Inuit come first for GN summer jobs

Non-Inuit students applying to the Department of Human Resources’ summer student employment program are being told to wait for jobs, Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo told the legislative assembly on Tuesday.

“I’m not talking about people who just stepped off a plane,” Tootoo said. He said some students who are already receiving financial assistance have been told to wait indefinitely for places in the program.

“We expect them to come back and pay the loans. How can they do that if they can’t get jobs?” Tootoo asked, to enthusiastic applause from Education Minister Ed Picco.

CLEY Minister Louis Tapardjuk had previously told the assembly that the program hopes 85 per cent of the 141 students accepted in the program will be Inuit.

On Tuesday, he said that applications from beneficiaries who applied to the program will be reviewed before those of non-beneficiaries. He also said this was in accordance with the land claim agreement, was a “common ocurrence,” and represented “a small, but not excessive, delay” for some students.