GNWT moves to amend proposed Indigenous employment policy

NWT finance minister Caroline Wawzonek says the territory will look to implement a “two-tiered approach” to its proposed new Indigenous Employment Policy after criticism of an earlier version.

A first attempt at a proposal rolled out in late 2024 received criticism from MLAs and some residents because it prioritized Indigenous Canadians as a whole, without any preference for Indigenous northerners.

The new approach would prioritize the hiring of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people who are “Indigenous to the present boundaries of the Northwest Territories” over other Indigenous Canadians, according to Wawzonek.

Once finalized, the Indigenous Employment Policy will replace the existing Affirmative Action Policy.

Affirmative action at the GNWT has existed in some shape or form for decades and grants priority for most positions to Indigenous northerners first, then non-Indigenous northerners and residents who have disabilities. (Under affirmative action, some roles such as senior management positions also specifically prioritize female candidates.)

The proportion of Indigenous employees at the territorial government has been gradually falling for years and sits at 28.7 percent, a record low in a territory where nearly half of the residents are Indigenous.

Wawzonek said the current Affirmative Action Policy isn’t in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which in section six states that any Canadian – or person with permanent residency in Canada – has the right “to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.”

In revealing the new approach this week, which was first reported by the CBC, Wawzonek said the charter does allow exceptions where preferential treatment is given to groups that have a “clear and systemic and historic disadvantage.”

The minister says the GNWT understands “preferential hiring for Indigenous persons who are members of a defined group in the North” would be admissible.

Prioritizing people who are “Indigenous to the present boundaries” of the NWT would involve careful language that avoids any reference to residency. Wawzonek believes the concept of residency is what would “run us afoul” of the charter and trade agreements.

Other issues raised at a town hall meeting with GNWT employees last week included education and training to help increase Indigenous representation in the territorial government.

Wawzonek said work on those issues is ongoing. She pointed to the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework introduced in 2021, and to other work under way such as reviewing job descriptions, having Indigenous representatives on hiring committees, and unconscious bias training.

“This is a part of a much bigger thing, and we really want to see movement on this to be a more inclusive workplace,” said Wawzonek.

MLA for Frame Lake Julian Morse is the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations. He said the committee had not been supportive of the earlier version of the Indigenous Employment Policy publicized late last year.

Morse said some residents felt that proposal was “very different than what they might have expected, considering what was brought up” when MLAs and residents were previously asked to provide their feedback on the Affirmative Action Policy.

He said only a few of issues identified through that feedback were actually addressed when that version of the new policy came out.

For example, concern was expressed that the late 2024 version of the Indigenous Employment Policy did not include any priority or protections for groups such as women, gender-diverse people, members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and people with disabilities.

Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart brought that up in the legislature on Wednesday, going as far as to compare those groups’ lack of inclusion with the approach Donald Trump is taking in the United States.

Wawzonek suggested those groups were covered in a newly implemented Diversity and Inclusion Framework.

This week’s proposed changes to the Indigenous Employment Policy appeared to address some of the concerns the committee had raised about ensuring the hiring of northerners is prioritized.

“The policy hasn’t officially been changed yet, so I can’t speak to that yet, but one of the concerns is this idea that simply filling the GNWT with anyone who happens to be Indigenous doesn’t really get at the fundamental issue of representation,” said Morse.

The committee is collecting feedback on the proposed policy until February 15.

“The government has been quite clear that they’re not interested in pausing the policy and rollout of it, but that doesn’t mean that collecting comments isn’t valuable,” said Morse.

The new policy is set to come into effect on April 1, a deadline Wawzonek has said she will not move.

“Standing committee can hold the government to account for implementation of a policy over time,” said Morse, “and so this is a policy that is about to go into effect, it doesn’t mean that the change is necessarily permanent.”