KRG leaders plug higher education, good work habits

The Kativik Regional Government’s head office in Kuujjuaq where the majority of the regional government’s 340 employees work. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Finish school so you’ll get a good job.

Speaking May 30 at the Kativik Regional Government council meeting in Kangiqsjuaq, KRG chairperson Maggie Emudluk repeated that message she also delivered this past February.

Emudluk was responding to complaints from a regional councillor that there are not enough Inuit working at the top levels of the regional government.

Charlie Arngak, the regional councillor for Kangiqsujuaq, suggested during a discussion on a report from the KRG’s transport department that some airport communicators had resigned because the director of the transport department is no longer an Inuk.

Emudluk said the KRG’s human resources department hires the best people to fill available jobs.

And that means that for administrative jobs that means you must be able to read, write and be bilingual.

The KRG wants Inuit to fill positions, KRG vice-chairperson Mary Pilurtuut told the councillors.

But she said the regional government also needs people to do the jobs and can’t keep employees who are absent 50 per cent of the time.

“As Inuit people, we have to prove ourselves to show we can be punctual and go to work daily,” Pilurtuut said at the meeting which was broadcast live on the Inuttitut-language Taqramiut Nipingat Inc. radio network.

The dropout rate in Nunavik still means fewer than 10 students who start Grade 1 finish high school — and fewer still finish college and university.

However, many jobs at the KRG and other employers require a specialized post-secondary education — something many potential workers in the region lack, so they’re missing out on many jobs, a 2011 KRG study also found.

Employee statistics for the KRG show that in January 2013 in Kuujjuaq there were 181 Inuit employed by the regional government and 94 non-Inuit for an overall Inuit employment rate of 66 per cent.

But at the managerial level there were only 19 Inuit out of 65 — or 29 per cent Inuit employment.

Overall, of the 340 KRG’s employees, 59 per cent were Inuit.

That’s still better than the Government of Nunavut’s Inuit employment numbers.

Human Resources statistics tabled this past March in the Nunavut legislature say that of 3,158 jobs that are filled, 1,568 or 50 per cent of them are filled by beneficiaries.

At the senior management level, that percentage falls to 17 per cent.