NDP Decides Against Hiring Targets And Subsidies

NDP Decides Against Hiring Targets And Subsidies

Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 13:18

The provincial government has decided against adopting a couple of measures a provincial commission recommended last year to increase Aboriginal hiring.

In its report on improving work opportunities for vulnerable Saskatchewan residents, the commission lobbied for a 25 per cent Aboriginal hiring target at Crown Corporations.

It also recommended the province provide a subsidy to encourage employers to hire Aboriginal workers.

Labour Minister David Forbes says the government felt it was better to use that money to create training spaces for Aboriginal residents.

He says that was the motivation for the government’s funding announcements to institutions like the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies in the last year.

As for the hiring quota recommendation, Forbes notes the Aboriginal employment rate within executive government has increased to 11.2 per cent from just 3.1 per cent in 1992 — and he points out it was accomplished without a hiring target.

Forbes also says recent statistics show the overall Aboriginal unemployment rate in the province is falling.