Made-in-Nunavut affirmative action

Rankin Inlet North MLA Tagak Curley expressed concern last Tuesday that the number of Inuit employed by the government is not going up.

Last Tuesday, Curley told the legislative assembly he had heard of cases in Rankin Inlet where qualified young people who applied for jobs did not even get an interview, and said he worried these were not “isolated incidents.”

Last Wednesday, Curley pointed out that 115 Inuit were employed in Rankin Inlet in June 2004, the exact number of Inuit that were employed in December 2000.

Human Resources Minister Louis Tapardjuk clarified that by September, there were 117 Inuit beneficiaries employed in Rankin, and pointed out that Inuit make up 60 per cent of the GN’s workforce in Rankin Inlet.

Curley dismissed the incremental increase.

“I don’t think there’s been an improvement if there’s been no change in numbers,” he said. “I would like to tell the minister that if they are qualified individuals you could make a direct appointment.

“As ministers, they directly appoint instead of going through the competition process. You could do that in order to increase the number of beneficiaries in the Government of Nunavut.”

Tapardjuk said he would be “very pleased to make direct appointments and to see 100 per cent of beneficiaries fill the positions” with the GN, but “we do have policies that we have to abide by.”