Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I am trying to get at with the Minister here is that, yes, there are diagnostic systems, there are different systems like that, but it seems like there are a number of systems that are used for patient information, and we still have this issue with masking, that the functionality does not seem to be there. So I will ask the Minister: what is the work that is undergoing to modify the electronic medical record system to allow masking of patient information? What are the costs and projected timelines of that? Thank you.
What we are referring to is allowing a patient to block certain practitioners from seeing their information so that not everybody who is in the circle of care can necessarily see the information. That work is under way. We are still trying to figure out the exact magnitude, the cost of it. There are some challenges with it. For instance, if somebody chooses to block something today, and then 10, 15, years from now their situation changes and there is a critical incident and somebody needs to look at that information, if it's blocked, it could adversely affect their care. So we want to make sure that we understand all of that, and, until we have a better understanding of that, we will not have a full idea of the cost implications or the scope. We are doing that work. When I know, the committee will know. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier as the Minister responsible for Intergovernmental Affairs. There is major concern with the impacts of Site C dam project, now proceeding on the Peace River in British Columbia. UNESCO, Amnesty International, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, they have all opposed this project. Yesterday in this House I tabled a letter that was signed by 14 downstream Indigenous governments, including four from the Northwest Territories, calling on the British Columbia government to cancel the project. I would like to know from the Premier whether our government has ever told the British Columbia government it is opposed to the project and, if not, why not? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories fully participated in the environmental assessment process associated with the proposed Site C hydroelectric project. In submissions to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, better known at CEAA, the Government of the Northwest Territories provided technical comments and concerns about potential downstream impacts from the Site C dam. The Government of the Northwest Territories also provided recommendations to address potential downstream effects to aquatic ecosystems, traditional harvesters, and communities in the Northwest Territories, specifically that the cumulative-effect assessment should expand in scope to include the Slave River and Slave River delta and should include assessment of the combined effects of Site C, Dunvegan, and Bennett Dam on water quality, quantity, and the health of the aquatic ecosystem.
Despite the input provided by the Government of the Northwest Territories and some Northwest Territories Indigenous governments, CEAA's decision concluded that the project could go ahead but provided 80 conditions to reduce the potential downstream effects. CEAA also concluded that no effects from the Site C dam are likely to occur in the Northwest Territories.
I would like to thank the Premier for that level of detail in his response, but, after the CEAA panel was held, the British Columbia government, the Premier, announced that they were reconsidering the project. So, during that reconsideration, did our government write to the Premier of British Columbia at any time and oppose the project? Can the Premier tell me that?
In the Mackenzie River basin, every province and territory is responsible for water management within their own jurisdictions. Transboundary agreements are bilateral in nature and, as such, address waters that flow between two jurisdictions. The waters of the Peace River flow directly between British Columbia and Alberta.
The Northwest Territories-Alberta Bilateral Water Management Agreement deals directly with waters that flow between Alberta and the Northwest Territories, such as the Slave River. This is the approach defined in the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Master Agreement. As Alberta has made commitments related to water quality and overall ecosystem integrity in the Northwest Territories-Alberta Bilateral Agreement, they must ensure those commitments can be kept as they continue to negotiate with British Columbia towards their Alberta-British Columbia Bilateral Water Management Agreement.
The Northwest Territories-British Columbia Bilateral Water Management Agreement covers our directly shared waters with British Columbia within the Liard River Basin. British Columbia and the Yukon have recently signed a bilateral water management agreement related to their shared waters in the Liard Basin.
I would like to thank the Premier for that response, but I want to give him a heads up: I have gone off-script. This was not a question that I gave to him ahead of time, but it is in response to the first question that I asked.
Once again, at the conclusion of CEAA panel review, after that was completed, the Premier of British Columbia announced that their new government was going to reconsider whether they should proceed with Site C. There was a process there where they were going to look at whether they should proceed or not. During that time, did our government write to the Government of British Columbia and oppose the Site C project at any point?
After the three-year environmental assessment that was approved in 2014, construction of Site C began in 2015. The estimated completion date for Site C is 2024, and as the project had already received approval, we had already submitted our comments, and we did not write to the British Columbia Premier or the British Columbia government.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to thank the Premier for that. I wish we had written.
The Northwest Territories is a member of the Mackenzie River Basin Board, which provides a forum for discussion of basin level issues at a multi-jurisdictional level, but the board has no teeth, and it can only make recommendations. It doesn't seem to really have any control over upstream actions of jurisdictions once removed. Does the Premier believe that we need to push for a basin-wide regime or agreement to deal with projects like Site C? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I believe we already have such an agreement, the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement, in which negotiations began in 1960, was signed in 1997, and commits the Governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Yukon, and Canada, and now includes Nunavut, towards cooperatively managing the water and aquatic ecosystems of the entire Mackenzie River Basin.
This agreement makes provisions for the parties to negotiate bilateral water management agreements to waters that are shared directly between two jurisdictions, and as per the master agreement, the Northwest Territories signed transboundary water management agreements with the Yukon in 2002, and with both Alberta and BC in 2015, and that process also includes dispute resolution processes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if the territorial health authority is meeting its statutory requirements under the Health Information Act? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we take the protection of privacy of the NWT residents seriously, and we understand the importance of protecting the personal health information, the custody and control of information. We have enhanced training for all of our custodians. We are making sure that all of our people are trained, to make sure that they understand their obligations under the Health Information Act.
There were a number of recommendations that came forward from the Privacy Commissioner. We are looking at those. We accept those recommendations. We are trying to make improvements. I have asked the department to reach out to the Privacy Commissioner to see if she could provide some guidance on what clauses she thinks need to be amended in the legislation to help improve clarity.
We take this very seriously. We are committed to having quality and professional privacy protection, and of course, the authorities are committed to protecting the privacy of our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am not sure if that was a yes, no, or a maybe, but I will ask for more specificity perhaps. This is a very progressive piece of legislation, it is a very complex piece of legislation, and it allows patients a lot of control over their information. Can the Minister confirm if there are systems currently in place to allow patients to protect the privacy of their medical information from health care practitioners?
When the rights and principles of the Health Information Act are shared with patients, they are supposed to be told that they can request to stop their information from being shared with certain practitioners. If they make that request, we do our best to make sure that happens. I can't say that every resident who has approached that understands that, which is why we are trying to improve our training; so that people can understand that.
This is new legislation. We are open to making improvements as we go. The Privacy Commissioner for the Northwest Territories has made a number of recommendations. We are reaching out to the Privacy Commissioners to make sure we have a complete comprehensive understanding of what they are suggesting so that we can continue to make this better for residents of the Northwest Territories.
Will the Minister engage with the relevant standing committee at the nearest available time to go over the kinds of changes they are contemplating, the kind of work plan that they are going over? Will the Minister commit to providing the standing committee with more information on how the department is meeting its statutory requirements under the act?
I look forward to getting a letter from committee making that request, and I look forward to following up with them in response.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister also commit to providing more clarity on the types of information systems that are being used by the health authority? Previously, I spoke of 15 different systems. I understand some are going to be retained and some are going to be rolled into one. Can the Minister provide some clarity on that or commit to providing more clarity on that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand that the committee just had a review of the information Privacy Commissioner's report. There were a number of recommendations.
I am looking forward to, once again, hearing back from committee by way of letter or other correspondence indicating the types of things they want to know. If this is included in there, I will absolutely provide that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You're just one person.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Yesterday, when the Minister was answering questions from the honourable Member from Frame Lake here in regards about -- that is Frame Lake; right? Kam Lake. Sorry. I got it wrong.
No, this is Frame Lake.
Yes, this is Frame Lake.
Order.
Order. Was asking questions to the Minister about foundational review and that. Can the Minister advise us if he is giving the same messaging to the college as he has given to us? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, our department has been working closely with the Aurora College and always has been having a good partnership with them.
As our contractor has been doing the work around the foundational review, we have been getting updates and ensuring that the Aurora College and the staff know what the process is, the process that I explained yesterday to the Member for Frame Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate that answer from the Minister. I guess my concern is that, you know, yesterday after the exchange here on the floor, I got a couple of phone calls from students asking me, "Well, it's not what they're being told." I guess the question to the Minister is: what is the messaging that the college is getting, because it seems that the students and maybe some of the staff are not getting the same message.
As I mentioned yesterday, those two specific programs, we did stop taking enrolments in the programs. The students who are currently in there are going to continue to get the support that they need to graduate, complete their programs, and I've said that in the House on numerous occasions. We will follow up with the staff at Aurora College as well to make sure that they're sending the same message to the students that we want to support them, we want them to graduate, and also to support them if they want to go to another post-secondary institution.
I appreciate the Minister's answer to that. Don't get me wrong, the staff have been clear with the students and have been very supportive and have been giving the messaging, but I guess the students have been hearing different things at the college and that. Has the college given an email to the students saying, this is the process that the program is being reviewed and that, after the time this program is being reviewed, so the foundational report, whether it's the social work program or the teacher's program, after it's done, then they're going to make a decision?
We can have some staff follow up with Aurora College and make sure that information that's been portrayed to the students since we've started this process, that it will be relayed to the students. It is an operational component, so we will check with Aurora College on that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister for doing that. At the end of the day, I guess the students out there who are looking at the social work program and the teacher's program, what can we tell them that is going to happen? Is the NWT seriously looking at providing this program or are we going to maybe potentially do a modification of it? Because if you look at our Skills 4 Success, some of the hugest needs are social workers or teachers and that, and our early childhood. Can the Minister elaborate on that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think the message here is that anybody who wants to go into a social work program or education program, that we will continue to support them. I've always said that we have one of the best student financial assistance programs in all the country. If they want to get into that program, we can help them identify an institution, whether it's outside the Northwest Territories, getting that program in place. I think also a focus right now as we're moving forward, and I've said this to Members, is making sure that we get that foundational review done. It absolutely isn't a program review. I've mentioned that we've looked at things like governance, the operations, accountability, student retention, and I've mentioned that many times in this House. I think the main thing is that we get this foundational review done for our own Aurora College here in the Northwest Territories. Any student who wants to get into social work or into the education degree program, we will still continue to support them with our Student Financial Assistance funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my honourable friend from Nahendeh's questions, I'd just like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: if there are students who don't want to leave the Northwest Territories to take training in in-demand jobs like social work and teacher education, what do we tell those students? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in this House, we're not taking any intakes into this program until the foundational review is done. Then from there with the Skills 4 Success, with the labour market information needs and assessment that we also have, we will develop a strategic plan and the direction for the college moving forward, but right now I think it's important we get the foundational review done, and also provide these students with alternatives such as other colleges that we do have some of our northern students going to, such as Alberta, the Yukon, or even in Saskatchewan. It will give them some options. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The question I spoke of was: what if kids want to stay here and do those degrees? The option is to make them leave the territory? That is kind of counterproductive to that questioning. The Minister just said that this is a foundational review, not a program review, and yet he is telling us now that he is frozen on these two programs. So which is it? Is it a foundational review or a program review? Because we have these programs that are currently unavailable to northern students who want to take training in these careers here in the Northwest Territories.
The Member is right. We've stopped intake into those two specific programs. As I've mentioned many times, I don't know how many times I have to mention it, but we are doing a foundational review. We have to make sure that that gets completed. In the meantime, when that foundational review is complete, as I stated yesterday with the management response, and I gave a timeline that we should have something at the 2018-2019 academic year moving forward, then we can use that foundational review, that management response, along with our Skills 4 Success document, and our labour market needs assessment, and move forward into a strategic plan for the college. That's the timeline, the direction that we're moving right now.
What other programs has the Minister halted intake on in the college currently since the foundational review started?
