The government of the Northwest Territories reports that the majority of new Indigenous employees hired under the revised affirmative action policy are local residents. The policy, implemented in April of last year, categorizes Indigenous individuals into two priority groups based on their ancestral ties to the region.
Priority group one includes Indigenous applicants who are members or descendants of First Nations, Métis, or Inuit communities within the current boundaries of the Northwest Territories. Priority group two comprises Indigenous applicants from regions outside the N.W.T. in Canada.
Since the policy’s inception, nearly 1,000 individuals have been hired, with 226 falling into priority group one and 34 into priority group two. In the previous fiscal year, only 196 Indigenous workers were hired. The government made the policy change when Indigenous representation in the territorial workforce hit a record low despite Indigenous people constituting half of the territory’s population.
In May, the government announced an increase in Indigenous hiring, with the current Indigenous employment rate exceeding 33%. However, concerns persist among some Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) regarding the policy’s impact on N.W.T. Indigenous communities.
MLA George Nerysoo from Mackenzie Delta expressed that he has not observed any of his constituents benefitting from the Indigenous employment policy. He highlighted concerns raised by other territorial government employees about the lack of Indigenous hiring. Similarly, MLA Kieron Testart from Range Lake in Yellowknife mentioned that his constituents have not seen the benefits of the policy and are worried about the loss of priority hiring for non-Indigenous residents, a feature of the previous affirmative action policy.
Testart emphasized the need to reinstate the lost benefits and proposed a long-term solution to increase Indigenous employment by enhancing educational opportunities for Indigenous individuals across the Northwest Territories.