Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I recently had a conversation with the chief of Deh Gah Got'ie First Nations at Fort Providence regarding cultural awareness of the health centre staff. The chief has stated that he has no faith in what they do, stating, "They do not understand us. They are going strictly by the book." This is alarming, especially when you are dealing with First Nations peoples. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to providing cultural awareness training to all existing staff and new hires to health centres in the territory? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a Cultural Safety Action Plan in effect at this time, and there have been a number of pilot projects that have determined what the best method is of providing this information to Health and Social Services staff. Now that there have been 13 of these pilots that have taken place, there is a model that has been settled on. It will be compiled into a framework, and the framework will be available to us this summer, the summer of 2021. I just want to say that, before it is rolled out to us, this framework will go to the NWT Health and Social Services Authority leadership council, which is comprised of community membership from wellness councils across the NWT, so there will be an opportunity for on-the-ground input into the cultural competency framework when it is finished. Thank you.
Mahsi to the Minister for that information. I'm not sure if I heard correctly if there was a timeline provided for providing the training on the ground.
I didn't provide a timeline because I don't have one.
I thank the Minister for that. We hope to see a timeline here soon because this is becoming an all-important issue for our communities in the Northwest Territories, especially dealing with First Nations peoples. I just wanted to relay some of my experiences. I had taken the cultural awareness training session for one day as an employee of the then Public Works and Services department. I found that this training was missing very valuable information, such as the history of the First Nations people in this country; the significance of the signing of the treaties; the residential school legacies and the continual generational traumas related to that; the 1969 Liberal Government White Paper; and a host of other facts that are significant in order to provide a cultural awareness training program. That is very important to our northern people and our cultures. Can the Minister commit to consulting with First Nations as to the content of the cultural awareness training and possible moderators?
The Department of Health and Social Services is certainly on board with the "nothing about us without us" approach to providing services and policy frameworks and so on. It's my understanding that the cultural competency training within Health and Social Services has been led by Indigenous people who are of the NWT and are very alive to the history of Indigenous people in the NWT and want to represent that in the training that they're giving. As well, this week, many of my colleagues on this side and I participated in a video launching the cultural competency training that is going to be offered through the HR function of the Department of Finance called "Living Well Together." This training is another iteration of ensuring that people are well-informed about where they are and who they are living with in terms of their history and their culture.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and I'd like to thank the Minister for her insight into the type of training. What I'm hearing is that it's just a generic document, generic training by some staff that we don't know who they are. Because each community has a unique history and situation with the people that they deal with, it's very important that we get the insight of the community leaders from every community. It's very important because we're dealing with a lot of things that this government pulls out and puts into our communities, such as Child and Family Services, where they are basically taking children away from our people. We have people within the community who are family members of those people who should have first rights of refusal to that child, when they are being taken away, so I really, really encourage the Minister to look into that aspect and to include every First Nation in this document. Mahsi.
I'm not sure what more I can do for the Member. The training that I just mentioned offered through HR is rolling out right away. It's mandatory. It has been developed by people who are Indigenous and knowledgeable in this field. I realize that what he is pointing to is some kind of a disconnect between what the government is developing and what is being received in the community. What I want to say is that everything is set to go, so this disconnect, I hope, will disappear very rapidly. If it comes to our next session and that hasn't happened, I would certainly be interested to hear that from the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
