Boosting Indigenous employment within N.W.T. gov't starts with better education, says Délı̨nę chief

To get more Indigenous people employed with the Northwest Territories government, grade school education in the communities needs to be bolstered.

That would at least be a start, said Chief Danny Gaudet of the Délı̨nę Got'ı̨nę Government.

"The education system is really, really bad," Gaudet said. He said it's among the root causes preventing Indigenous people from working within the territorial government.

Gaudet's comments stemmed from a meeting Friday afternoon with the territory's standing committee on government operations. A virtual public meeting was held where leadership and community members of Délı̨nę were invited to discuss two issues: increasing Indigenous representation in public service, and the Official Languages Act.

"Certainly, having at least 50 per cent of Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories and only having 30 per cent employed Indigenous people in the government causes some concerns," Gaudet said.

People in Délı̨nę attended the virtual meeting from their local cultural centre, with interpretation provided for attendees.

Indigenous representation in the public service is being reviewed as a committee priority, the territory said, while the Official Languages Act is on the discussion table because it has to be reviewed by the Legislative Assembly every five years.

Committee members Caitlin Cleveland, MLA for Kam Lake, Richard Edjericon, MLA for Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh, and Rylund Johnson, MLA for Yellowknife North, mostly listened during the meeting.

Leonard Kenny, a councillor with the Délı̨nę Got'ı̨nę Government who joined the meeting virtually from Délın̨e, agrees with Gaudet.

He said the education in grade schools in smaller communities is not up to par compared to schools in bigger centres, like Yellowknife.

"Going into the job with the government, I think we need to re-look at the education part of it as well," Kenny said.

"How can we fix it so that our young people can finish high school and go to the appropriate education system, whether it's a college or university or something in that field?"

Need for 'serious conversation'

Gaudet thinks the grade school education system in his community is weak, and that it creates a barrier for people who often have to upgrade their education, sometimes in the South, just to qualify for post-secondary education, and then to eventually qualify for some jobs.

"We really need to have a real serious conversation about education, because I think in the end, if you work for the public sector, a big chunk of it is you have to have an education," Gaudet said.

Another big support needed from the government to help Indigenous people work in public service is to help with  housing.

That aspect, particularly if people are expected to move to Yellowknife for the job, is key and it's where he think the territory is "losing people" who might otherwise consider a government job.

"Yellowknife and other main centres are not a cheap place to live," Gaudet said.

Gaudet said back when he used to work for the N.W.T. government, he was well supported — there was a push from within the government to hire Indigenous workers, he said, and "a lot" of programs to train people on the job. That included helping people get into courses to get their diplomas, certificates or even degrees to be qualified for various government jobs.

"The government went out of its way for its affirmative action [for] employees to not only get them to the levels they should be at but also to support them and hire them," he said.

Now, that support does not seem to be as prominent, he said. 

"I don't think you support [employees] like you used to," he told the government committee.

Gaudet told the committee that the N.W.T. government should be looking at not just hiring Indigenous people, but looking at "the root of the cause" for the currently lower Indigenous participation in territorial government work.

Several elders from Délın̨e who were part of the virtual meeting also voiced their agreement and added the traditional language needs to be integrated into the education system to help preserve it.

Gaudet said the community will be returning a formal response to the territory on both issues in the coming weeks.