Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, because we are going to be doing this foundational review of the Aurora College, it will be done externally. We will get a third party to come in and do the review. The department, as well as the Aurora College, will get to have input in terms of the foundational review itself, but it will be done externally. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would just like to know: what is this review going to be looking at? Is this going to be looking at the way the programs are running, looking at if these are the programs we actually want and need, or is it also going to encompass the functioning of the administration when it comes to the campus itself, travel, and all those sorts of details?
I think the Member made a few good suggestions there. We are also looking at making the focus on our labour market needs, as well as the students’ needs, moving forward. I did commit, in my opening statement earlier today, that we will provide the terms of reference and get input from standing committee on the terms of reference. That terms of reference is going to help guide how the review will take place, and Members will have an opportunity to provide input into that terms of reference before we go out into the foundational review, itself.
This is my last question. I was wondering: what is the timeline on the development of that terms of reference? When can we expect that to be completed?
We are in the initial stages right now of developing that terms of reference. Once that terms of reference is done, we will bring it before Cabinet, and then, after Cabinet, we will take it before committee. I don't have an exact timeline when that will be, but as soon as we get it, we will get it out to committee for feedback so that we can start this review as soon as possible.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have struggled mightily to get some answers on instructional hours in this sitting, including oral questions and written questions, and I am now down to four that I need answers to, so I am going to try these with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. My first question is: why are reduced instructional hours being piloted all across the NWT in every school? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did go before standing committee in a public hearing last week. Not every school is taking up this pilot. I don't have the exact numbers on how many schools are going to be introducing this pilot, but it is optional, so we do have some schools that have decided to do the pilot, others that have not. We did give out information in January to all the schools, and we are working with superintendents and the principals to develop some of these plans moving forward. I can assure the Member that not all schools have jumped on to taking this pilot on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister for his answer. Can he give us an indication, of the 49 schools, how many schools have opted out?
We have given every school in the Northwest Territories an opportunity to participate in this three-year pilot. The deadline actually isn't until the end of March. I do believe our department is still working with some schools to develop a plan, but the deadline isn't until the end of March. At that time, we can inform the Member of how many schools are actually participating in this pilot.
Thank you to the Minister. How will the department measure success for students and teachers of this pilot project?
During the session that we had with standing committee last week, there were a lot of really good ideas in terms of how do we evaluate, how do we measure, and how do we assess how this program is going on on a yearly basis, much like we do with all of our education renewal pilots that we have throughout the Northwest Territories right now. We will be using those indicators, attendance, graduation. We had some really a good feedback on individual education plans as well as student support plans, that Members were sharing. We will take all of that information and that feedback that we got from committee moving forward, in terms of measuring this program, evaluating it, and assessing it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my final question is: is the department prepared to reverse this reduction in instructional hours if the pilot isn't successful, using those student and teacher outcomes? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, teachers play a very vital role, a very vital, critical, and a very important role, in our communities as well as in our schools. Outside parents, they are the ones that spend the most time with our youth and help them develop, help them to learn. The work done to date between the Education, Culture and Employment, the NWT Teachers' Association, as well as NWT Superintendents' Association brought this forward. We need to listen to the needs and the supports of our teachers. We have to listen to their concerns.
In the meeting last week, I did mention to committee that I have also been attending these local receiving officer meetings, that this is also a big concern, and they represent all teachers in their regions. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the program as a the pilot rolls out, but this is something that the teachers' association that speaks on behalf of the teachers as well as our superintendents have brought forward, and we want to address some of the workload issues and some of the wellness issues of our teachers and how important they are to the development of our children as well as our education.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member statement, directed to the Minister of Transportation: as our government approaches the last month before break, what preparatory measures are under way for the pre-start-up of the new Department of Infrastructure in the Sahtu region? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The proposed Department of Infrastructure, moving forward for 2017-18, is focusing on a number of things; change of management would be one of them, developing new business and processes and practices moving forward, and also establishing a new corporate presence, as it's going to be a whole different identity for the department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Will the Minister elaborate a little bit on the staff recruitment plans?
Staff recruitment plans moving forward, I believe that with the reorganization of the departments there are a number of changes, there are a number of processes that have to be done moving forward before this is done until the budget is passed. Once the budget is passed and we implement these things moving forward, it will probably be no different than before when amalgamations take place. There will be a number of people either retiring or moving on to different departments. There are a number of people who are affected who will possibly be changing jobs within the departments and stuff. I can update the Members as we move forward.
That was leading up to my next question on progress reports and updates. I welcome the Minister's commitment to provide those reports on the progress during the transition. Maybe they can include, also, if there are any allowances for furniture for the new office there, please.
As we move forward, yes, there is some money there for implementation. For some of the new positions, I believe, that are created in the new region of the Sahtu, we will be looking out to fulfilling that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a couple of questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Minister said last week that many of the recommendations line up with work the department is already doing, that existing work clearly fell short in August 2016, instead. What new changes, what new work, will the department act on in response to this review? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe it was last October that I tabled that "Building a Culturally Respectful Health and Social Services System," which outlined a bunch of the work that we are doing that line up really nicely with the recommendations that came from the recent critical incident review.
My intention, and I have made a commitment to the family, to the leadership in the Beaufort Delta and to Members of this House, is to expedite that work and to try to get it done as quickly as possible, recognizing that it is a massive piece of work and that changing attitudes and beliefs and the way business is done in the health system that have been ingrained for generations is going to take us a bit of time.
I am committed to doing that work and seeing change. We have already given direction to start digging into the recommendations that are more operational, and we are working on the more foundational, bigger pieces that are about changing the culture of the system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
How will the department assess the feasibility a piloting of patient advocate in a Northwest Territories community?
At this time, we are not planning to do a pilot of a patient advocate in any communities throughout the Northwest Territories. I know the Member would be disappointed if I did not bring up the quality assurance professionals that we have in the system today. The quality assurance positions are also patient representatives, so they have a double role, Mr. Speaker.
Now, increasingly over the last number of months, it's becoming clear to me that having those two positions as a single position probably isn't the best way to do business here, in the Northwest Territories. Quality assurance tends to deal with situations after they have occurred or where a patient or a client has brought a concern to them that we need to fix, whereas a patient representative, I think, falls more in line with a patient advocate.
That is a person who is there to help the clients navigate their way through, overcome language barriers, understand a system that might appear intimidating or frightening to them. There is a role for that.
So I have already directed the department to look at our positions, the quality assurance/patient representative, see what it would take to separate these out so that we can have those two roles separate and distinct within our system so that those people can provide care. As far as doing a pilot of a patient advocate in a region, that is something we have not contemplated at this time.
I know the Minister answered part of this just now, but I will ask the question anyway. In the absence of a patient advocate, how will the department ensure the service gaps I identified earlier will be closed?
As I indicated, I have already directed the department to look at the possibility of spitting out the roles, our quality assurance/patient representatives, into two separate roles. That wouldn't necessarily address the Member's issue about community-based advocacy or guidance, because that would likely be a regional position.
When I was up in the Beaufort Delta last week, when I met with leadership to talk about the critical incident review, the leader of the IRC, the president of the IRC, indicated to me that they were working with the federal government. There was a pot of money out there that they are looking to utilize to put in some sort of patient navigator for the Inuvialuit. This is something that I am committed to exploring, and I am going to put on my May agenda with Aboriginal leadership this exact topic, so we can have a discussion on how we can work better together to provide advocacy and guidance through the health system for residents in small communities. So I will put that on the agenda. I will work with leadership to find a way to provide those types of supports over time.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like follow up with the Minister on this Aurora College next steps statement he made this morning around the foundational review. My honourable friend from Hay River North made some comments about this, but one of the things that surprised me is that the terms of reference for the foundational review are not yet known. My question for the Minister today is: the strategic plan, which the department and the college have been working on for a while, how is that different from the foundational review? I will start with that. Thank you.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The strategic plan was going to focus on the vision of the college, working on the Skills 4 Success Action Plan, looking at programs and services that will be provided for our NWT residents. The foundational review, as was discussed, was to take a look at the whole college system and look at some of the things that the honourable Member for Hay River had mentioned, such as administration, programs that we are providing, looking at them from the ground up.
Looking at everything within Aurora College will be done externally, so we want to build on some of the work that we have received already from the strategic plan work, and it will build on to the foundational review as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I am afraid that, with some dread, I hear that a labyrinthine process of plans upon plans upon plans are being contemplated by the department. I wonder: can the Minister give some assurance that this is not going result in more action plans and strategies and will actually result in results? We have been waiting for a year for a strategic plan that has now transformed into a foundational review, so are we going to be waiting another year to see this review, or are we going to get moving on post-secondary education in the Northwest Territories?
We are moving on post-secondary education in the Northwest Territories currently. We do have a lot of programs and services. We work with partners such as College nordique and Dechinta. In terms of the discussions and the debate that we have had in this House regarding the two programs that we are looking at for reductions, it sparked a lot of different views and discussions from the public and from Members in this Legislative Assembly that drove us to look at a foundational review of the entire system and the core of what Aurora College is. As I mentioned in my statement, we should have the completion of the review done this fall, 2017, with an implementation target set for the 2018-19 academic year.
I agree with the Minister. It's not about two programs. It's about more than $30 million we spend on post-secondary that, by everyone's assessment, is not working but is still something students need in the Northwest Territories. So I am pleased that we are taking this seriously, but, again, the pace of this is frustrating. I think these are not new issues. These are issues we were well aware of going in. In fact, when we began the mandate process, through business plans these issues have been raised again and again and again.
The statement that the Minister made also spoke of a Post-Secondary Education Act. When does the Minister plan to implement that act?
Yes, we are doing an overarching post-secondary education legislation. We are going through the processes right now. That means bringing an LP forward to standing committee and then having to go through the bill process, so I don't have a firm timeline for the Member right now, but I can get that information for him and share it with him, from the department.
Masi. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to ask, in regard to the great public interest in this issue and the hard work of our post-secondary departments with Dechinta and College nordique, if the Minister will commit to making the LP process that the standing committees normally go through a public process so that we can have a broad range of opinions on the legislation before it's finalized in the House? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, when we go through the process of the LP, bringing it forward to this House and to the standing committee, that's the opportunity when standing committee can take it out on the road and get feedback and input from the public on that LP and the bills moving forward and bring recommendations to this House.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also have a question about this Aurora College functional review. We know that the Teacher Education Program and the social work program have been put in abeyance pending the strategic planning exercise that was going on. So will these programs now be in the functional review, or is their fate going to be captured by this strategic plan? Thank you.
