Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Currently, NWT has the highest student-teacher instructional hours in all of Canada. Our teachers, on average, are working about 52 hours a week. Research has suggested that increasing teachers' professional learning and strengthening a teacher's instructional practice is one of the most powerful and effective ways to ensure quality teaching and significantly improve student achievement. I believe there isn't a policy that we have to address. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I note that is not a policy basis. That is some research that he is quoting from there. That said, what other options were considered to reduce teacher workloads, such as using more teachers' assistants or increasing administration staff rather than cutting instructional hours?
As I've said in the House on many occasions, we do give $152 million to all the education boards. How they choose to budget line items within those dollars that we give them is up to the education board.
The Minister has an unblemished record of not answering the questions, so I will plow on. Where will resources for the increased professional development come from?
With the announcement, the NWT Teachers' Association, all the school boards, and our staff are working out a way to support our teachers in the schools, and this is going to be on a school-by-school basis, how they make those decisions.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Finally for this round, at what point will the GNWT be prepared to make investments in education instead of making cuts on the backs of children through JK, instructional hours, and other initiatives? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have made those investments, fully funding junior kindergarten moving forward, so it's not on the backs of children. We work with the school boards to ensure that they get the support they need for student best outcomes, best student success for Northern residents, right from our smallest communities to here in Yellowknife. Those decisions are also made by the school board, how they take that funding that we give them and allocate it in the school system.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about some of the issues with accessing mental health services in Hay River, so I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. We can't seem to keep counsellors in Hay River. They come. They're good. People like them, and then they go. We have issues with referrals. They're not being done in time. The policy doesn't seem to be followed all the time.
I do not want to malign any members of the public service. I am always careful about that, but if this is an issue with management, what is being done to rectify that issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for raising the question. The Member has shared this information with me, and his current concerns, previously. I have taken those concerns to the public administrator, who has indicated to me that they are certainly looking into the issue, and working to address any challenges within that area. I do recognize, and I think the Member as well, recruitment is difficult with some of these professions, and we continue to get out as best we can to fill those positions. With respect to structure, management, I have raised those concerns with the public administrator. He's indicated that they are working on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is good to hear that they're being worked on. I'll be following up with this. As I mentioned earlier as well, to see a psychiatrist when you get a referral, you have to come up to Yellowknife. Basically, you fly up. You wait your four or five or six hours. You go to the psychiatrist, and you go back to the airport, or maybe your appointment is in the morning. Either way, you are in there for an hour, hour and a half. It is an emotional session. A lot of people come out of there upset. They are crying. They need some time to calm down. What happens is, they leave the psychiatrist's office and there is no one there to help them calm down. There's no quiet place for them to go. They are just sent out into the world. If you live in Yellowknife, you can go home. We do not have that if we are coming from out of town. What's the plan to fix this problem, Mr. Speaker?
Over the years, we have had a lot of issues brought to me, and this is the first time this particular issue has been brought to me, so I really thank the Member for bringing it to me, and we will certainly take a look at it.
I would like to say that one of the major factors driving integration of the Health and Social Services system was to recognize that we all need to be players in moving forward and finding resolutions and solutions for our residents based on a client-focused system. This is the type of thing that I think we are going to be able to address in a single system, far easier than we were able to address in a multi-system that we had before. I really thank the Member for bringing it up, and I am certainly going to follow up with the department.
I like all the commitments to follow up. As soon as I hear any information, I will be sharing what I can share with the public so that they know what is going on as well, because this is an issue that a lot of people are dealing with.
My final question is, we have the Mental Health Strategic Framework, the Mental Health Action Plan. There are lots of action plans. There are lots of strategic frameworks in the government. I want to know: how is this going to affect people on the ground in Hay River? How are these action plans and frameworks going to affect people in Hay River accessing mental health services?
The department did extensive consultations in the lead-up to the creation of the framework that the Member has mentioned, and we did a validation exercise that took place with key stakeholders, including people who are actually living with mental health issues or mental health illness. From there, as the Member indicated, we are going to be coming forward with a number of action plans. Those action plans will provide direction on how we're going to move forward to do the exact things that the Member is talking about. I do not want to presuppose what is going to be in that document. I do not want to presuppose those recommendations, but I am committed to working with committee to bring those forward to put in place a solid action plan that will meet the needs of all residents of the Northwest Territories, Hay River included.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm looking at Tabled Document 25-18(2), tabled on March 3, 2016, Quality Mental Health Care and Action Plan. Is there another action plan? Is this one of the actions in this action plan? When are we going to stop putting out plans and start putting boots on the ground and making some changes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I share the Member's concerns. I hate to see documents on shelves not doing anything. We have made a commitment through the framework which was released in November to come forward with three distinct action plans, including the first Child and Youth Action Plan that has ever been developed in the Northwest Territories. We are doing that with stakeholders. We are working with committee. It's certainly going to take multiple departments to move forward with that action plan. That action plan is going to have to come to this floor to be discussed, and we're certainly going to have to discuss this in the business plan as we attempt to resource this so that we can provide quality mental health services for youth and adults in the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I talked about innovation and the supreme importance of creating an innovative and competitive economy for the Northwest Territories by investing in a knowledge economy. I spoke about a future skills lab. This is an initiative that the federal government has agreed to provide $100 million in funding for. Obviously, we can't do that with our fiscal capacity here, but there is an opportunity to build a northern skills lab that would create unique northern solutions by partnering with the federal government and with various other partners. Is the Minister open to that idea of partnering with the other territorial governments and with nongovernment partners to create a future skills lab for the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any partnerships we can create and have that will help bring better outcomes for residents of the Northwest Territories, we are happy to get in those discussion, whether it is federal or even triterritorial with our northern partners. We are already having some meetings, as you know, with the curriculum that Alberta is developing, and our input into that, but any type of partnerships are more than welcome to have those discussions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister is open to the idea. How much time would it take to see something like this materialize? Are we talking about broadbased public consultation, the development of action plans and strategies, or could we put something like this to work within the end of the term, or is this something that is going to take years to start to see development?
Currently, we are going through the Aurora College strategic plan, and we have yet to see what the outcome is with that report. The discussions can continue from there. Once we see that report and it is tabled in the House, then we can have those discussions.
I appreciate that that postsecondary development is an important piece of knowledge economy initiatives. This future skills lab, though, is, again, an opportunity for interested parties to partner on an optin basis and would provide cofinancing to initiate pilot programs in skills and competency development.
I think of our remote Northern communities. We often have to develop new techniques to solve problems, and this would be an opportunity to finance innovation in that kind of problemsolving, so I think it is very separate from Aurora College. Again, is the Minister willing to look at this and develop a proposal that he could share with the other northern governments so we can create a triterritorial approach to innovation?
I also agree that we need to build and develop skills within our small communities, remote and isolated communities especially, in getting our people back to work. Any way we can figure that out innovatively, using our community learning centres a lot better, working with our Aurora College to look at the programs that are being developed, but also working with industry and the private business sector to see what is needed and how we get a betterskilled workforce coming out of the postsecondary system. Those discussions, we'll have as soon as we see that report and what is in that report.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for his response. I will just ask again because I really want to nail this down: will the Minister consider developing a future skills lab pilot? Then, perhaps, let's put it in Inuvik instead of his home riding so we can make use of that fibreoptic link and the college there. Will he commit to developing an Inuvikbased pilot for a future skills lab; that we can get this project rolling in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this moment, I can't commit to putting anything that has any dollars to it in the House here, but we will have those discussions, moving forward from when we see that report and what is needed and then look at, if we do decide to do a pilot, which community it is. Inuvik would be great.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Question 543-18(2):
Merci, monsieur le President. The Minister of Education seems to be very popular today, so I have got some extra questions for him. In my statement earlier today I talked about how we can build a real postsecondary education system here in the Northwest Territories. I know that there is some sort of a strategic plan being developed for Aurora College. Can the Minister tell us whether this plan will contain any ideas on how the college relates to other institutions, such as College nordique and Dechinta? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aurora College's new strategic plan will not directly involve other private postsecondary institutions in the Northwest Territories. It will look specifically at how the college can best serve the interests of the NWT residents. We did have NWT residents, as stakeholders, give input into that strategic plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Minister for his honesty there; a bit of a disappointment, though. He just was talking about partnerships and so on, and it is too bad that this strategic plan for Aurora College is not going to consider linkages with other postsecondary institutions.
There must be some sort of terms of reference or a contract scope of work for this strategic plan. Will there be any effort or investigation of a broader postsecondary education framework or strategy? Perhaps the Minister could agree to share the terms of reference for that strategic plan with this side of the House?
We will get that information to the Member as well as with the report, when it is finally done, and get committee's comments on the report, as well as looking forward to the future work of all our postsecondary institutions here in the Northwest Territories. That includes Dechinta as well as College nordique. We do have partnerships with them. We do fund them.
As I mentioned, we will be developing a new overarching legislation for postsecondary education here in the Northwest Territories that will have positive impacts on all of our postsecondary institutions.
Thanks to the Minister for that response. I have spoken about how Canada is the only circumpolar country without a university and that federal government is looking for transformative change investment opportunities. Has the Minister had any discussions and made any approaches to the federal government regarding investment in postsecondary education in the Northwest Territories?
Yes, we have.
Laughter
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Boy, if we could only get the Minister to answer "yes" or "no" to some of the other questions that he has had over the last week, that would be fantastic. I guess I was hoping for a little bit more detail. I am sure he can provide that in response to my next question, as well.
Can the Minister commit that during the lifetime of this Assembly he will work with Regular MLAs and the public to develop a full postsecondary education strategy and action plan for the Northwest Territories that includes a university? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, with the development of that new overarching legislation for a postsecondary education here in the Northwest Territories, that is the beginning of it, and that is the initial step that we have to do before we can start having those talks. So hopefully, we will have that legislation brought to committee soon.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Premier in his role as Chairman of the Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Energy and Climate Change. Mr. Speaker, getting small communities off diesel is a priority for the federal government, GNWT, and this Assembly. It is also a priority for MLAs on this side of the House, as we represent 25 of the 25 communities off-grid. Will the government continue to work with the communities, Aboriginal governments, industry, and environmental nongovernment organizations on a microgrid charette in June in Yellowknife that will kick start the transition into renewable energy solutions? Thank you.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not aware of a microgrid charette being organized in Yellowknife in June, so it would be helpful perhaps for the Member to edify me on who is organizing, who the proponents are.
I can say that the Government of Northwest Territories is currently in the process of engaging with energy stakeholders as part of the development of a new climate change framework and energy strategy. To date we've held meetings in Inuvik, Norman Wells, Fort Smith, and Yellowknife. We have workshop sessions upcoming in Fort Simpson, Hay River, and Behchoko. We've received submissions from Alternatives North and other energy consulting businesses and are considering those perspectives. We certainly welcome the opportunity to hear from all interested parties and will work to integrate those comments and suggestions into the draft energy strategy and climate change framework which we expect to table in draft form later this year.
Also, getting small communities off diesel was one of the three infrastructure priorities that we went to Ottawa with to discuss with the federal government in November, and we are looking forward, hopefully, to positive announcements in the federal budget speech later this month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My understanding is this is a collaboration between several organizations. They have already raised $135,000 of $325,000 required for the charette; $40,000 from the Boreal Initiative; $20,000 from Tides Canada; $15,000 from the Gwich'in Tribal Council; and the potential of $60,000 from the mines. Will the government come forward as a funding partner to contribute the remaining $190,000 to make this charette a reality and a success?
As a government, we like charettes. We like them so much that we held a charette in 2012, a charette in 2014, and we also funded a remote microgrid conference here in Yellowknife in September 2015. So that, coupled with the engagement process that is under way now, is a strong indication of how committed we are. Certainly I understand there is a proposal that has been submitted and was recently received on January 24th; we will certainly look at that. I am certainly interested in learning more details around the proposed charette and what new information would we get beyond the findings of the previous charettes and microgrid conference that we would receive from this proposed charette.
My expectation is, if it looks like they will be coming up with a number of new information, certainly we'd look at the federal government to partner as well and we would take it into consideration like we look at all proposals that the government receives.
