Nunavut job experience doesn’t count in Nunavut?

I would like to bring to your readers’ attention a current situation in Nunavut that few people may be aware of.

Twice now in recent years I have been failed in job interviews for a Government of Nunavut position in my home community, that I am qualified for and have 17 years experience doing. Subsequently, the position was filled both times by non-Inuit from southern Canada.

“Failing” a job interview means that if you were one of three people interviewed for the job, even if the top two declined the position, you would still not be offered the job.

This is particularly upsetting when many of the people doing the hiring have little experience living and working in Nunavut. They compose the interview questions and determine the scoring.

What can a person do about this? Absolutely nothing.

Unless you are a current GN employee or an Inuit Nunavut land claim beneficiary, presently only GN employees and beneficiaries have the right to appeal GN employment competitions.

This has not always been the case. Until 1999, I was considered an “indigenous non-aboriginal.” This gave me an advantage over non-Nunavummiut, but not Inuit, in the GNWT affirmative action policy, when applying on a territorial government job in Nunavut (then the Northwest Territories.)

Ironically, I would still be considered an indigenous non-aboriginal affirmative action candidate if I applied on a territorial government job in Yellowknife, but not in my home community of Sanikiluaq!

It appears that if all your education (I attended Sir John Franklin High School and Arctic College) and work experience is exclusively in Nunavut/NWT, it does not hold the same weight as a college education and work experience attained in southern Canada.

Bill Fraser
Sanikikuaq