Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This for the Department of Health and Social Services. So what is the department doing to recruit more Indigenous counsellors? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for raising this issue. The staffing shortages that we see across the NWT are particularly acute in the Tlicho region and Behchoko in particular.
There are vacancies for the manager of health services, the nurseincharge, two nurse practitioners, two public health nurses, five community health nurses, one clinical nurse educator, eight community social workers, two child and youth care counsellors, one child and youth care supervisor, two individual and family counsellors, and one trauma counsellor. In other words, I don't know who's working in Behchoko but you have a very large vacancy rate there.
We advertise these jobs on a territorywide basis. And we, as you know, preferentially hire P1s who have been who are Indigenous to the NWT. We also preferentially hire people who come out of the Indigenous Gateway Training program. So we put out the job competitions generally and hire Indigenous people preferentially. The caveat there is that they need to apply and to have the relevant experience. These, in some cases, are specialized positions which require specific training. Thank you.
Will the Minister and leadership team commit to visiting Tlicho region to discuss how to create more culture and communitybased solution for addiction, substance abuse, and mental health? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. The delivery of health and social services in the Tlicho region, as the Member knows, is handled by the Tlicho Community Services Agency. I have met with them once while in this role. Certainly interested in meeting with them again to discuss any of the issues that they are particularly concerned with. The TCSA is also part of the leadership council for the NTHSSA, and so I do see the chair, Ted Blondin, at those meetings, which I attend about once every three months. Thank you.
Thank you. Will the Minister commit to identifying where the Tlicho government can take authority over mental health program? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. I'm sure the Member appreciates that we want the initiative to come from the Tlicho government, and so we are interested in seeing any proposals they have that would expand their service delivery, would make it more culturally appropriate to their region, more specific to their region. We have the specific funds that the Tlicho government applies for, such as ontheland healing. But we're interested in seeing proposals for other services that we provide that the Tlicho government would like to provide instead. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Will the Minister commit to transferring the child and youth care counsellor program responsibilities to Tlicho government? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the recent bilateral with the Tlicho government, I indicated that we were interested in discussing this possibility. We would like to see a proposal so that we understand what it is that the TCSA would like to do with those positions. And of course that would include a discussion with ECE since the CYCC program is a joint initiative of our two departments. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I'd like to continue the conversation started earlier this week in regards to child and youth mental wellness.
The Health and Social Services has a child and youth mental wellness plan in which objective 3 states: Provide training for all NWT school principals, program support teachers, junior kindergarten to 12 educators, and classroom support assistants in traumainformed and culturally respectful practices. I'm wondering if this training has been developed. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible Education, Culture, and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, in response to the child and youth mental wellness action plan, such training has been developed, both traumainformed classroom training and culturally sensitive classroom training. It is not mandatory for all NWT educators, but it is available upon request and it's free to education bodies, and there has been significant uptake on those programs. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister can define "significant uptake" and if the Minister is willing to work with school boards to mandate this training for educators who work in the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, I don't have the numbers in front of me, and it's not it's not as easy as just mandating training for educators. As I think we've learned over this Assembly, there's a strong separation of authorities between education bodies and the department. That being said, we always encourage training; we provide extensive training; we work with the NWTTA to ensure that their members are aware that the training is available. And as we go forward in modernizing the Education Act, this is definitely an area where we want to look at to ensure that all teachers receive the appropriate training. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister parking putting that in the parking lot for the Education Act, because I think it's really important. If it's important for our public servants and our frontline staff to be educated about the history of the Northwest Territories and working in a traumainformed way, then it's equally as important for educators to be doing the same.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, 2SLGBTQQIA awareness and training and in creating inclusive classrooms saves lives. So will ECE also mandate the 2SLGBTQQIA awareness and training for NWT educators as part of that conversation? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And again, I can't really mandate glad things but we do do our best to develop the resources and provide the resources, promote the resources at no cost to educators. So the LGBTQ2S+ equity, safety, and inclusion guidelines training is available upon request from ECE. In addition, we have safe school regulations that mandate that all 49 schools in the territory provide a safe school plan which includes identifying LGBTQ2S+ resource people in the school and gender sexuality advisors. ECE works with local partners to put on the triannual rainbow youth conference. Unfortunately, the last one was scheduled for April of 2020. It was fully planned and ready to go but obviously that did not happen for reasons we're all too familiar with. And so we do work to develop and promote this training and provide this training at every opportunity. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that there are a lot of expectations on all of us right now, especially educators and mandating something like that, through maybe a ministerial directive, can be a tall ask sometimes. But when the when the repercussions of not doing it are far too great, when the repercussions of not using informed language are far too great, sometimes making that extra step to mandate something is worth it and is important.
Even here in the Assembly, as busy as all of us are, especially our ministerial colleagues, we took the time together to do a blanket exercise. And while all of us in this room are aware of the history of the Northwest Territories, the act of going through that was incredibly powerful as a group. And so would the Minister consider putting together a ministerial directive in order to mandate training like this for the Northwest Territories to better serve the children of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Being the Minister of Education is all about relationships. We have to work with the teachers; we have to work with all of the education bodies across the territory. And I think that we have a good relationship with both of those entities and, as a result, we're able to make things happen without having to mandate them.
I think there is desire among all educators to have this training. That's why there has been uptake on this training. The local school boards see the value in this training, and so that's why it happens as well. So I don't think this is a situation that requires a mandate. I think that much of the work that the Member is talking about is actually happening. So I want to give her that assurance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was going to ask the Minister of Infrastructure some questions about airships but she isn't here today so I'm going to put the Minister of Housing on the spot. Could I please get an update on where the Aspen Apartments is at in my riding, and what the plans are for its future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now currently the Housing Corporation had negotiated with Canada to extend our rentfree lease with Aspen Apartments. I'm not too sure when that rent free lease would expire. I'd have to get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess that I would like to ask the Minister what she thinks about using Aspen going forward for potentially the vulnerable population given the number of children that are in the apartment buildings nearby and the safety issues that I raised earlier in week? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the Aspen Apartments, that is a government I mean a federal governmentowned building. So we've been trying to work with the federal government in order for us to maintain and keep that lease. But there are other conversations going forward that they would like to acquire that building back. But we are looking at the response to COVID and using that building and with programming as well. And I do hear the Member speaking about our youth, the homelessness in that population as well too, and the corporation is working strategically with the Department of Health, and it's more of a wrap around service delivery as well too. But just on the movement that we have been making so far, that we also acknowledge the need for youth homelessness as well too. But presently right now, we are just working in Yellowknife with the transfer of the sorry, I can't remember the building that we just purchased. But we're working in that Nordic Arms, sorry. Yeah, Nordic Arms, thank you, transfer right now. But I can follow up with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the housing minister for her answer. I guess I'm just going to take this opportunity to reiterate my comments from earlier this week that I would like to see some changes being made to the prioritization list of housing clients for the Nordic Arms in order to prioritize vulnerable families. If the Minister could speak to maybe committing towards doing that, that would be great. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So right now we are looking at, you know, finalizing the purchase of Nordic Arms. What I can tell the Member right now is that we don't have anything set concrete. We have a lot of scenarios that are out there. We're wanting to work with the waitlist. We're wanting to work with the transfer list. We're looking at mobility issues as well amongst our clients and if those units are actually suitable to meet those needs. We're also looking at seniors and a variety of programming as well, too, and how we're going to better serve the people in Yellowknife as well. But just taking very careful consideration on how we're going to be looking at the transfer, and I know that we do have a number of issues here in Yellowknife, and the Member has expressed to me really looking at the transfer list and the safety of our clients as well too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the Nordic Arms, I've heard the Minister say that they're working on the current tenants that are there in transitioning them. Does that mean to say that there will be some private tenants within the building, or is the plan to eventually transition all of the private renters out and put in solely housing clients? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan is to eventually transfer all tenants who are currently in the building. Our priority is low cost income housing for our low cost income clients as our priority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was reviewing the fouryear capital plan, sorry, MLA plans for the Northwest Territories, and it talks about increased number of affordable housing and reduced cost housing needs. Also yesterday the Minister of Housing talked about a new vision statement for the Northwest Territories for housing. And the biggest thing I'm thinking about, we already talked about the last few days, was that housing is a big issue here in the Northwest Territories. I know Mr. Johnson, my colleague here, talked about $20 million for housing. But that's one part of it.
The other part it as well, Mr. Speaker, is the repairs that's needed in the communities. In my budget here right now for the Tu NedheWiilideh riding, I got $3.4 million that's just going for repairing public housing units.
So my question to the Minister is in regards to public housing, I want to ask her one question is that the public housing is in 2036, they're saying that CMHC is going to be cutting back on funding public housing altogether. My question to the Minister is what's the transition, and how are you going to communicate with people's Indigenous governments and the communities as to how you're going deal with liquidating or what are you going what are your plans do with all your assets for the NWT Housing Corporation? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for the question as well because the the date of of 2038, 2036 is, you know, greatly fastly approaching, and the Housing Corporation has been working very closely with the federal government and to acknowledge this date and also to acknowledge our aged assets in the Northwest Territories as well in looking at how are we going to look at replacements. Also for home ownership as well too, providing home ownership is another priority of this government, and it's a mandated issue as well too that I have to meet.
So looking at those units that we do have on the ground, there is the opportunity to be working in partnership with those Indigenous groups. And I do hear the Member of, you know, $3.4 million, I need to look at my material, I don't have those numbers available in front of me, but I can follow up with the Member to discuss opportunities and what are we doing good forward for his riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister share with the House their plans as to how they're going to deal with the all units in the Northwest Territories, as to how they're going to deal with it, whether they're going to devolve it to the communities or is there O and M costs that's going to go with it, or like, I know they want to work with aboriginal governments but, Mr. Speaker, there's still a lot of big issues with trust working with the Housing Corporation because of for years, their policies don't fit the aboriginal government needs in our communities, and we still have huge issues in our communities. So Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know what are their plans in this area. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, for myself coming from a smaller community as well too and you know going back to my riding, like, I see the similar issues that the Member is expressing. And with the change of where we are going as a corporation and really looking at revamping everything within the corporation and the most the focus that I'm looking at is our policies as well that doesn't fit the needs of the people of the territories. Times have changed. Our approach is going to change and looking at facetoface client service as well, and looking at what type of relationship are we going to have with the federal government. And but presently right now looking at those units that are on the ground, we have to take into consideration that we do receive funding for those units, operation and maintenance funding that is crucial right now, and looking at replacing them. And also looking at the local housing authorities and looking at their capacity. Are they able to program deliver on our behalf? Are they able to operate and maintain those units at the ground level? But also working with the Indigenous groups too and looking at what are they forecasting and how are they going to be addressing community housing at the community level.
We can't address and solve this issue on our own. We need the Indigenous groups. We need to be working in partnerships and looking at stakeholders throughout the Northwest Territories and finding those opportunities. I do understand that in the smaller communities, we're very isolated with limited capacity and limited response to even responding to freezeups, to responding to pilings being replaced, and we need to further look at those and take those into consideration as well too, what type of capacity do we have at the ground level.
But I'm more than willing to be working with communities, with leadership, and looking at should they be wanting and interested in the federal funding that is out there as well too, that the housing Housing Corporation is more than available to be seeing those applications successfully submitted and working with those Indigenous groups. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And it's good to hear what they're the Minister's reply on that, is that when we say we talk about working with aboriginal governments and that kind of thing, we still need to work and build that confidence and trust with the aboriginal governments. For too long, you know, the we've been trying to fix the problems in our communities on home repair programs. I got like, I have a constituent in my community, they have sewer backup drain in the bathtub and they're making too much money; they can't qualify. And if so there's just so much barriers in place trying to deal with these issues.
So my question, if we are going to look at building any relationship with governments, the thing is that the you know, we talk about coinvestment, and you mentioned that earlier. If we're going to build that relationship, my question is does the Housing Corporation policy supply in that coinvestment when we work with aboriginal governments? Because if that's the case, it's not going to work. So my question to the Minister, that would be my final comments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I hear the Member when it comes to smaller communities that when we come in as a corporation, that that relationship needs to be improved. Like I said, I do come from a smaller community. I have even purchased one of the Housing Corporation units years ago and was not satisfied with the service that I was provided with.
Myself as a Minister, I bring that grassroots real conversation to the table, and the Housing Corporation has responded, and it's responded into creating a Council of Leaders working group where we put the Indigenous groups, and we speak with them in collaboration and in partnership, hearing what they've got to say and also making those changes and driving our policy change as well too, to better meet the needs of the people of the Northwest Territories, to qualify for our programs, and taking into consideration as well too the cost of living is drastic and our employment and training in our smaller communities is very limited.
And also looking at if we do the other question that was asked if we do have a policy looking at the coinvestment fund, that we don't have but we've reacted anyways. We do have an employee that does work on these federal applications, and the Housing Corporation is more than willing to be working with those Indigenous groups and bringing those applications forward.
During the lifetime of this government, I would like to see every Indigenous group submit for that coinvestment fund. I would like to see the Housing Corporation work with them and also identify their needs coming from the grassroots level. And when we are housing when we are delivering housing programming, the Council of Leaders working group is the table to be expressing those changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of ITI gave a very vague answer to my last question and did not answer fully on the expansion of the Taltson River Expansion. Will the Minister, in her capacity as ITI and the finance Minister, engage with the Salt River First Nation, whom's reserve lands border the Taltson Dam and they also consider this their traditional territory, whether bilateral meetings could take place to bring Salt River back to the table in this very important project with the expansion of the Taltson; and, moreover, we as a government to move forward in a positive way on this project and reinstate their consultation funds in order to do this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism, and Investment.
