Stanton recruitment is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I mentioned that I'm interested from an HR perspective. HR has tools that are available to them that include workplace investigation, etcetera. I do believe that these questions can be answered by the Minister of HR, and she actually answers my questions so I'd like to hear from her. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. It's actually up to the Premier to choose which Minister should answer. So Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying that I recognize the importance of morale and solid organizational culture. We've just been through a very intense period of that in this building. And of course, it happens in other places as well. But the end result is that we want to build a strong and satisfied public service. So there are a variety of tools available to us, including employment engagement and satisfaction surveys. I talked about those last week with my colleague from Kam Lake. There are surveys attached to the accreditation, and there is currently a survey going on by the professional organization of nurses.
The department or the NTHSSA recently did an exit survey with nurses that left their positions between January and August of this year. And there are a couple of key findings.
One is that their satisfaction is not tied to compensation. That was not one of the top three issues they identified. The top three issues were that they left for personal reasons, which included things like the needs of their families and moving to accompany a partner to a new position.
They also identified dissatisfaction with management, including the level of support they received, turnover in management and staff, and the orientation that's provided; and,
Third, the consideration that the workplace is unsafe because of staff shortages. So this speaks to the understaffing issue that we have heard about.
So there are existing labor management processes and relationships in place to deal with these challenges, and it is critical that the UNW take part in these conversations. And as a matter of fact, we had a good preliminary meeting with UNW, including the president for the local at the hospital on the weekend, that included both myself and the Minister and our senior officials.
As the Member for Great Slave may know, the collective agreement provides for joint consultation committees who identify and develop joint plans of action to respond to pressing issues that become morale issues and that committee at the hospital is in place and meets regularly. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I have some clarification of whether or not I can go back to the Minister of Finance responsible for HR. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. We continue to go back to the Minister of Health and Social Services unless the Premier designates another Minister. It's up to the Premier to delegate which Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance, as I mentioned in my statement the Northwest Territories is the only jurisdiction in Canada that did not use COVID to compensate our healthcare workers for the increased hazard and workload that they've been dealing with. Will the Minister, with her Finance hat on, comment or commit to finding money to provide Northwest Territories frontline workers with retroactive hazard or pandemic pay? Is there any indication that more money is coming from the federal government for COVID? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. As I mentioned, we continue to go back to the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services unless the Premier delegates another Minister. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Health and Social Services Authority and the Department of Finance are working together to review options through the labour market adjustment process which would deal with some of our pressing staffing concerns among nurses. We have no indication that additional money is coming from the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, before I continue, I just want to remind both sides, Members and Cabinet, please keep your preambles short and try to keep the questions short because we still have four people after this line of questions, and the clock is running out, so. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll play this game. Will the Minister of Health like to revamp her statement from last week saying that there are no ward closures or other ward closures coming? It has been my understanding from several nurses, the union, etcetera, that that is not the truth. Would the Minister like to revamp that statement about further ward closures. Thank you.
Minister for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you. I'll just start by correcting something that the Member said in her statement. The obstetrics ward is open at this time, and it will remain open until December 10th. There was obviously a group of women who were too far along in their pregnancies to be moved to another location to give birth. So the obstetrics unit is open.
I met with leadership of the hospital and the health authority yesterday. I asked that question. I was told that at the hospital, there are no unit closures foreseen at this time.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm confused then, because when I look in the paper all I see are advertisements for ER and ICU nurses. So can the Minister speak to what's going to happen when those positions aren't filled and those wards have to close down. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. I'm very pleased that the Member has taken note of our recruitment efforts. And those are ongoing of course. We want to make sure that we have the full component of staff. And as I said earlier, we are not anticipating any more closures at the hospital. We have, through a variety of people foregoing holidays, working extra shifts, locums, and so on, we have enough staff to provide the excellent services that residents are used to. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since the Housing Corporation has assumed the responsibility of both the homeless shelter and the warming shelter in Inuvik, what shortterm measures have been put in place to ensure that those who are using the warming shelter have been taken care of? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I would just like to express my sympathy to the Member's riding as well too with the recent fire in her community, and also thank you to all of the Inuvik fire departments, the RCMP, the Housing Corporation, and all that have attended and tried to work with this tragedy in her riding.
Right now, our shortterm plans, we are working with the Department of Health right now, and we have acquired a temporary shelter right now in Inuvik and we are looking at a possible government building. We haven't finalized those agreements yet. The other thing is that we are looking at the possibilities of federal units in the community as well too and just acknowledging that we do have market housing units that are being built for the RCMP. So I'm questioning if those units may be available to the Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as I mentioned in my Member's statement, you know, moving our most vulnerable from empty building to empty building to empty building is not a solution. So could the Minister elaborate on what are some of the longer term plans for the Inuvik warming shelter and its residents in my community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as this is unfolding in a community right now, we are working with the Indigenous groups. We have just established a governance committee in the Member's riding. Right now, we are just looking for a building to get started on in making sure that we could find a more longterm solution, and I will update the Member as all of the information starts to come into my office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, Mr. Speaker, I've asked this question a couple of times I think. I've emailed the Minister, and it wasn't just this government, it was the last government that promised us a homelessness strategy. When are we expected to see that strategy? And I'm hoping to hear an answer and a date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, during our February sitting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and this may be more of a comment. I just want to thank the department for their quick action, like I said and, you know, and one of the things is that the department has taken on is assumed all the staff within the my community. So maybe it is a question as to what the longterm plan for this is, if she can elaborate. If not, I'd like an answer if I can get it in writing. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will follow up with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My first question for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs is does the department have a backlog of legislation?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Never a backlog; we've always got work to do. So MACA is responsible for 21 statutes and their associated regulations. And some of it needs to be examined to see if changes are required. MACA will be selecting one taking on and prioritizing legislative initiatives. The department needs to balance the age of legislation, its complexity, the nature, and an extent of changes required, whether or not or stakeholders are experiencing issues with its administration. MACA must also consider the capacity of stakeholders to support the legislative development, the NWTAC and LGANT have both cautioned about the capacity to participate in multiple initiatives at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought I threw MACA a softball 'yes' there. I note the Minister said that the department is responsible for 21 Acts. That's ENR has nine and Lands has three. That's almost twice as many as the other departments. And I guess my question is how many pieces of legislation did MACA intend to bring forward in this Assembly and how many realistically are we going to see? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I gave him his 'yes' last week so he's done for the yeses. So besides the joking aside there. So MACA initiated when were first started, we were looking at three legislations. We brought forward Property Assessment and Taxation, the Fire Prevention Act, and the Senior Citizens Disability and Personal Property Tax Relief Act. Unfortunately, COVID hit, floods hit, flood recovery hit, and so we realistically looked at what can we achieve at this point in time. So what we said is the Senior Citizen and Disability Property Tax Relief will wait until the 20th Assembly. But we're doing the necessary work to get it going there.
Also MACA is providing advanced work with this Assembly to bring a municipal municipalities under the assess to Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. However, I can tell the Member I just had a meeting with the deputy minister and ADM this morning, and we are looking at ways to move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know what, I'm hopeful we're going to see the Property Assessment and Taxation Act. The MLA from Frame Lake often remarks that when he was on council in 1997, he asked for that act to be brought forward. And a lot has happened in the intervening 24 years except amendments to the Property Assessment and Taxation Act.
Mr. Speaker, presently the ontheland implementation unit has nine funded staff to bring one act in into force. The ontheland policy shop there is actually the largest policy shop in the GNWT for one act, yet MACA with 21 acts does not have nine policy staff. So is the Minister willing to look what his other departments have done and maybe bring forward a similar unit to catch up MACA on their backlog of legislation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member talks about 1997 and all the backlog of the way things developed. In other departments, I've got 40 and 50 years of backlog so I am working on that there.
So MACA, like what most other departments, does have a policy unit. Unfortunately, some of these positions haven't been filled to date. We have been having some recruitment challenges. However, I can advise the Member and this House here that we're looking at other alternatives and other ways of dealing with it. And like I said, I just had a meeting with the deputy minister and ADM on this exact issue, and we're trying to come up with a creative solution. And once we have the solution, we will reach out to committee to expand on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I think there is some creative solutions, and perhaps some of them are in the hands of the Premier with some corporate restructuring and looking at making sure all policy shops around each department are created equally.
I guess my question is in the previous Assembly, the way MACA did get some work done with the lotteries was to go out and hire a contractor. If they can't get it done in-house, sometimes they just got to hire someone to do some of this work. Is that an option that the department is exploring?
Man, I hate to do this yes, we're looking at alternative option all options available to us. So and that is one of them that we have discussed this morning. So, man, the MLA for Yellowknife North has got two yeses out of me so I think I'm done. I don't want to talk say yeses anymore, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think there's one more person after me. So I'd like to request a really quick speed date with the Minister of ITI.
Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister is willing to commit to consolidating their procurement policies under one shop and if she will also commit to a shift in focus from a service to government for procurement to service to NWT businesses. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are two different things I'm being asked to commit to.
With respect to bringing things under one shop, that was one of the items that was recommended in the review. It is something I certainly have spoken about the importance of. But as to how that will unfold, I am still going to abide by the process that we are in the middle of, which includes a defined process of engagement with Indigenous governments. So I'm not going to make any formal commitments other than to refer back to things I've already said in that regard.
And as to the philosophy underlying it and the commitments thereof, again Mr. Speaker, it's what is the purpose and the objective of procurement. Bringing it under one shop would allow us to have a clear purpose and principles of objectives attached to procurement.
So that may well come to pass, Mr. Speaker. And I hope that we all stay tuned as the process unfolds. I think the process is a good one. It's been good so far. I'm convinced it'll be good going forward. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister sees this as an incremental process where we can see implementation of change as they go, or does the Minister anticipate this happening in one large change at the very end once all of the consultation engagement is done, and can the Minister speak to that process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's always been my intention and vision, and I've said this before, to make changes as we can. And when we saw that there were changes that were implemented with respect to the contracting terms over the last year to see what that might do, and we are already working on vendor performance management. So there's things underway already.
As far as what the next date for the next changes might be, I my hope is that early 2022 some small things could start to be impacted. Again, I'm mindful that as this process has unfolded, a complementary process working with Indigenous governments at the Modern Treaties table and now also at the Council of Leaders around Indigenous procurement has evolved. So I want to be respectful of that; I want to be mindful of that before we make too many changes too quickly that might impact or impede on those discussions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. I'm wondering if the Minister can provide some clarification on how we how we got here and how we intend to not get here again. Times change. Needs of communities and needs of the government, needs of the people of the Northwest Territories evolve, and so does the Minister see procurement as a living process and, if so, how does the Minister intend to ensure that our policies and processes stay current from here on in? Thank you.
