The GNWT is replacing its long-standing hiring policy with a new Indigenous Employment Policy (IEP) that simplifies the process for hiring Indigenous people in the public sector.
Public Service Minister Caroline Wawzonek and Deputy Minister of Finance William Mackey made the announcement yesterday afternoon.
“The goal of this policy is to help ensure opportunities for Indigenous employees to grow, thrive, and take on leadership roles within the public service,” said Wawzonek.
“The GNWT recognizes that the Affirmative Action Policy has not fully addressed the complex, systemic issues contributing to the under-representation of Indigenous Canadians in the GNWT.”
Indigenous Aboriginal employees make up 28.9 per cent of the GNWT workforce, and this number “hasn’t changed much since 1999”, according to the GNWT.
The unemployment rate for Indigenous northerners was 14 per cent in 2023, while it was only 1.3 per cent for non-Indigenous residents.
Established in 1989, the existing policy introduced hiring categories, known as P1, P2 and P3. P1 gives priority to hiring Indigenous women and men, long-time women residents are categorized as P2, and P3 includes Indigenous non-Aboriginal Persons and disabled non-Indigenous residents.
The new IEP will remove priority hiring and focus exclusively on Indigenous recruitment.
“Removing this policy will allow the GNWT to implement a fairer charter, applying to a more inclusive hiring process that will work specifically for Indigenous,” said Mackey.
The new policy has been received negatively by some northerners, including Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart and Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins.
“The Affirmative Action Policy may never have been perfect, but it has been an essential program for local northern Indigenous people and long-term northern people to get northern jobs,” said Hawkins in a video posted on social media.
“The fact that resident Indigenous applications are being scrapped is a slap in the face to reconciliation,” Testart wrote in a Facebook post. “Hiring a bunch of Indigenous southerners instead of non-Indigenous southerners isn’t going to solve our problem.”
A question related to MLAs’ concern was brought up during the press conference yesterday, where Wawzonek responded that “hiring more Indigenous southerners would be a good problem to have.”
Wawzonek said Indigenous people who have been raised with an Indigenous culture, language and worldview down south may have a better understanding of challenges experienced by Indigenous northerners.
Mackey said the IEP is a result of extensive consultation, including 14 in-person and three virtual engagement sessions in nine communities, and more than 550 online survey submissions.
“A clear message that we heard from all these consultations is that we should have a policy that is focused clearly on Indigenous people,” said Mackey. “There was overwhelming support to remove the affirmative action policy.”
The IEP will come into effect on April 1, 2025, with a three-year review period to assess its effectiveness.
