, and that way Indigenous governments can hire their own economic development officers. In addition to that, there's also regional superintendents and economic development officers that work for ITI as well. And in addition to that, Mr. Chair, one of the policies that ITI uses and has even used for interns is the remote work policy. So there have been people who have applied on positions that may be headquarters positions but are able to use the remote work policy in order to do the positions from their home community. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Thank you. I am aware of the economic development officer positions in agreement with the Tlicho government. That is good. You know, it would be nice if, you know, the government can do that with other Indigenous group as well. What I am talking about is the high-level positions. You know, it's all situated in the headquarters, and I -- you mentioned remote work policy, and it's in -- the focus is on intern. So are these intern positions -- how many intern positions are we talking about? Thank you.

I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So the intern position was an example that I used. And so the remote work policy is a Department of Finance policy that as long as people can can do their jobs from their home community, so, for example, if it's a frontline position in a clinic or something, then it doesn't work for remote work, but the intern position was simply the example that I used in addition to -- yeah, and I will stop there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Since you brought up the intern positions, you know, they are training positions. I know at one time, and I've said it a few times before, there was a lot of training position within the government, and I know some of those intern or trainee, they move up, they were promoted. I just want -- will they be bringing back some of these training positions so that we focus on our people in our regions? Is there any other plan in place to train more people from the regions? Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, industry, tourism and investment also uses the Indigenous career gateway program which is essentially training positions where the department can gain access to training funds for an employee through that program, and ITI always looks to do that first and foremost with any hiring opportunities. Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Can the Minister explain to us why with the minerals and petroleum resources, the regional allocation, headquarters have more jobs in all the other regions except for Delta? There's no positions there identified. Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So we have our regional superintendents, and so the regional offices that support each region are -- those positions are found there. Within this division specifically, it's a regulatory division, and so the staff of this division end up serving the entire Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Yeah, they serve all of the Northwest Territories headquarters. I think we can be more efficient, more effective, if we saw some of these headquarters positions in other regions rather than just in the headquarters. Because right now, now is the time where we are advocating for more jobs to be transferred and/or created especially with the mine closure and, you know, with the minerals and petroleum resources, they are all in the regions outside of Yellowknife. So will the Minister commit to possibly transferring some of these headquarters positions to the region so that they are building, you know -- because they are always talking about collaborations. And this is a good time to do that. So I just wanted to ask the Minister. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Waiting for -- oh, there we go. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, new jobs, we always ask if they can be regionally located, and then in addition to that, we ensure that we are also using policies, for example, the remote work policy so that if somebody wants to apply for a job from another community and live in their home community and not relocate for it, that we are always using the policies that we have available to us. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Monfwi.

Well, the remote work policy, that's -- whoever gets that job, it's still considered headquarter. It's not the regional. What I want to see is more jobs being transferred to the region, decentralizing. I know then that our regions will be advocated. We know that there's going to be more activities happening. But if everything is out of Yellowknife, who's going to be communicating with who? And there's no communication if it's all in Yellowknife. So I want to ask the Minister, in the near future, hopefully within the next fiscal year, or current -- or in the upcoming fiscal year, that they're going to be focusing on decentralizing jobs to the smaller communities, where we need more jobs. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, certainly when looking at, you know, the trajectory of how a lot of these roles are moving, a lot of -- we've got a number of secondments right now from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment to Indigenous governments and to hamlets, and so we've taken staff members out of headquarters and put them in with Indigenous governments and specifically staff that Indigenous governments have specifically requested because they have a built and trusted relationship with those staff members. Some of them are also part of their Members that they wanted to be able to employ within their Indigenous governments. And so part of the conversations that are happening is how do we ensure that we are supporting Indigenous governments and transitioning some of these roles in this shared kind of co-managed world over to Indigenous governments or over to, you know, for example, land and water boards and where these positions need to be, and not necessarily feeling like they all need to be within the GNWT. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. In terms of time, was there any other questions? We've got one more pressing question. Okay. One more question.