Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the P3 policy is separate; it wasn't part of the review that was done in looking at the fiscal responsibility policy so that it simply wasn't part of it. It's a different policy all together.
Mr. Speaker, at this point in time there's not any active work happening with respect to a P3. So this is not something that is you know, there's not an active concern around growing numbers of P3 projects. What we do have are the some projects that are ongoing that where there are operational expenses now because rather than investing huge amounts of sums at the capital side to build a project through a traditional process, instead, that the budgeting for these projects, such as Stanton, such as the Mackenzie Valley fibre line, they were extended over the life of the asset; they were made into operation costs over the course of existing projects. At the end of the day, though, Mr. Speaker, all that money is GNWT money, whether it's on the capital budget, whether it's on the operations budget. So those P3 projects that are still on the books are there on a different side than what they would have been otherwise. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course I'm not talking about the P3 policy; I'm talking about the fiscal responsibility policy where debt servicing should come into play, whether it's P3 debt as well, and it should include that. And although the Minister doesn't think there's active concern, I've been raising this in the House for seven years. So I'm very concerned that the Minister and the department appear to be ready to make changes to this policy without bothering to engage the public, and the Minister herself spoke about how they engaged the credit rating agencies but are you know, are we actually going to talk to the public? So we hold all kinds of public engagements for such mundane things as renaming the Stanton Legacy building or a survey on liquor and cannabis products. But can the Minister tell us whether there will be any public engagement on the review of the fiscal responsibility policy, and if not, why? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the pleasure of overseeing a number of different policies that have been reviewed and revised in the life of this Assembly. And I've actually had the opportunity to go back and say, you know, when do we go out and engage public and when do we take different types of approaches? And, Mr. Speaker, it depends upon the impact of the policy on members of the public. The greater the impact, the greater the anticipated interests, such as in the naming of a building which may well involve wanting to name it after an individual or after a particular location. Those occasions certainly do see a wider and more concerted effort to do engagement. The affirmative action policy would be one that I am currently involved in right now where there is extensive public inperson engagements taking place. The fiscal responsibility policy, on the other hand, Mr. Speaker, it really is something that looks at government trying to ensure its own processes and its own budgeting is done in a responsible fashion.
As far as input on to budgets, Mr. Speaker, there are the budget dialogues that I've done every year; there is the process of the Committee of the Whole; there is the process of business plans. All of those are opportunities where members of the public, advocacy organizations, municipal governments, send in their comments on the budget, what we should spend on, how we should spend it. The budgeting dialogues process, again how we should budget, where we should manage, where the balances should be. So all of those processes continue to exist. But the fiscal responsibility policy in terms of how to structure the fiscal strategy, that's an internal looking process and that's why we've kept it to being more narrow focus. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Order. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, indeed, we do need to do a better job at administering our housing programs and supporting our residents. And with that in mind, Mr. Speaker, if we give people a home and they continue to build arrears and are unable to pay their mortgage, that means our program is not working.
Can the Minister tell this House how they are working with residents who currently have a mortgage with Housing NWT to ensure they are able to pay that mortgage while having resources for other things, such as food? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for raising this question as well too, because right now Housing NWT is reviewing. We have 268 mortgages throughout the Northwest Territories. This was a program that was available to the Northwest Territories through CMHC about over 20 years ago. At that time, we did come out with the subsidized mortgages throughout the Northwest Territories. We have run into some issues where we have not had clients pay consistently throughout the territories. But we do enter into payment plans, and we do work with each of the clients considering their financial changes and trying to make them become and help support them to become successful homeowners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have mortgages that we know people cannot pay. We have a collection policy that shows our ability to forgive residents who are in this situation.
Can the Minister explain how Housing NWT administers its collection policy and how often people are assessed and forgiven from their debts based on their ability to pay those back, those debts? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the lifetime of this government, the Housing NWT has forgiven $8 million in housing mortgage arrears throughout the Northwest Territories, and they consist of several different financial situations that the client may be entering into. And we try to do our best to try to work with the client prior to them receiving the eviction notices. That is the absolute last resort. And if that that we do have public housing that is available to the tenants as well if they're not able to afford their homeownership program.
We also do work with our collections within Housing NWT, but we also do have to submit to FMB as well too with the financial analysis as to why we are going to be submitting a forgiveness and a writeoff of those debts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the moment, Housing NWT is owed almost $5 million in mortgage payment. The current process of refinancing and owning a house through Housing NWT is proving not sustainable. Can the Minister commit to forgiving the current outstanding mortgage payments owed to NWT Housing, particularly for those that have recently refinanced, so we can help our residents get out of poverty by having a stable home they know is theirs? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member as well too. It is not just as simple as just writing off all of these debts throughout the Northwest Territories for housing. A lot of our programming does recycle, and it does go back in to programming for homeownership repair and programs available to support homes throughout the Northwest Territories.
I will have to take a look at what we have so far and looking at the current debt status that we do have, and I have to work with the Member as well too for her riding. But this is an issue throughout the Northwest Territories, and Housing is really trying to work with each and every one of these clients so they can be successful homeowners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have some elders in the community who they did they entered into refinance agreement, and some of these elders are in their 70s. I mean, that should have been forgiven long time ago. I mean, that is not acceptable. That is unacceptable, Mr. Speaker. And we have some refinancing that was done with 20 years old and that the agreement is not in their name; it is in the parent's name. The family moved into the house before the child was born, and this is where they are doing refinancing agreement with a child that who got their first job. There's quite a few of that in my community, in my region. So I just it's more of a statement. It's more of a comment. So I don't have any questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Taken as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Mr. Speaker, the 19th Legislative Assembly cannot afford to leave residents of the Northwest Territories without meaningful change to procurement benefit retention and transparency in this territory, especially after all the focus and conversation we've had about that in the life of this Assembly. So I'm wondering does ITI intend to table a fulsome response to the procurement review panel's 50 recommendations that the public can see where ITI stands on each of those recommendations? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, as the Member's already pointed out, there was a summary version of what's ongoing already published several months ago with respect to the work that's happening. I believe with that there was also a publication of a set of principles, unifying principles about procurement so that we are no longer spread with different purposes and objectives between different departments, which was a significant recommendation from that report.
As to a detailed response, Mr. Speaker, that is something that is still coming out. There will be a more fulsome response out this summer.
Mr. Speaker, I do want to point out that delay isn't for lack of work that's been happening. One of the major things that's happened in the last year was an engagement directly led with EIA on with Indigenous governments and towards an Indigenous procurement policy or approach, and it was out of respect for that process that a more fulsome response has been somewhat delayed. But I do, as I said, expect something more by the summer. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that response. And I can also say that in conversation with the Minister during our other work time that the Minister's been very helpful at kind of providing a fulsome response of what all the department is working on. The problem that I have is that I don't have concrete answers to be able to give the people that I serve about what those specific changes are going to look like.
In the month of August and in the summer, there's about eight sitting days that we'll get to sit through roughly before we're done, and we're literally escorted out the building. And that doesn't give me the time or my colleagues the time to really hold the government accountable to what those changes look like. And so the Minister said that there's an intent to table responses in the summer, but I'm really concerned with that timeline.
So is the specifics to the policy work that's been done, for example, to the northern manufacturer's policy, to the business incentive policy, is that expected to be tabled in the summer, or is that something that we will see before? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's things happening in an ongoing way. So some of the work under the manufacturing policy has if I'm not mistaken, has already been prepared and is already ready to go ahead with respect, for example, to the guidelines under the manufacturing policy. Those guidelines have been improved. And I will reconfirm as to their whereabouts on the website. I had understood they were going out and were being promulgated already.
With respect to the business incentive policy, one of the biggest issues is around defining northern business. I know this question's been asked many times. Mr. Speaker, there are recommendations in the report that we are actively looking at. Again, the issue around ensuring that we are being respectful of what's happening within Indigenous procurement and with those definitions has put a bit of a pause on that, but it will ultimately produce a better outcome that everyone is on board with.
It's not my intention not that I wouldn't table them, but it's not the intention to wait to the August session to table it. The idea is to get them published in the usual process here, which is it goes to Cabinet, it goes to MLAs; it then goes public. I would certainly employ that process here but with a view to having it out so that if there needs to be some further debate about it in August that there's ample time for that to take place, and it won't just be happening on August 30th. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that commitment from the Minister because I think that this is really important, and I think that there's been too much focus on procurement in this Assembly for this to simply be something that's tabled on the last day and then we don't get the opportunity to discuss it in this House, because I think that's really important. And I appreciate the Minister referring to the fact that, you know, this information will be coming to committee for comment, but I think it's really important that we have a very transparent view on this work so that also the constituents who are using this information and will be using these policies going forward have the opportunity to reach out to their MLA and say hey, this doesn't work because of this applied reason, because, you know, when I'm going about doing this work it doesn't work for that reason. So I'll ask that or I guess I'll start by asking will the Minister commit to making these changes public sooner than later so that as we're reviewing it, we have the opportunity to also discuss these changes with our constituents? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so already there is, just to confirm, the manufacturing policy guidelines newly minted are on ITI's website, current BIP guidelines and renewed guidelines are on the ITI's website. There is now a dashboard with respect to procurement that is live over on Finance's website. Those are all things that have come out of the procurement review, and I certainly would encourage people to go to them, take a look at them.
Further, as well, I the principles that I have mentioned, the objectives and principles around procurement, that is not a small thing. That was one of the major parts that I had read in that review, was that it was too spread out, the purposes and principles of procurement public procurement was too spread out. There are now set principles. That's an important part of the work that took place here, and it's now guiding what's happening across departments. So, again, encouraging people to locate that on our website so that they can consider if that meets their needs.
The definition, yes, Mr. Speaker, I hear the definition will need some opportunity to go to Members to have some consideration done. It is part of policy. I think part of the messaging here is that when there's small things within policies that need changes and adjustments, it can be done. It doesn't have to wait for a full legislative review. We now have done that. We have done the work of the review. We have the background available to us. And I do encourage people to see all of the work that's been done to date. There's quite a lot that's out there.
Vendor performance management. It's the last one before I get into the land of a Minister's statement, Mr. Speaker, and I'd encourage people to look at what we have been doing with vendor performance management. It's actually enforcing the rules. It's a lot that's happened in that space in the last year. And, again, I'd like to know that that's working for those who are already under that system so that we can consider making adjustments in the life of this Assembly if we need to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate all of the references that the Minister gave to different areas of the ITI website, of the Finance website, where this information can be found. I think this speaks to and, you know, with all due respect, I think this speaks to the need for a consolidated response from the government. Even when I was going through and kind of creating my questions for today and figuring out how do I go about continuing this conversation in this House, I'm looking at and reading through press releases from the GNWT in regards to procurement review; I'm looking through, yes, the guidelines and the dashboard and the contracting website; I'm looking through the work plan; I'm looking back at the information that came out with the procurement review. And that information is scattered. So anybody that actually wants to look at the panel's recommendations and then see what the government has done in response or what they have chosen not to do for whatever reason actually has to go and do a fair amount of legwork across the GNWT's website. There's not one place where we can see this is the plan moving forward, this is how the government is responding, and this is what businesses can expect. And so that's why I'm asking if the government will table a fulsome response for what their response is to the procurement review panel's 50 recommendations. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, simple answer is yes, there will be a response. It's going to be a full response to the review. And I couldn't agree more because of all the things I've been detailing in my responses now that have happened and that are underway. I've more than once brought the full team from multiple departments together. And at the last occasion, that was exactly the topic of conversation, was saying we can't let in some in this case, it's all the good work go unknown and those who are using one part may not know about the things that have happened in another. So it's coming, Mr. Speaker. It needs to come in time. I appreciate the comments it needs to come in it time that it can be considered, and so that if there's questions in the House, that they can be prepared for. So I'm not giving a date today, but it's coming, and I'm conscious of the fact that it needs to come in a manner that provides time for MLAs to be able to ask questions in the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Across the Northwest Territories there's essentially three types of tenure. There's community government leasing. I got no problem with those. Community governments can sort out how they want to lease their land. Then there's fee simple title. Never hear any complaints about anyone who owns their house, Mr. Speaker. And then there's the GNWT lease, which to me the main benefit seems to be a miraculous ability to be brought up in every single meeting and immediately derail it. No matter the meeting we're having, someone inevitably starts complaining about a 600 percent fee increase or their cabin, Mr. Speaker. It seems to be a golden rule of the GNWT.
And so my question for the Minister of Lands is can we get out of the leasing business and give people who live in their houses, in a GNWT lease, fee simple title? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Lands is able to offer fee simple title to leaseholders in the areas where land leaseonly policy is implemented or doesn't apply. In other words, where land claims have been concluded. The land leaseonly policy applies where land claims are not settled. The policy restricts the sale of public land in order to ensure the land claims and treaty negotiations are not jeopardized. As the Member is aware, we are wrapping up a review of the land leaseonly policy. This review is intended to address the efficiency or effectiveness of this policy, and it was developed over 30 years ago and has been very and has had seen very little change over time.
I'm hoping to update the Members here this week on the status of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to those updates to the land leaseonly policy. But there seems to be a disconnect because it's only supposed to apply in unsettled areas, but we know in the IRC, even though it was settled 40 years ago, we are still having this fight about GNWT leases. And it seems to me that at the heart of this issue is we need to separate out those who are rights holders. Even if they are on public land, if they are in their traditional territory, we need to create a different form of tenure and bring them into a different conversation.
Is the Minister willing to look to create some form of new tenure where rights holders are not paying the same lease fees and the same taxes as everyone else? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so rightsbased cabins, we're working on that. We're trying to put that to the side. We're trying to be able to identify some of the things. Some of the work that's being done is exactly what the Member is asking for. So we're working on this, trying to get this resolved. We're working with Indigenous governments to come up with a definition with what's a rightsbased cabin. Not the GNWT, with the Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. And I'm going to spring this on the Minister of Finance unfortunately, but there was a audit report just released by the Auditor General of Canada connecting connectivity in rural and remote areas. There's quite a bit of discussion, Mr. Speaker, in this report about unspent funds. I thought our government was bad getting money out the door but this is actually quite shocking in terms of supporting internet connectivity in rural and remote communities. You know, for example, the broadband fund, only 26 percent of the money budgeted was expended. Low earth or orbit to capacity agreement, zero percent. Connecting Canadians, 88 percent, a little bit better. But only 40 percent of the money was actually expended to help connect rural and remote communities, Mr. Speaker. What is our government doing to fix this problem? Thanks, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would love to see the federal government spend its money better and spend its money in the Northwest Territories. That would be a good news story for all. I can say that the universal broadband funds including their rapid universal broadband fund, which I think I've got slightly misstitled, were not necessarily well tuned to some of the needs here in the Northwest Territories. An example being redundancy was not eligible for any funding through those funds. And redundancy in the Northwest Territories, of course when we have one line going into communities, one line going across the Northwest Territories, that actually is a big part of ensuring accessibility and availability because if one line goes down, it costs us millions; it costs businesses millions. That was not available for funding. We did get funding through the fund, and the Indigenous governments, Tlicho government got funding through the fund, and funding up to the the InuvikTuk Highway was funded through that fund. So while I had received only some initial data back on this fairly new report, I'd be interested to see how we've done perhaps in comparison and to see if there were areas that we could have looked for more that we could go back now and look for more.
And one last, Mr. Speaker, I think they have actually gone out now and asked for recommendations and responses with respect to how to improve those funds and, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that I have already checked with our department; we are planning to put our submission in on that regard. Thank you.
Merci, Monsieur le President. And, of course, I didn't give the Minister a heads up so I'm springing this on her, probably playing a little bit of this just off the cuff. But, you know, some of the recommendations in this report are aimed, of course, at one of my favorite agencies, the Canadian RadioTelevision Telecommunications Commission. And, you know, recommendation 2.31, the CRTC should routinely collect and verify data from telecommunication service providers about connectivity quality. Like, I would have thought that that's something you would just normally do.
In any event, Mr. Speaker, would the Minister commit to provide a briefing note to Regular MLAs about what our government is doing in response to this report from the auditor general? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to provide a briefing, a briefing note or briefing in person with respect to, you know, monies we've had, challenges, perhaps opportunities to come, and what we might be doing to look for more money. Mr. Speaker, it's, again, certainly been my position, and I've communicated to federal ministers, that some of the funds perhaps weren't best tuned or well tuned to what the needs actually are and to where we are at in terms particularly around, again not only accessibility and availability, but affordability. That was not necessarily well tuned in terms of those funds, in terms of improving affordability here in the North. So, again, happy to explain where we're at so that all sides of the House can continue to advocate for residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Written Question No. 6019(2) asked by the Member for Hay River South on March 2nd, 2023, regarding Physician Recruitment and Retention.
The Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority is currently funded for 72.5 fulltime equivalent physician positions and Hay River Health and Social Services Authority is funded for seven. Within Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority, the regional physician staffing levels change frequently based on need and availability. A challenging national health human resources landscape means the use of locum physicians across the Northwest Territories, including Hay River, has increased and is likely to continue at higher rates. Currently, there is no funding policy set by the Department of Health and Social Services that stipulates per capita or other formula for allocation of physician fulltime equivalent funding. The current allocation is based on historical practice and funding levels.
There is no policy stipulating minimum physician allocation.
The Hay River Health and Social Services Authority conducts its own employee satisfaction survey every two years. The most recent Hay River Health and Social Services Authority employee satisfaction questionnaire was completed in 2021. The employee satisfaction questionnaire did not include specific questions related to lack of physicians and its impact on staff satisfaction in the workplace.
To address staff shortages, the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority has worked in collaboration with the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority, Tlicho Community Services Agency, and the Department of Health and Social Services to develop the NWT Health and Social Services System Human Resources Plan, which was released last summer. As part of the implementation of the plan, officials are looking at factors that contribute to talent acquisition, hiring and retention challenges through exit surveys and/or interviews with physicians and nurses to see where improvements can be made.
Hay River has retained all their physician funding and only reimburses Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority for direct costs related to physician services provided. The agreement between Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority for the provision of physician services is based on a Memorandum of Understanding between the Authorities and can be terminated by either party at any time, in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
The Hay River Health and Social Services Authority has noted that it will continue to collaborate with the other health and social services authorities in the recruitment of physicians, as they have noticed that in the past it has been very challenging and counterproductive when competing with larger centres in the NWT and the rest of Canada. Historically, the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority has noticed that working together in their recruitment efforts has yielded better results.
The Department of Health and Social Services has not undertaken a formal assessment to determine if Hay River and area residents would be better served if the Hay River Authority was amalgamated into Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority. To date, the feasibility of amalgamating Hay River Health and Social Services Authority into Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority has not been considered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Written Question No. 6119(2) asked by the Member for Kam Lake on March 6th, 2023, regarding the Government of the Northwest Territories Sole Source Contracting under Procurement Criteria 1.8.2(a).
The Member enquired what portion, by amount and by rate of contracting, is awarded under each of the procurement categories, including sole sources by each of the three criteria under 1.8.2(a) by GNWT departments. Later today, at the appropriate time, I will table a document containing this information.
The Member also enquired what the average length of time of contracts awarded under sole source criteria 1.8.2(a) is. For GNWT department's reportable contracts for the period of April 1, 2021, to December 31, 2022, the average length of time of contracts awarded under sole source criteria 1.8.2(a) was 144 calendar days.
Additionally, the Member also asked what the rate of sole source contracts awarded under criteria 1.8.2(a) is that undergo change orders. For the period of April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022, there were 55 contracts, approximately 33 percent of the contracts under sole source Criteria 1.8.2(a), that had change orders issued.
Lastly, the Member enquired about the average rate of increase of change orders awarded under criteria 1.8.2(a) is. Between the period of April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021, the average increase for change orders on contracts issued under sole source criteria 1.8.2(a) was $42,800 dollars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Written Question No. 6219(2) asked by the Member for Kam Lake on March 6th, 2023, regarding Sole Source Contracting for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority under Procurement Criteria 1.8.2(a).
To preface to this response, the information provided covers the time period of April 1, 2021 to December 1, 2022. This period spans both an unprecedented national public health emergency due to COVID19 and a national health human resource crisis that has critically impacted the health and social services system's ability to fill frontline positions. For the time period, Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority issued a total of 258 contracts valued at $64 million for goods and services. This amount includes costing of change orders as well.
Of the total number of contracts issued, 10 percent were under sole source criteria 1.8.2(a). The value of those contracts was $4.7 million, which is 10 percent of the total contracted spend for the time period. It is important to note that this includes change orders and contracts awarded under $25,000.
The average length of a contract awarded under the sole source criteria 1.8.2(a) is 7.3 months. Of the contracts awarded under the sole source criteria 1.8.2(a), 16 percent of those have had change orders issued. The average rate of increase of change orders for contracts awarded under criteria 1.8.2(a) is 114 percent.
This number is impacted by the high value of change orders related to two staffing services contracts, paramedic and agency nurse services. Without these two contracts included, the average rate of increase of change orders for contracts awarded under criteria 1.8.2(a) is 0.4 percent.
Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority complies with the GNWT procurement guidelines however, with the delivery of essential services, circumstances demand urgent responses that require use of criteria 1.8.2(a). It is not the intention of Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority to utilize sole source contracting as a regular practice. As set out in the policy criteria for sole source contracts, they are used in circumstances where there is an urgent need for the contract to avoid potential harm to the public, or there is only one contractor available and capable of performing the contract.
In the case of the two highvalue contracts referenced earlier in the response, Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority has taken steps towards public procurement, where the sole sourced contracts are being phased out through a transition period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
And, Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Written Question No. 6319(2) asked by the Member for Kam Lake on March 6th, 2023, regarding Use of Indigenous Languages on Official Documents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Early in 2019, the business transformation committee, an assistant deputy minister advisory committee reporting to the Informatics Policy Council, initiated work to establish a working group to address the 2015 recommendations of the Northwest Territories' Official Languages Commissioner. The working group was to support GNWT technical solutions that would allow for the use of Indigenous fonts and diacritics on GNWTissued identity documents.
A Terms of Reference for the Indigenous Fonts Working Group was drafted in 2020 but not finalized and, to date, no meeting of the working group has been held. In the intervening time since the initial thinking on this work, the GNWT now better understands the extent of the interoperability challenges beyond GNWT information systems as a barrier to progress in this area.
In 2017, amendments to the Vital Statistics Act removed the requirement for registration of a birth certificate to be in "roman alphabet". However, a birth certificate, as a 'foundation identity document', that incorporates an Indigenous diacritic will not be accepted by key systems that require a birth certificate such as Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada for documents like passports and social insurance numbers. Having a birth certificate not recognized nationally will impact NWT residents when they want to travel, open a bank account, or when accessing health services in jurisdictions outside of the NWT, as examples.
In 2017, a preliminary highlevel estimate determined that the changes to the Vital Statistics Act to introduce Indigenous fonts would affect 24 health and social services information systems to some degree and potentially 400 GNWT information systems. In 2019, it was estimated that it would cost $14 million to accommodate the inclusion of Indigenous characters in the health and social services information systems, if done as an activity separated from broader system replacements. There are no identified resources for this work. The subject of inclusion of Indigenous characters and diacritics has recently become a topic of federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers tables as more jurisdictions consider this work a commitment to reconciliation. Most recently, federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers' attended the symposium on digital trust and cyber security, which was attended by my colleague Minister Wawzonek. One of the actions items coming from this meeting was that Ministers and DM tables endorse the development of a panCanadian work plan on the priorities related to digital trust, credentials and cyber security and work on enabling Indigenous languages in identity records.
The GNWT, with our provincial and territorial colleagues, will continue to work with Canada towards enabling federal information systems to accept Indigenous diacritics in identity documents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
