Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Deputy Premier, for your responses. Mr. Speaker, clearly the Dene leaders do not feel that any engagement on housing investment has been sufficient based on the resolution passed on December 13th and 15th here in Yellowknife. And has the Premier reviewed this resolution and taken steps to address the issues with her departments? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure what the Premier is up to in terms of conversation with Indigenous groups. She is the Premier and responsible for Executive and Indigenous Affairs so I would hate to step on her toes to say that she has or has not met with any Indigenous groups specifically. However, Mr. Speaker, I do want to note that the Council of Leaders has a working group specifically on homelessness. So I think and housing. So I think that's a really good step in terms of having that collaboration with Indigenous groups, specifically the Council of Leaders. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that the Minister of Housing NWT has taken steps to review the department internal workings, but I'm speaking to the relationship between the GNWT and First Nations. Will the Premier direct the remaining $30 million to be allocated to First Nation governments and honour her government's obligation to Indigenous people as equal and sovereign government?
Mr. Speaker, as well, you know, when the Premier in her mandate letter had said that they were looking at building new relationships with Indigenous governments and but when they go ahead and make application to CIRNAC without talking to them is concerning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member's speaking specifically to $30 million which is public housing repair. And, again, I just can't sit here and speak on behalf of Premier to commit this $30 million to Indigenous groups. So I just do want to note, though, Mr. Speaker, that we are looking for further discussion with Indigenous groups in the next you know, after we're done session, we've got meetings lined up, bilateral meetings, with a variety of Indigenous groups. So I'm hoping that through that discussion, Mr. Speaker, that we can have more continued collaboration, more continued support, more continued dialogue. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Deputy Premier. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice.
Can the Minister please give us an update on where Bill C21 is at federally and what he thinks is the next step that the federal government will be taking? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do my best to stay up to date with our own legislative agenda so I can't give too many specifics about it. But Bill C21 was introduced, and it is now with the committee. So committee is undergoing a review. I believe it was in November, there was a government amendment to the bill which added a significant number of firearms to the list of prohibited firearms, and that has since been withdrawn. So that's where we are with the bill. The committee stage is continuing. And I expect that there will likely be movement in the next few weeks on this bill. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. And I also do want to thank the Minister for a stronger response back to the government after we first spoke about the initial GNWT position.
Can the Minister then speak, does the GNWT anticipate having to submit any more information to this committee or have any further interaction or ability to input to the committee before any other decisions are made? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So last week I spoke to the federal Minister, Minister Mendicino. He is the Minister of public safety, and he is the lead on this bill. And I did my best to explain the context of the Northwest Territories, the history of the Northwest Territories. And he was fresh off a trip to the Yukon where he heard the same things, and he had been hearing the same things from Nunavut. So I know that he got the message. And I wrote a letter back to him thanking him for pulling that amendment and inviting him to come to the territory and engage with the people of the territory. I tried to hit that home during our conversation that the federal government needs to talk to the people on the ground. So I'm doing my best to get him or his department up here to have those conversations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm really glad to hear that the Minister has invited the federal government to come, and I hope that that will he will continue to apply some pressure there and not just allow us to be sloughed off as often sometimes seems to be the case with the feds.
Can the Minister commit that not only pushing for that federal government meeting but to then actively engage our side of the House in ensuring that our constituents and people in our ridings are having the opportunity to meet with the Minister should they come to the territory? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will do what I can, but sometimes we learn about federal engagement after it happens. So it's hard for me to commit to doing that. But this is an issue that is close to the heart of many people in the Northwest Territories. So despite the fact that it is a federal bill, we are on top of it and we are paying attention, and I will continue to share information with the Members and I will continue to advocate for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to ensuring that the federal government knows that the GNWT will not stand for any of the guns to be added back to the C21 bill? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the primary issue that we ran into was with the amendments to the bill. The initial Bill C21, it spoke to handguns, making efforts to reduce family violence with red and yellow flag laws, and things like that. The amendments are what introduced a number of rifles that were not prohibited previously. So we don't even know in the territory how many of these rifles are out there. We've made some estimates but there could be thousands of rifles in the territory that were affected by that bill. One model is the SKS. That seems to be the most popular one. And so just that alone is one gun that we don't want to see prohibited. I can't say the same for all of the other rifles on there. But we are doing our best to ensure that any rifles that are used for hunting by Indigenous people and Northerners don't make it back on that list. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we were talking about detox and aftercare recovery, we are talking about the difference between life and death for some. This reality may not resonate with those that have no ties with the people in communities, but for us that are born and raised here we have family and friends throughout the NWT, and some of them are looking for our help. That is why this issue is so important.
Mr. Speaker, on the department of health's website, it states that the establishment of transitional sober/recovery housing for individuals returning from addictions treatment is a priority for the 19th Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, we have been here for over three years, and I do not see any such initiatives in Hay River or, for that matter, in any regional centres or small communities. Will the Minister of health tell me when her department will deliver on this priority for the community of Hay River, regional centres, and small communities, because that priority appears to only be government rhetoric. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I don't think there is a family in the whole of Canada that has not had some experience with addictions and the chaos that it causes, and I'm no exception.
With respect to the transitional housing initiative, we issued an expression of interest in December of 2021, so just over a year ago, to ask community organizations if they would like to develop a model for transitional housing for people coming from treatment centres. We got four communities that were interested, including Fort Good Hope, Inuvik, and Yellowknife. We also had some interest from Hay River from the committee for persons with disabilities. They have not yet delivered their service delivery model to us, but we expect it shortly. We have received it from the other places, and so the job now is to do the analysis and put the requests for funding into the business plan cycle. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm glad to hear that there's some movement there, and I'd like to see it happen a little faster, though.
Mr. Speaker, this government is no doubt the leader when it comes to inefficiency which is apparent by the number of public housing units and other buildings sitting empty or being unutilized. Mr. Speaker, what discussion has this Minister of health had with her colleagues around the use of, or repurposing empty or underutilized infrastructure for detox, aftercare treatment, and transitional sober recovery housing? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member raises a good point. We've had a couple of programs close recently that occupied the Territorial Treatment Centre in Yellowknife and the Trailcross Treatment Centre in Fort Smith. So we are aware that there is some surplus infrastructure. I think the process is to first of all identify the programming we want in the surplus infrastructure and then see whether it's appropriate for use. Some of the infrastructure that the Member has mentioned is very old and would not be up to code whereas other buildings would be ready for occupancy in short order. So I think that trying to reuse what we already have makes a lot of sense. It would certainly speed along the delivery of the service compared to trying to build from scratch. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, it's good to hear that, you know, government is looking at it. And, you know, unfortunately, you know, I don't think the movement is fast enough because people are, you know, dying around us.
Mr. Speaker, this government is using and taking advantage of NGOs as a form of cheap labour to deliver healthrelated services for the department.
Mr. Speaker, as this government is clearly reliant on NGOs to administer and provide some of its healthcare services around addiction support and recovery, I then ask the Minister if increased compensation and multiyear agreements with NGOs performing healthrelated services are being considered, and if not, why not? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. I have to say that I personally, and the department as well, recognizes the need for stability and support in the NGO sector and the value of the services they provide to our communities. So we are certainly open to looking first at more compensation and secondly multiyear agreements. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, talk is cheap so I'm kind of hoping that I actually see some money hit the floor at some point, and sooner than later.
Mr. Speaker, no detox beds and no aftercare facilities. Without those two components, we can only expect more people to die, and those deaths will be on us. Mr. Speaker, with the federal government offering up additional healthcare funding for the NWT, will the Minister of health confirm that there will be a shift in her department's assessment when it comes to address the front and back end of treatment which are detox and aftercare beds or facilities in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we had a good goaround yesterday on detox so I'm not going to go back there.
In terms of new federal funding, I'm very interested to see what the details are and how that money can be spent to the benefit of residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the GNWT have a partnership with an Indigenousbased addiction treatment facility for NWT residents? When will the GNWT have an Indigenousbased addiction healing treatment facility accessible to NWT residents? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last month, the Department of Health and Social Services asked for Indigenous addictionsbased treatment facilities to provide proposals for Indigenous treatment for NWT residents or addictions treatment with an Indigenous lens for NWT residents. That competition, or that request for proposal closed on Friday. And it's my understanding that procurement shared services are now evaluating those proposals. The goal that the department set out with was to have the new service provider in place by April 1st. Thank you.
Thank you. Can the Minister explain the referral process for NWT residents to go for treatment; how long does the referral process take?
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is really a twopart process. The first part is that the individual who wants treatment needs to be assessed by a healthcare practitioner or counsellor as understanding what's involved in treatment, ready for treatment, preferences for treatment, where they would like to go and so on. That is part one. Part two is then sending the referral to the addictions treatment centre, and then they do or don't have beds available, they put the person on the waiting list. There are a number of variables depending on the size and capacity of the treatment centre. But in general, the whole process from beginning to end takes an average of three weeks. So that means it can take less time, but I'm also aware that it's taken more. Thank you.
If an NWT resident wanted to refer themselves into treatment without a case worker assigned to them, will the GNWT cover this cost? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. The issue of selfreferral is a little bit problematic because it doesn't give the counsellor or other support workers the ability to continue connecting with that person before treatment, after treatment, and making sure that they are accessing the resources that are available to them. We have contracts at this point with five facilities. So if people use our referral process to one of those five centres, then the costs are covered. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If an Indigenous NWT resident wants to attend an Indigenous addiction treatment facility, will the GNWT cover that cost? Is this covered by our treaty rights? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if an NWT resident is referred to one of the treatment centres that we currently have contracts with, we will pay the full amount of the treatment cost, and we expect to add an Indigenous specific offering to the treatment centre list by the beginning of April. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a second round of questions for the Minister of Housing NWT, specific this time to the homelessness strategy.
Mr. Speaker, last year the OAG audited public housing in the Yukon. The OAG found that the Yukon Housing Corporation did not have complete, timely, and relevant information to manage programs and benefits. Three of the nine recommendations coming out of Yukon's audit were on data collection and analysis. Has the Minister been briefed on the results of the Yukon audit and on how those lessons could be applied here in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And to the Member, thank you for the question as well too. I have not been briefed on the audit for the Yukon. But the department does keep an eye on other jurisdictions as well too, and looking at how we can improve and do things better within the portfolio as well too and making those changes. But in the Housing Renewal Strategy, it specifically notes that we need to improve our data collection and measurement so we can decide what is working, what isn't working. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it would be of great value, I think, to look at what the Yukon's audit read, and I think that it would also be of great value to look at our 2008 audit that the OAG did on our own Housing Corporation here because a lot of those recommendations are still quite relevant today.
Mr. Speaker, if this audit was repeated in the NWT, I believe the OAG would have similar findings on the lack of information at Housing NWT. One major recommendation was that the Yukon Housing Corporation set up performance indicators, including shortterm and longterm targets and outcome measures at the program level. Will the upcoming homelessness strategy include shortterm and longterm targets and outcome measures at the program level? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member as well too because I know this is a document that has been a long time waiting for this government to see. I can confirm today that the focus is on data collection and the measurement as well. But I do look forward to sharing this document with the Members and with the public very soon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. We have long been awaiting this document and have yet to see a draft on that and very much welcome it at the committee level.
Another recommendation was for the Yukon Housing Corporation to develop and implement a program evaluation framework. We heard in the Minister's remarks yesterday that we don't have a systematic data collection. So will the upcoming homelessness strategy include a plan for systematic data collection and program evaluation framework? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I can confirm once again that we would be looking at data collection and the measurement of what works and doesn't work. I just look forward to sharing that document with Members. It should be available, I want to say February 28th was the date that I was provided with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
