Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been a lot of conversation about medical travel in the House over the last couple of months. We do support some individuals having escorts with them who can help them with all those types of things that the Member is bringing up.
If a resident of the Northwest Territories travels to Edmonton, we also have some professionals located in Edmonton, nurses who could provide some guidance and support to individuals and help them understand how to navigate. Those individuals are available to our residents if they need them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
On that note, we also have some northern residents who live in Edmonton who provide help and assistance for northern people who go down there. I just want to thank them and take a moment for that.
Should a client, specifically seniors who might be frail, who might need assistance and in some cases don’t have a medical escort, goes down to these boarding homes and should they have a slip or fall in the bathroom, does the Minister’s office get updated on any kind of serious issues or incidents that happen to clients in these boarding homes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We do have a contract with the facilities in locations like Edmonton who are providing housing and support to our residents who are down in Edmonton for medical appointments and/or treatment. These individuals help get people to and from appointments and whatnot.
If there’s an incident within the facility, they are bound under the contract to update the department. I don’t have a direct link and conversation with those organizations, but I can be updated by the department as necessary. For the most part, the department will deal with it directly as an administrative or contractual issue.
The reason I asked the last question is I had a couple of constituents who did make a trip to one of our boarding homes that we offer services to and they both ended up falling and getting hurt in the same room. They ended up having to stay longer than they had to. In one case, the individual couldn’t even go to his initial appointments and had to get care and treatment for a more serious issue that occurred in the boarding home. Then subsequently, I had another individual, same facility and had the same issue brought forth where they ended up having to stay and medical travel had only paid so much for them to stay in a hotel when they didn’t have room at the boarding home. Then family members had to pay their own way down to help and assist. That’s why I’m asking the Minister if he does get updates. I feel that in certain cases like this, when an individual goes down to a certain appointment and winds up getting hurt in a boarding home, that there be immediate contact to the Minister’s office.
Can the Minister develop some protocol or policy to ensure that should something like that happen where there’s a serious incident, that his office gets contacted immediately? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am aware of the situations as the MLA has brought them to my attention. I have directed the department to work with the boarding home to put in mechanisms, so that we, as a system, can be aware of these issues that our residents are having.
The safety of our residents is paramount. We want to make sure that they are safe and that they have access to the services and are not missing the services due to injuries that may have happened in the boarding home. I have already asked the department to work with the boarding home to put in mechanisms so that we can be informed and recommend changes to ensure the safety of our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know how long it takes to get policies changed in this government or even other governments. Maybe the best answer is to go to the clients themselves and develop some type of survey or follow-up questionnaire for anyone that goes on any type of medical appointment travel where they have to stay in a boarding home. Then we can get clear, concise information from the client that can tell us how their stay was and their visit was.
Would the Minister be willing and commit to developing some type of follow-up questionnaire for clients who go to these boarding homes outside the Northwest Territories and ones that we provide here in the Northwest Territories as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Having the data would obviously help us make better decisions with respect to the safety and well-being of our residents when they are in southern facilities. I don’t know the cost of a survey like this, but it’s certainly a good idea and I will talk to the department to check the feasibility of doing something like that, recognizing that we are a little tight on finances right now but I like the idea of having the information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment following up on my Member’s statement. The Aboriginal Head Start program has been providing effective early childhood education in the Northwest Territories for the past 17 years. This program has been evaluated both locally and by the federal government and has been found outstanding.
Will the Minister agree that the northern experts in early childhood development education at the Aboriginal Head Start program have much to offer in the sphere of early childhood education in the Northwest Territories moving forward? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We need to be on top of all the experts in the field of early childhood development. We’ve done our research. We’ve done our engagement with the general public and working with the early childhood educators as well. Through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Forum, we’ve reached out to all regions, the educators, grandparents, parents. So with their input, we talk about early childhood programming in the communities. Based on that, introducing Junior Kindergarten and others was their feedback and we are moving forward on wage subsidy, as well, for early childhood educators. Those are some of the areas we are moving forward with. Mahsi.
I take from that that the Minister does not agree that the northern experts in early childhood education at the Aboriginal Head Start program have much to offer in the sphere of early childhood education, which I think is a travesty and a mistreatment of our public.
Many professional educators in the Northwest Territories feel that the hybrid curriculum for Junior Kindergarten proposed by ECE is inappropriate for four-year-old children. Aboriginal Head Start experts agree and are opposed to the curriculum as it now stands. This is based on the 17 years of on-the-ground experience.
Why isn’t the Minister listening to northern educators, such as the experienced early childhood education experts at Aboriginal Head Start, concerning their reservations regarding its proposed curriculum?
I didn’t say I didn’t support those individuals who are in the field of early childhood such as the Head Start program. We do appreciate their feedback, the feedback they’ve given us over the years. We, as a department, although it is a federally funded program, we at the GNWT, ECE, work closely with them as well. So providing feedback from them, it was based on that that we developed curriculum. When there’s a survey in the communities and also research concluded that the curriculum created is appropriate for four and five-year-olds in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, this particular curriculum took a lot of research to develop. Of course, we worked with the daycare providers, as well, so that is a continuous work in progress. Mahsi.
The Minister is not listening to the Aboriginal Head Start educators. They have been trying to have their concerns related to the proposed pre-kindergarten curriculum heard by the Minister, who refuses to meet with them and his staff ignore them, but they have been unable to get a meeting with him to express those concerns.
Will the Minister, not his staff, agree to sit down with representatives from the Aboriginal Head Start program – people have been working in this area for 17 years on the ground, developing their expertise and evaluating it just as this government should be doing, but usually fails – to at least hear and discuss their concerns with what they see is a deeply flawed and potentially harmful curriculum?
Mr. Speaker, for the record, on May 14th there was an e-mail from my office to @email. There was a request for a meeting, as Mr. Bromley alluded to, and I did commit that my department would meet. Unfortunately, at that time I wasn’t available.
I did commit that my department would meet with the organization, of which they did. They provided all kinds of information to us, and we are working with that information that has been provided to us.
Next week I am travelling to the Deh Cho region. My commitment is to meet with Joyce McLeod, who is affiliated with the organization, and we’re going to share the issues that are there. Based on the feedback, obviously it will be part of the process on the Junior Kindergarten. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, their input has been ignored. They’ve put in requests to meet with the Minister – this has been going on for years now, this JK idea – and somehow the Minister has not found time to meet with this group. What does that say?
ECE seems to require bachelor’s degrees in NWT schools and they are now adding Junior Kindergarten where a teaching degree is not the standard. In fact, we’re looking for early childhood education expertise.
Will the Minister’s rule of bachelor degrees only block participation of professionals with a three-year diploma in early childhood education, which is the expertise we’re looking for, in favour of those with a bachelor’s degree who have little early childhood education training? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I do not want to dismiss those individuals who are in the education system at this point. There are some individuals who have 20 or 30 years of experience working with early childhood programs for all these years. I certainly do not want to shut the door on them. They should have the opportunity. That’s the reason why we’re providing all this training over this summer and also in the fall, so they can be prepared to roll out the Junior Kindergarten in 22 of the 29 communities that we’re establishing this fall. In fact, one additional community wanted to deliver that on top of the 22, so we are moving forward. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I see the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a springboard for further action. There are forms of injustice still being experienced by Aboriginal people.
Does the Minister of Health and Social Services recognize the direct link between the residential school legacy and the need to offer better mental health and addictions services for our residents in the North?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had an opportunity to travel around the Northwest Territories and talk to many, many residents. I also attended the TRC hearings in Inuvik, where we had an opportunity to hear many people talk about their experiences in residential school and the trauma that has resulted.
We do have a significant number of people in the Northwest Territories who are suffering from mental health and addictions issues. To that end, we have moved forward with a Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan to help address these issues, to help residents of the Northwest Territories who have been affected by residential school and other issues throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, during my statement I mentioned the Edmonton mayor’s plan to educate city workers about the history and impact of residential schools. The purpose is to deliver service in a more culturally sensitive manner to the city’s Aboriginal population. I think it’s a great idea.
Here at home we have incredible resources available to us: the residential curriculum produced by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. My idea is to use the curriculum in all child and family services training. Child protection workers and the supervisors should know about this history.
Can the Minister commit to examining the feasibility of this idea? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, all employees of the GNWT currently have access to our Cultural Awareness Training program offered through HR, which does include history, treaties, and a significant amount of information to help all employees understand all people of the Northwest Territories.
But I hear the Member; it’s certainly an interesting point and I will explore it. I don’t know if it’s possible, but it is an interesting idea and I would like to follow up on it and I will follow up with the Member.
I look forward to the discussions with the Minister and Members from this side on the idea.
The mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission includes a missing child project. I’d like to know what attempts, if any, have been made by the Department of Health and Social Services to identify missing children who have died while attending residential schools in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe that it is the mandate of Health and Social Services to address that particular question. I know that question has been asked of by the Department of Justice in the past and I don’t know the status of the response, so I’m not the right person to answer that question, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister inform the House… I would like to ask him if he would talk to the Minister of Justice on this issue here, because it does have some mental and health issues associated with families in our small communities who have children who have not returned back to the communities. It has caused mental anguish, some suffering to the parents and the families. That’s part of the legacy of residential school issues that we’re faced with.
Can the Minister meet with the Department of Justice and see how this issue is being dealt with by the Government of the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Speaker, I’m certainly happy to sit down with the Minister and have that conversation, but I’d like to encourage the Member to maybe join us. It is an issue that the Member has brought forward and I think it might be better for the Member to hear it from the Minister himself. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, in my Member’s statement, I spoke about the Lafferty ferry extension of the hours beginning around 7 a.m. until midnight. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation how much work has been done in accessing this possibility. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had the regional superintendent from Transportation meet with the chief and council. They wish to meet and discuss the hours of operation of the Lafferty ferry. Also, we’ve looked at what hours are possible for the operation that we have and the employees we have on the ferry. Thank you.
That’s great. Like I said in my Member’s statement, I know we’re getting support from the leadership in Fort Simpson. There are three councils: the Metis, the LKFN and the Village of Fort Simpson. But residents are also saying they like the idea of a 7 a.m. start; they really want to keep the 12 p.m. closure at midnight.
If the department really wanted to cost-save by adding an extra hour, how much of a barrier would the Minister see of extending it one more hour so that all the needs of Fort Simpson businesses and constituents can be addressed? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, with the amount of employees that we have and the hours of operation and start-up time and shutdown time, the barrier is the Canadian Labour Code. They only allow an individual doing that type of work to work a maximum of 60 hours. With the shifts, I think we’re very close to that. Adding an extra hour means that individuals will be over that time allotment. That is the barrier right now, so I don’t know what the alternative would be.
Just on that, I know that it’s going from a 16 hour day to a 17 hour day, and the department had initial concerns about, and I think the Minister said it as well, about approaching their weekly work limits. As I brought this to constituents, as well, they’re saying, well, wait a minute, in Fort Providence they were running from 6 a.m. until 12 p.m. and they didn’t have those same concerns, so maybe the Minister can elaborate exactly what the concern is from going to 16 to 17 hours, recognizing that they had done 18 hours running the Merv Hardie.
I’m not familiar with how many employees that were on the Merv Hardie at Fort Providence is at this time and how they worked the hours to get all of the individuals that are working at this time into those hours and still stay within the allowable codes for the Canadian Labour Code. I would have to investigate what had occurred at that point back in the Merv Hardie so that we were able to run that. I understand that some of the difference could be the fact that the ferry had to run longer, so we made compensation by adding employees due to the volume of traffic in Fort Providence.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In just evaluating the extension of the hours, I would suggest a test run, as well, to see if it’s doable from 7 a.m. until midnight. I would suggest a test run. I’m not saying that we do a full implementation of a ferry change, but if we can do a test run, we can test all these parameters and see if there is additional cost. It might be for the remainder of the summer there. Like I said, it will be a small change for a big benefit for the residents of Fort Simpson and the Nahendeh region.
I will have the department look at that possibly. I do believe that we have a certain amount of staff, like I indicated, and then we were getting close to that maximum, so if we were to do something different, I think we would have to add staff. I will have the department go back and look at that. At this time, as I indicated, the labour code seems to be the issue, and that we had talked to the members of the Liidlii Kue First Nation and their feeling was that if we had a 16-hour window that we could slide, that they would prefer to stay with the current hours and not open at 7:00 a.m.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education in follow-up to my Member’s statement.
Over the last year there have been a number of cuts to our funding for the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority due to the pupil-teacher ratio, which is changed from 8 to 1 to now 16 to 1. Now the DEA is actually basically being forced to implement the junior kindergarten.
I’d like to ask the Minister, why is he setting up junior kindergarten to fail?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We introduced junior kindergarten through the work of the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and a lot of research has been done. This is an area that has been earmarked as a success, focusing on early childhood at age four. Based on the feedback that we received, even just as late as a week ago, out of the 29 communities we have 22 that registered to enter into the establishment of junior kindergarten in the Northwest Territories. In fact, one just came in just the other day from Aklavik. Aklavik wants to join as member 23 out of 29. It’s over 70 percent that are interested and they want to move forward on this. We see a huge success in this particular area from what we’ve seen in other jurisdictions as well. This is junior kindergarten that we have been sharing from the elders and from the community leaders, so we will continue to move forward on that.
The communities are well aware of the program and they see what promise this program has, but with 18 new students both in Aklavik and Fort McPherson, there is a big increase in the demand that that takes on.
Will the Minister make sure that he provides the funding that he gave the pilot projects this year to the schools for next fall?
