Nunavut premier: new Inuit employment report doesn’t reflect job growth

Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna called the findings of a new report on low Inuit employment in the public service “narrow in scope” and based on “projected assumptions.” (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna is defending his government’s efforts to develop the territory’s Inuit workforce, suggesting the number of government jobs for Inuit are growing steadily.

Taptuna made the remarks at the Legislative Assembly Sept. 14 in response to a new report released by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. last week called “The Cost of Not Successfully Implementing Article 23: Representative Employment for Inuit within the Government.”

Article 23 is the section of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, first signed in 1993, that provides for government jobs for Inuit at a level that reflects the territory’s population.

Currently, about 84 per cent of Nunavut’s population is Inuit, though the report noted that Inuit hold only 51 per cent of Nunavut-based jobs in the territorial and federal governments.

And the financial impact of that on the territory is steep; the report estimates that lost wages to Nunavut Inuit will amount to about $1.3 billion between now and 2023.

But the premier called the report’s findings, “narrow” and based on “projected assumptions.”

“We have almost doubled the number of Inuit employed by the GN since 2001, which shows advancement,” Taptuna said.

There may be more positions, but when the territory was created in 1999, the proportion of Inuit employees in the GN stood at 45 per cent. By 2003, it was at 42 per cent.

Over his mandate, Taptuna said his government has implemented Inuit employment targets through each department and agency—the development of which is still underway.

But Taptuna said his government also conducted a workforce analysis that found the raw number Inuit working for the GN increased significantly and continues to grow steadily.

The greatest increase was in management, finance and administration, education, social and government services, Taptuna said.

Under the current government’s mandate, dubbed Sivumiut Abluqta, Taptuna said the GN counts four new training programs targeting Inuit in areas like administration and policy development.

Taptuna also noted that Inuit who train in a specific role and then move out of the public service should not be considered a loss to the system.

“Any training we can provide that helps Inuit further develop a career, whether in the public or private sector, is a win-win situation for Nunavut,” he said.

“Factors of Inuit employment have shifted since 1999. We need to look at the whole picture, not just through a narrow scope. “

Following the release of the new report, NTI president Aluki Kotierk called the lack of Inuit representation in the government workforce “the single biggest impairment to the ongoing economic well-being of Nunavut Inuit.”

The report notes more than just the estimated cost of that lack of representation, but also the indirect benefits that Inuit miss out on: improved health outcomes, better and more culturally-relevant public services and great control over policy.

“We need a radical shift in political attention and will,” Kotierk said.