Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The renewable resources sector provides real benefits to the NWT. Can the Minister confirm that the department is supporting working or cooperating with NWT Chamber of Mines to encourage mineral exploration development, and also when all our residents can expect their diamonds? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Yes. I'm happy to confirm again, as I said, that the Department of ITI has engaged a technical working group with Chamber of Mines, grew out of the need to respond to COVID-19, but it's been an opportunity to have that conversation on a direct level. I expect that that will continue. As to receiving the diamonds, Madam Speaker, I think I'll have to take that under advisement. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Given that the Minister has actively supported the economic and health benefits of preventative care in her new role and also given that she values gender equity in our economy, I'm wondering if the Minister will commit to changing the Dental Auxiliaries Act to allow dental hygienists to self-regulate and work without the direct or indirect supervision of a dentist? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Thank you for the question. The Dental Auxiliaries Act is a dated piece of legislation that doesn't align with our other medical professions' legislation or with that, that exists in the province, so what the department would like to do is create new legislation for dental hygienists under our umbrella act, the Health and Social Services Professions Act. This isn't something that is on our radar right now and is time consuming to finish. The request can be made now, but it's not likely there will be legislation for another two or three years at a minimum. Thank you.
I'm happy to hear this little bit of progress from the Minister and definitely willing to explore that further with the Minister. I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to some of the barriers that the Department of Health and Social Services has identified in why that act wouldn't come forward right away, or what timeline they might be able to work towards.
The barriers just have to do with the fact that the Department of Health and Social Services produces a lot of legislation. We do a queue of what needs to be advanced or a triage, and so this is a fairly new request. It would have to be evaluated against the other pieces of legislation that are in the queue now. I can't, unfortunately, be any more specific about when the legislation might come forward.
I'm wondering if the department has hired a chief oral health officer as identified in their oral health strategy.
No, we haven't done that. Unfortunately, there is no funding available for this position at this time. We're concerned about funding for this position going forward because the Territorial Health Investment Fund expires on March 31st next year, and the federal government has not yet recommitted to funding this pot of money which would provide for the oral health coordinator.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Given that the current oral health strategy expires in March of 2021 and also given the drastic health effects of people not having access to preventative healthcare, what are the go-forward plans for the Department of Health and Social Services as far as oral health and prevention in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
There is, in fact, launching next month, an oral hygiene campaign which will include the distribution of toothbrushes, toothpastes, and dental floss to all NWT residents through the regional health centres. That is accompanied by a preschool book written by the author Richard Van Camp, and it has been translated into all 11 official languages. It's been available since March of this year. There are four dental therapists who work in the department, and they are in the regional centres, Inuvik, Fort McPherson, Fort Smith. There is usually one in Fort Simpson, but fortunately for her, she's now on mat leave. There is also a territorial specialist who works here out of Yellowknife. Clearly, with the department, there is a focus on oral health. There is an understanding of its importance. There are plans in the short term to highlight that, and in the longer term, obviously, with the action plan expiring, we will need to look at renewing that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. There has no doubt been a lot of talk about the COVID-19 secretariat and its budget. I'd like to speak specifically about the isolation centres today considering they make up over half of the COVID-19 secretariat budget. I believe that there is a consensus that the spending in this area is too liberal. There are a number of ways we could save money on isolation centres, whether that's increasing the number of hub communities, shortening the isolation periods, increasing rapid testing, making sure people have kitchens so they can cook their own food instead of being catered. Each of these solutions come with some pros and cons, and I'm not suggesting we have to do all of those. My question for the Premier is: is she committed to finding some cost savings in the isolation centres portion of the COVID-19 secretariat budget? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will start by saying yes because we've been on a roll, so I just want to say yes. There are many ways, the Member is absolutely correct. Our isolation costs are the major contributing factor to the cost of the secretariat. However, they are critical, so we are just doing that work right now. We're talking with Indigenous governments, municipal governments, other stakeholders in the communities to look at ways: do we pay for discretionary travel; do we look at RFPs or other options? The other thing, too, is: we've been working with the federal government to ask for more support for our costs related to COVID-19. We're looking at all options. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
I am glad to hear that. Considering this is $17 million projected for this fiscal and ongoing, we plan to be running these isolation centres for a number of years. They're quite big contracts. My question for the Premier is: did these isolation centre contracts go out for tender?
Again, when we first started addressing the issue of COVID-19 back in March, we didn't have time to put it out to tender. We just kind of grabbed what we could, trying to get people in safe isolation spaces. We've been operating in that. Again, one of the issues that we had when we didn't have a secretariat is all different departments were taking on different aspects of it. Now that we've formed the secretariat, Madam Speaker, we are currently actually looking at an RFP process so that we can provide better services, more efficient, and more effective services.
I completely understand that, in the midst of COVID-19, perhaps, we had to just get the isolations in place and not tender them. Now that we're looking for operating these multi-years, I really think it's important that we send them out for tender. I note there are hotels that could be interested. There are smaller hospitality places and communities. There are catering contracts. There's a lot of money flying around within the COVID secretariat right now that I believe we have to have an economic lens to.
One of the other suggestions I've heard is whether apartment rentals were considered? I know many people would, in fact, prefer to stay in an apartment where you have access to a full kitchen and it's, perhaps, a little nicer stay than two weeks in a hotel. My question for the Premier is: is apartment rentals something that we are considering and, perhaps, this would even save us money? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Just because we want to wrap it up on a good note, again, apartments are being considered. We are looking at all options, so yes, Madam Speaker, we are looking at apartments as well as all options to provide support. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Oral questions. Members, we are going to take a break, and we'll resume with the remainder of the orders of the day after that.
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Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following four documents: "2019 Socio-Economic Agreement Report for Mines Operating in the Northwest Territories," Economic Context of Ekati Diamond Mine Closing;" the "2019 Survey of Mining Employees: Northwest Territories Bureau of Statistics;" and "2019 Ekati Diamond Mine Socio-Economic Agreement Report." Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Table of documents. Minister of ECE.
Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following document: "Aurora College Corporate Plan, 2020-2021." Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Madame la Presidente. I wish to table the following three documents: "Government Revenues as Reported by Anglo American under the Federal Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act, Annual Reports 2016-2019;" "Government Revenues as Reported by Dominion Diamond under the Federal Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act, Annual Reports 2016-2019);" and third one, "Government Revenues as Reported by Rio Tinto under the Federal Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act, Annual Reports 2016-2019." Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, November 5, 2020, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the Legislative Assembly recommends the appointment of Ms. Sheila McPherson (ph) as law clerk and Mr. Toby Krueger (ph) as deputy law clerk as recommended by the Board of Management; and further, that the Speaker be authorized to communicate the effective date of appointment to the Commissioner. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Notices of motion. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, November 5, 2020, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North that the following persons be approved by the Legislative Assembly as sole adjudicators, the honourable Maurice Herauf and Jeffrey Schnoor, Q.C. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Notices of motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Madame la Presidente. I give notice that on Thursday, November 5, 2020, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho that the appointment of Mrs. Freida Martselos to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment be revoked; and further, now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North that Mr. Steve Norn be appointed as an alternate member to the Standing Committee on Government Operations. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Notices of motion. Member for Yellowknife North.
