Motion to halt Indigenous Employment Policy is defeated

An attempt by some MLAs to call a halt to the introduction of a new Indigenous Employment Policy at the territorial government has failed.

The policy is designed to update the decades-old Affirmative Action Policy, which politicians have long accused of failing to ensure the NWT government hired enough Indigenous staff to adequately reflect the peoples of the territory.

The proportion of GNWT staff who are Indigenous is currently at its lowest recorded point – just under 29 percent. That figure has fallen steadily year on year.

NWT officials announced a new hiring policy in December 2024 to try to stop that slide. It is set to replace affirmative action on April 1.

The new policy tries to thread a needle by being not so restrictive that it could fall to a Charter challenge, but being restrictive enough that – after some tweaking earlier this year – it still prioritizes Indigenous northerners. Non-Indigenous northerners would no longer have priority in GNWT hiring.

Multiple regular MLAs say cabinet’s attempt to move on from affirmative action has not convinced them.

They have complained of a lack of consultation, a loss of priority for some groups of people such as those with disabilities, and the abandonment of so-called “P2” designation – the category that had previously given non-Indigenous northerners priority (behind Indigenous northerners) for territorial government jobs.

On Thursday, one MLA who doesn’t back the new policy – Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins – brought forward a motion calling for an “immediate halt” to its rollout.

Even if the motion had passed, the legislature does not give regular MLAs the power to bring a policy like this to a stop. Instead, a victory for Hawkins would have sent cabinet a message that regular MLAs disapproved, and demanded a cabinet response within 120 days.

In the event, the motion fell by 13 votes to four.

New policy, new gaps

Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart, seconding Hawkins’ motion, said the Indigenous Employment Policy – in removing the P2 designation – was eradicating something that had become part of northern living “with a stroke of the pen.”

While he acknowledged affirmative action had not worked, Testart said the new policy created new gaps by not covering the likes of people who have disabilities.

Both Hawkins and Testart said the new policy had been “rammed through” against objections from regular MLAs calling for more time to develop a better proposal.

Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA Richard Edjericon added: “I came here to work for my people, my region, the communities throughout the Northwest Territories, and it seems like we have no voice. This cabinet continues to make decisions on the best interests of the people in Northwest Territories with no consultation.”

“I don’t really understand why this had to be rushed,” said Frame Lake MLA Julian Morse. He asked why a policy 30 years old had to be amended now without more time to “build consensus around a new policy.”

Finance minister Caroline Wawzonek, by contrast, said those decades had been spent almost continually returning to affirmative action, examining it, consulting on it and trying to find a better policy. The only difference this time, she suggested, was that a set of answers had been reached.

“All the way back in 2005, work was done to try to review the policy, to update it, because we were out of step with the rest of Canada. No one else is doing affirmative action policies any more, but we just can’t seem to change this one,” she said.

Policy ‘will help’

Wawzonek has long maintained that non-Indigenous northerners are not facing an obvious threat to their employment, noting the one-percent unemployment rate in the territory among that demographic.

“A policy whose purpose is to improve equity must focus on areas where there is inequity. To be effective, we need to ask ourselves who is not being treated with equity if we’re going to make a difference,” she said on Thursday.

“That is now the focus of the new Indigenous Employment Policy. It is focusing on those persons who we know have not, historically and systemically, been treated with equity in the Northwest Territories, and also in Canada.”

Wawzonek found support from Monfwi MLA Jane Weyallon Armstrong, who said she believed the new policy “will help Indigenous people in the NWT,” and from Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely, who said he was prepared to give the policy a chance but would request an annual review to ensure it was having the desired impact.

Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Denny Rodgers said he was “willing to give this a shot” based on feedback from constituents, while Great Slave MLA Kate Reid – though expressing concern about the loss of priority for people with disabilities – said she could see a path toward addressing perceived problems.

“I’m satisfied that the GNWT is hearing that historical inequities need to be addressed and, if it means taking apart the functions of the original Affirmative Action Policy and dealing with them one at a time, I am alright with this,” Reid said.

Yellowknife North’s Shauna Morgan abstained, saying the motion was about “the wrong conversation entirely.”

Morgan called for a much broader examination of the educational, mental and cultural supports required to better support northerners in the workforce, and removal of barriers that prevent Indigenous people from progressing to more senior roles once hired by the GNWT.

Supporting Hawkins’ motion: 4 – Yellowknife Centre, Range Lake, Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh, Frame Lake.

Opposing the motion: 13 – Cabinet, Monfwi, Great Slave, Inuvik Boot Lake, Mackenzie Delta, Dehcho, Sahtu.

Abstaining: 1 – Yellowknife North.