N.W.T. gov't now proposing Indigenous northerners have top priority in new hiring policy

After feedback from residents and MLAs, the N.W.T. government says it's considering giving Indigenous northerners first priority for government jobs — a shift from the original plan to give across-the-board priority to Indigenous Canadians, no matter where they are from.

In December, the government announced a new Indigenous employment policy to replace its affirmative action hiring policy. While the old policy created hiring tiers — prioritizing Indigenous northerners, longtime residents who are not Indigenous, women and people with disabilities — the new policy received swift criticism for prioritizing all Indigenous Canadians equally.

Now, Finance Minister Caroline Wawzonek says the territory is working toward a new tier system that would put people with connections to northern Indigenous groups first. All other Indigenous Canadians would be in a second priority group.

Wawzonek said the proposition would address a majority of the concerns she heard from MLAs and Indigenous governments about the upcoming policy change.

"We're trying to be responsive — we went through a huge engagement process and still find ourselves here, and still trying to make some changes, and happy to have the opportunity to talk to folks about it as we do that," said Wawzonek.

Wawzonek said she had hoped to discuss this with MLAs last week, but her meeting request was turned down. Since then, she said, she's spoken with a number of them who responded positively to the proposed change.

"The majority are saying to me that that's going to satisfy their concerns and we're willing to go forward and hopefully see a more representative workforce as a result of that," said Wawzonek.

Shauna Morgan, MLA for Yellowknife North, said last week she was hopeful there was room to move forward with the policy.

"I do think there is so much potential for us to come to [an] agreement on employment policy because we all fundamentally agree on what we're trying to do," said Morgan.

Doing away with the affirmative action policy and replacing it with the Indigenous employment policy comes at a time of record low Indigenous employment in the territorial government. The affirmative action policy has been in place since 1989.

Wawzonek said the government held a town hall last week with employees about the policy change, which at one point saw around 1,400 attendees online. She said a part of that was receiving a range of comments.

She said one of the big questions they heard was how the policy would change training opportunities, education opportunities, job descriptions and qualifications. Wawzonek said the policy itself is one step that could be beneficial, alongside other actions, to address those concerns.

Last week, Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins said Wawzonek's office requested a meeting with MLAs to discuss the policy but he was one of multiple MLAs who did not want to take it. Hawkins said he believed that there was no room for compromise on the policy and stands firmly against it.

"It's been my experience that when the government has said no not once, not twice, [but] more than three times, then ran out with the policy saying, 'This is what we're doing,' the meeting is just an education to MLAs," said Hawkins.

There is currently an invite for public feedback on the policy from the standing committee on government operations that is open until Feb. 15. 

The policy is set to come into effect April 1 and has a set three-year review period.