Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Premier and is in regard to my Member’s statement. One of the biggest challenges we’re facing in our communities is dealing with the social and economic aspects of trying to generate employment and jobs for our residents. A lot of those jobs and opportunities come by way of government contracts and services. I think that we as government have to take a close look at the social and economic indicators, especially where we have high pockets of unemployment, high graduation rates. What can we as government do to ensure that those capital investments that are made in our communities are being expended in those communities and make way for training opportunities, skill development, and enhancing the local opportunities and for businesses to develop locally and stay in our communities so they can provide those important services? I’d like to ask the Premier: as a government, what are we doing to ensure that we look at those assessments when we make those decisions on capital investments in our communities?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Government of the Northwest Territories we use a number of tools to do just what the Member has spoken to, building capacity throughout the North both in our people and in our construction industry, for example. We have, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Business Incentive Policy, we have the Negotiated Contracts Policy, we have MOUs within a number of regions, and continue to negotiate renewals and new MOUs being put in place. We try to use as many of those tools as possible. Internally one of the things we‘ve done to look at the capacity issue in our small communities is have our committee structure of small and remote community representatives working together to look at some of those challenges that we face in our community from program delivery to just as the Member is talking about, construction and capital as well.
Again, I’d like to ask the Premier, with regard to looking at the social and economic fabric of our communities where we’re really starting to see high, high numbers of unemployment in our communities, knowing that we have to do whatever we can to sustain our communities not only through programs and services but economically as well, does our government look at the social numbers to see where we have high pockets of unemployment where people are using the high numbers of social programs and services, regardless if it’s income support or other programs, and as a government realizing that there are benefits to putting money into communities to stimulate that economy and stimulate our local workforce?
Yes, we do have quite a number of programs, as I touched base earlier on, in trying to stimulate the economy. Just the announcement earlier today by the Minister of Transportation on the Community Access Program, expanding that because we see the good work it does in many of our communities. We do look at the socio-economic factors. That is why, for example, under Executive we’ve extended services into our small and remote communities under the CSO, or community service officer, positions to try to get as much information about programs to people across the Territory. When you look at our other program structures, we do take into consideration the cost of living, whether it’s income support and so on. Those are the other side of trying to deal with the cost of living in our communities. We do look at whether it is under employment, under capital program, to try to reach out to communities as much as we can and look to expanding those ways as well.
I think one of the things we have to do as government is to look at the loopholes we have by way of contracting policies and procedures. I think some of them where we deal with as and when contractors... In most of those cases a lot of the contractors that receive those contracts come from outside the region. They’ll go, with regard to a mechanic or a plumber, do work on behalf of the different government departments. Those are the type of jobs that can keep small businesses going in our communities. I’d like to ask the Minister if you also look at the as and when contracts that government lets by way of service contracts without going through a public tendering process and offering those contracts to local contractors.
I guess the process, if I understand properly the question, goes to with the as and whens in many of our communities are posted on an annual basis for businesses to put their names in and show interest in that area, to provide those services in our communities and regions. We do have a process established of doing that. I’m not sure if the Member is requesting that we look at them through our other programs that we have there. That is something I guess we can look at from time to time where capacity issues need to be met.
One of the things we do have to look at as a government is the cost of being able to deliver those programs throughout our communities and that does have an impact on some of our decisions as well.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Premier if he could submit a report to this House or the Members of this House identifying how this government is re-profiling its programs and services so we can actually physically see how the programs and services we have are really benefiting communities, and at what cost are we putting them in place to ensure that the investment we make in our communities, the dollars stay in our communities, and that it is stimulating our local economies.
One of the interesting areas we began to look at prior to division and leading up to division of the Northwest Territories and the creation of Nunavut was we started the geographic tracking of our costs in our Territory at the territorial, regional and community level. This government picked that up and is using that to look at where we benefit our communities as well. We try to use as many tools as we can in measuring our impact in communities both large and small and will continue to look at that type of information as we look at designing our programs and how they benefit our communities.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need for legislation that comes forward that’s comprehensive and reaches out and provides support and regulation to alternative therapies. As a Member of the Legislative Assembly here, I feel strongly that our job is to make sure that we develop legislation that protects our citizens, and legislation that is developed for alternative therapy I think is the way to go.
Listening to the Minister’s responses to some questions earlier, I’d like the Minister, maybe for the House, to define and elaborate on the scope of what the draft of that omnibus legislation is going to cover and when can we expect that type of information or that draft legislation to be out for the public to get a sense of what’s happening?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The legislation that we are working on is going to be Health and Social Services umbrella profession legislation and it will start with including four large professions: licensed practical nurses, psychologists, emergency medical service providers and chiropractors, because they have been identified as the four we need to work on right away. There are several other professions that have asked to be included and they could be included as we go forward.
There is lots of research and background work that we need to do to establish this umbrella legislation and this has been in the works for a very long time. We believe that once the framework is in place it would be more doable to include other professions.
I outlined a number of them in my Member’s statement, which is massage therapist, naturopaths and acupuncturists. There are other alternative medicines out there, and I use the word “alternative” in the sense of option. A lot of people think that there are many solutions to getting healthier and it’s not necessarily driven by just taking a pill. Many people like to take a natural approach. What would hold the Minister back from including these alternatives and other suggestions I’m providing here today? What’s holding the Minister and the department back from including these options in the development of this omnibus legislation?
I think it’s important for the Members and the public to know that professions like massage therapist and naturopathic practitioners can continue to practice their fields. They do not need the legislation to practice those. As I stated, unregulated professions pose certain regulating challenges such as small professional numbers and significant licensing differences throughout Canada. It does require tremendous research to determine how best to accommodate these unique circumstances. We believe that, as a department, by finding a framework for the most challenging and complex professions, the four that we have stated, that we will be able to accommodate future professions under the act.
Mr. Speaker, we are making progress in this area. We feel that it will really ground the work to a halt if we were to include everything at once. We are interested in moving forward in the four and that will set a framework for the other ones to be added. I want to note again that nothing right now will stop massage therapists and naturopathic practitioners from practicing their fields. They can continue to do that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there is a clear expectation from the public that certain industries are regulated for a lot of reasons, but certainly safety is particularly one high on their list. There’s an expectation that with legislation there are things like registering and licensing of these types of therapy groups happens, but as the Minister said -- and I won’t disagree -- that the people can practice these particular options outside of any legislation.
Mr. Speaker, legislation would help these therapy groups define their scope of practice as well as their standards, ethics and certainly bring much needed competencies and ensure the public is protected. Is there a resistance from the Minister to consider these options, as other provinces have proceeded, to move forward in creating legislation? Is it a resistance built into the department or is it just a lack of willingness to take the time to include them? Thank you.
There is no resistance or lack of willingness or any of those negative connotations, Mr. Speaker. The department has a number of legislations in their workload, and as the Member is well aware, we have a little bit of a traffic jam with legislative process. We, as a government, have a whole list of legislation, I would say upwards of at least 50 that have been in the works for many, many years. We are all in the same traffic highway on legislation.
We recognize the importance of regulating some of these professions and the ones that we have most urgent need is the licensed practical nurses, chiropractors, psychologists and emergency medical responders. Those are identified as being a priority and we believe that once those are set, it would make it easier for other professions like the massage therapists and naturopathic practitioners, which have come onboard later than these other guys, to get one. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister is missing out on an important component of this particular option before us here, is the fact that we have industry who wants to be regulated to ensure that they’re providing the best services, qualified services, trained services to their patients. Mr. Speaker, they’re speaking to their own, sort of, code of ethics that they go out. You know, naturopathy takes a significant amount of education. Massage therapists, if I understand, take at least two years of instruction and certainly with practical experience there are a lot of people developing significant competencies to ensure that they are qualified.
Mr. Speaker, what will it take for the Minister to recognize that these calls for action need to happen and what would it take to develop a stream to get them into a process so legislation could be developed for these types of industries that are actually for it that would protect our citizens? Thank you.
The Member’s line of questioning in itself is questioning the competence and the quality of the people that are practicing. I want to say that those that are licensed to practice as a therapist and naturopathic practitioners and even acupuncturists, all those professions are allowed to practice in the Northwest Territories. They just cannot call themselves a doctor. That might give an idea to the public that they are practicing medical doctor medical practices. That’s clearly defined in our legislation.
Mr. Speaker, let me just say once again what I said to MLA Abernethy, which is that we are working on the umbrella Health and Social Services Professions Act. We’re going to modernize the legislation, and this is long overdue, and we are giving due consideration to other professions who could be included. There’s no lack of will or resistance whatsoever. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement was regarding the students in Sachs Harbour. Mr. Speaker, you know we’ve been working on this for the last two and a half years in regard to getting a residence either in Inuvik or getting a teacher into the community so we can start providing grade 12 services in the community of Sachs. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister make sure the students of Sachs Harbour have a suitable and safe place to stay while they live and attend school in Inuvik? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Our department will do what it can to safeguard all the students that are in schools throughout the Northwest Territories. The Sachs Harbour students that are going through the residence system in Inuvik, that falls under the Beaufort-Delta District Education Council, so we will be working closely with them as the Department of Education. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, well, I did some groundwork for the Minister’s office. Mr. Speaker, we’re looking at renting a house in Inuvik that, I suggested in my Member’s statement, would be used by Sachs Harbour students. Mr. Speaker, I’m not asking the Minister to ask Beaufort-Delta education for the extra money. Is there any money left in the department for having this house opened for the last three months of the school year? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to residences, students being housed in residences throughout the Northwest Territories, it does fall under the education council and we provide funding to them to offset the costs of students that are being residenced in a community, regional centre or boarding or residence form. Mr. Speaker, this is an area that the Beaufort-Delta needs to look at.
I’m glad the Member is trying to come up with some solutions and ideas. I commend the Member for that and also his riding. We need to work closely with the Beaufort-Delta. If the Member hasn’t approached the Beaufort-Delta, I would highly encourage him to do so. I, as the Minister responsible, will work closely with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, people in Sachs Harbour, all we want is our children educated. Right now, the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority is going to say yes, Mr. Jacobson, we have no money. We have to go see the Minister. Mr. Speaker, all I’m asking from the Minister is to get me three months’ rent for this house in Inuvik to try to get these kids back into school, if they’re not there already trying with an unsafe place to stay.
Mr. Speaker, we have to help these kids. We have to help these families to get the education to our children. Mr. Speaker, this Minister can do that by telling the staff. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, obviously, we want the same thing too, for our kids to be educated throughout the Northwest Territories. We’re 100 percent behind that as well. These students are under the status of the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. Whether it be Sachs Harbour or Inuvik students, the money that they receive is for those students that are primary residents of Sachs Harbour school or Inuvik. We need to work with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. As I stated before, the funding is allocated to them and we need to work with that. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to me today that we’d work for the upcoming school year, either having a teacher in the community for grade 10, 11, 12, or a boarding house in Inuvik before the new school year? Thank you.
We will be in touch with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council to see what can be arranged for a meeting. We will be in the Beaufort-Delta in May to have an Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative forum. So this will be an opportunity to discuss what’s going to be happening this fall and next year and the funding that’s been allocated or will be allocated. Based on that, we can discuss further with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
QUESTION 9-16(6):
CANCELLATION OF FUNDING FOR
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement I focussed on the cancellation, the sunsetting of the nutrition program that was run by the Food First Foundation. I mentioned that there were a lot of comments. There are six pages of comments from educators across the NWT and none of them are negative, Mr. Speaker. They all point to the positive aspect of this program and the need for children in schools to be fed in order to learn adequately. I believe the Minister of Education, Cultural and Employment would probably agree that students with full stomachs have improved learning. My first question would be to ask the Minister what focus does Education, Culture and Employment place on that principle. What emphasis is placed on nutrition or food programs within ECE? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, our focus is on the students, the well-being of our students to be well educated in our educational system. We provide as much resources or funding as we possibly can through the district education councils or district education authorities. So we will continue to provide those services and we are already seeing results from those students who are graduating in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
I didn’t really hear a focus on foods and nutrition within the Minister’s answer, but I’d like to read one comment from an educator in a school that is unnamed, but the statement goes: “As soon as the students arrive at school, the breakfast teacher asks the students if they’ve eaten breakfast. They cannot go to their classroom without eating breakfast. That is how important breakfast is to our students’ learning.” I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not there is any appetite on the part of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to reinstate the $400,000 that is sunsetting. Thank you.
As the Member stated, this program has been sunsetted. It was just for a year, a year project, but we are focussing on other areas as well. As we’ve discussed here in the House, Healthy Food for Learning, all the school boards are getting funding. All the communities are covered in that respect. Breakfast for Learning...(inaudible)...for Healthy Learning, health promotion funds, Drop the Pop, Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, a forum that we’re having. There’s been a discussion on how each student should be a successful student in our educational system. So, Mr. Speaker, we provide as much as we can to support those students. Whether it be nutrition, their food, the education materials, it’s been provided through our Education department. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that they provide as much as they can, but it’s certainly not enough and I think we’ll find with cancellation of this program it’s going to have a huge impact. There are two comments from teachers again: “the school nutrition program has positively impacted attendance” and “student attendance is higher on days when breakfast is being served.” The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is focussed on attendance, the Healthy Foods Initiative or the Healthy Foods Program is focussed on attendance. I’d like to ask the Minister how much of the money that -- I think he said $232,000 earlier in this session; last session, I guess -- how much of that $232,000 in the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative will be available to schools for nutrition or healthy eating activities to replace the foods that are going to be sunsetting? Thank you.
The funding that we provide to the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative covers areas of student attendance or provides incentives for those students who are returning to school. This Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is still a working document that we are collecting input from different regions. So we can definitely have a discussion in this area. We still have two forums to attend and we’ve attended four other forums. We cover a vast variety of different programs that we offer. The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is attendance-based. These students we’re talking about, it covers as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to admit I’m a little confused now. When we reviewed the budget for education, the Minister suggested that the Aboriginal Student Achievement funding could be used as a replacement for the $400,000 funding that Food First Foundation was using to provide nutrition in schools. I thought I heard the Minister say they don’t really know how this money is going to be used. My question to the Minister is: can a school apply to the Education, Culture and Employment department to get funding to provide breakfasts and lunches and the foods that our kids need to learn properly?
Breakfast, lunch, supper. We are currently providing funds for healthy learning, Healthy Food for Learning and other programs I’ve highlighted. The community schools, regional schools, are all applying for the funds. We’ve highlighted Beaufort-Delta, Commission Scolaire, Deh Cho, Tlicho, Sahtu, South Slave, YCS, YK1 have all accessed funds. So the money is available. They can provide those services. We’ll continue to provide the programming and resources that we can. We’ll continue to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services about the naturopathic medicine practitioners and doctors. Naturopathic medicine blends modern scientific knowledge with good traditional and natural forms of healing. Research has shown that they provide a bridge of appropriations between traditional healers and conventional medicine. Does the Minister see a role for naturopathic medicine doctors or practitioners in assisting the department in meeting the health needs of our indigenous constituents?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I absolutely see the role of naturopathic practitioners and they are allowed to practice as they are now under the licensure they have with other jurisdictions. There’s nothing absolutely stopping them from practicing their field. I want to tell the Member that I’ve no problem seeing them practicing here.
The issue here right now -- they don’t need to be regulated to practice -- is that they want to be called a doctor. Because there might be some confusion in that the people might feel that they’re medical doctors, that’s the only thing they’re not allowed to do. They are totally allowed and they are encouraged to practice.
