Health District renews call for more Aboriginals

Health District renews call for more Aboriginals

Thursday, June 26, 2003 at 09:52

 

 

 

The skills and talents of First Nations people are in high demand around the Prince Albert/Parkland Health Region.

 

The Health Authority announced recently that they are renewing their commitment to the Aboriginal Employment Development Program.

 

The initiative was launched eight years ago in an effort to attract more aboriginal people into the ranks of the health-care field province-wide.

 

Gren Smith-Windsor, the C.E.O. of Prince Albert/Parkland, notes only ten-and-a-half percent of the health region’s two thousand workers are of First Nations ancestry.

 

That figure should be around twenty percent he says, if it is truly representative of the public it serves.

 

He adds First Nations people are the fastest growing demographic of Saskatchewan’s young labour force.

 

Smith-Windsor says licensed practical nurses are something the health district is in the most need of, but they will accept any vocation.