Good afternoon, Members. Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Paul Stipdonk Memorial Soccer Tournament. It was the second time since the pandemic they cancelled the previous tournaments. As I stated previously in this House, this tournament is a bit unique in that they don't keep score, teams are mixed up, and we do not have winners or losers. The focus is on the youth having fun and playing the sport; something that the namesake was all about.
Besides playing the sport, the youth are given the opportunity to attend a skills competition event on Saturday. This year, we had athletes from Yellowknife, Fort Providence, and Fort Simpson. They were great sportsmen and ambassadors of their respective communities. It was amazing to see all those smiling faces and the fun that they had over the weekend. I am proud to say the Fort Simpson athletes were great hosts and really enjoyed the games as they made new friends from the region and the territories. I am proud to say that parents and families of the athletes, whether they were from the community or from out of town, did an amazing job cheering and encouraging the youth. It was awesome to see the stands and the small hall full of supporters.
A special shout goes to the Mackenzie Recreation Association, Municipal and Community Affairs, the village of Fort Simpson recreation staff who kept the facility nice and clean, and most importantly Kali Norn and Jackie Whelly who dedicated many hours organizing and making sure the event ran smoothly.
To the speed skating moms, thank you for catering the whole weekend.
I would like to thank the Fort Simpson high performance athletes, especially Amaria Tanche Hanna and Gina Hardisty, for being the coaches of the teams, helpers, and being great role models to the youth. It was great to see this capacity being built. I take great pride when I see younger athletes paying back to the sport.
In closing, I would like to say a big thank you to the Stipdonk family for letting us to honour their husband, dad, grandfather, and my friend in a way that brings so many smiles to the youth. Thank you.
Members' statements. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's with a heavy heart today that I announce that the late Vince Patrick Sharpe, aged 76, passed away peacefully on February 15, 2024, at Stanton Territorial Hospital here in Yellowknife.
Vince was born on February 10th, 1948, in Nova Scotia to Walter J. Sharpe and Margaret M. Sharpe. Vince is one of six siblings, with two brothers and four sisters.
Vince left Nova Scotia at the young age of 19 and was soon captivated by the lure of the North and moved to Inuvik in 1968, initially working for Slim Semmler and John Camaralie. In 1968, he took a position then as Transport Canada firefighter at the Inuvik airport and volunteer firefighter of the Inuvik volunteer fire department.
He met his first wife Mabel Keevik in 1971. Vince has three beautiful children Sheryl, Mike, and Harmony. And three wonderful grandsons, Brent, Colton, and Daniel.
He met and married his second wife Lena Allen, which then grew their family by two more children, Jimmy and Jenny Kalnik.
Vince went on to become a successful general contractor employing many local people for Inuvik and the surrounding areas.
On November 17th, 2007, Mr. Speaker, Vince was awarded the medal for bravery from the Governor General of Canada for rescuing two occupants from a burning structure in Inuvik.
Vince is predeceased by his father Walter Sharpe, Toronto, Ontario; his mother Margaret, Turo, Nova Scotia; and, brother David Sharpe, Gjoa Haven.
Mr. Speaker, Vince was one of the first people I met when I moved to Inuvik 30 years ago and we remained close friends since that time. Vince has always been an incredible advocate for our community that he so dearly loved. He served several years as a municipal councillor. He was a staunch supporter of the Inuvik fire department, any local protective services, and he supported and fundraised for community events such as the Muskrat Jamboree, the Firefighters Gala, the Children's First Centre, and many, many more, Mr. Speaker, that I could probably go on for an hour.
Vince's favourite place on the planet was at Ya Ya Lake where he spent many, many well, pretty much every weekend that he could out there in the summer hosting tourists, family, friends. As anybody who knows Vince, and I know some colleagues from the Beaufort Delta who are with me, and yourself, Vince lived life on his own terms always and was a true pillar for Inuvik and a legend for Inuvik, and he'll certainly be sorrily missed.
Mr. Speaker, I offer my condolences to his family and friends and funeral services will take place on Thursday, February 22nd, 2024, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Midnight Sun Complex, the Roy Sugloo Arena in Inuvik. Burial at the cemetery will take place following the ceremony.
Mr. Speaker, I will be absent from the House Thursday, February 22nd, and Friday, February 23rd, to attend the service with family and friends for Mr. Sharpe. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Our condolences go out to the family and friends of an amazing individual that I had the pleasure of knowing since 1988. So he will be sadly missed. So please pass on our condolences to the family and friends. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a question for the Minister of Housing. Can the Minister explain the process that the department follows when a mortgage client has fallen into arrears on their payment? Is the collection process different for people with a mortgage or people renting units? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister for Housing NWT.
Mr. Speaker, the process for collecting on a mortgage and rental arrears with Housing NWT is not different. It's the same institution, Housing NWT, same corporation. So the process is not different, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What supports are in place to assist elders as they deal with Housing NWT?
There's many supports in place, Mr. Speaker. We have tenant relations officers. We have district office. We have the local housing associations. And we also have government services officers in the communities. So we have many supports in place, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know this is long overdue, and I want to ask the Minister, will the Minister do the right thing and commit to doing a mortgage write off of its clients? It's been there since for over 20 years. Some of those are from early 1990s. So I just wanted to ask the Minister if she will do the right thing and do a mortgage write off because those are the people the people that we're talking about are 65 and over now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my heart of hearts, I wish I could write everybody off, but I can't. We're a housing corporation and we use this revenue to provide more housing throughout the Northwest Territories. But we look at individual cases every year. Housing NWT does look at individual cases, and we follow the Financial Administration Act. And if there is cases that the Member would like us to look at, we can look at those. We can review things but, again, we have to follow the law and our regulations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Member from Monfwi. Final supplementary.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if a client is referred to collection, a law firm represents Housing NWT. Housing NWT has a law firm to represent them, but the clients have no extra support to represent their interests. Can the Minister commit to a liaison person who can support Housing NWT clients in the collections process? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A very serious process and ensuring that clients have the proper legal support, that's something I can look into and then follow up with the Member on to make sure that the information is correct and proper. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Quebec has passed legislation to ban private health agencies in major centres by December of this year and throughout the province by the end of 2025. So my question is to the Minister of health, will she also ban the use of agencies in the Northwest Territories so we can restore integrity to our public health care system in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a conversation that I actually had with Minister Holland last week, is the effect of, you know, agency nurses on our health care system and this is a discussion that I will continue I will be raising at the national level because as currently right now in the Northwest Territories, we have seven agency nurses working. And so if I was to say we are out of the 400 and some staff positions, for me to say I'm banning agency nurses and the rest of Canada doesn't do that, you know, I hear what the Member is saying, but the Northwest Territories can't do it alone so we're going to need I'm going to need help from the rest of the territories and provinces to do something like this. And I'm glad to hear, you know, some of the work that's going on in the rest of the country because this is an issue. This is an issue on our health care system. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well I heard a no, but I appreciate the Minister's position. So can she explain why we're so reliant on agency on public or private agencies in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
I could let Minister of housing answer, but I don't know if he'll get the answer he wants. Sorry, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, you know, the North the NTHSSA uses agency nurses as a last resort. This is not something that we want to do but when it comes to closing beds, closing units, you know, we seen this happen two years ago when the obstetrics you know, that you know, and we raised it in this House. It was raised in this House that, you know, the costs of the twomonth closure and the impact on all of those families that had to travel due to the closure, you know, if we're talking about closing a unit versus hiring some nurses to ensure that people are not sitting down in Edmonton incurring us costs and away from their family for you know, sometimes they leave two weeks before and then they are there two weeks after their due date before they deliver. So, you know, there's many other things.
We also will use them in surgery, in the dialysis, in the operating room, post anesthetic, and most recently we ended up in an emergency situation where Inuvik Regional Hospital had to close down their birthing you know, members that were due had to fly out for that short period of time.
So these are specialty areas and so in order for us to keep those units going and less impact to the patients, that's where we use them. We don't want to use them but if we had the option to hire a term or something, we would. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad the Minister doesn't want to use them. So how much is it costing us? How much is it costing us a day and how much and over time, has it changed since COVID? That's my question. Are we paying more now than before the pandemic? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And keep it short, yes, we are paying more now before the pandemic because we didn't use them for 15 years before without the OBS unit closed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for the brief answer. Mr. Speaker, how is the authority the health authority communicating to our local workforce that these aren't temporary measures, these are not replacing them, and we value their work, and we want to pay them what they for the hard work they do for our communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I can do it short, but I can do it so I could give the answer. So currently the NTHSSA is finalizing its formal employee engagement strategy. This is a draft strategy that's been distributed to all the staff members for their input, and they are actively seeking feedback. So executiveled council meetings provide a platform for discussion and feedback gathering, to communicate effectively with staff, the NTHSSA uses various channels, including daily staff emails, monthly coffee breaks, COO communication with staff monthly through their own newsletter, regular staff tailgate. You know, and I know that this area is hard because they work 12 hours a day, 24 or 12hour shifts 24 hours a day and sometimes they're not able to always get the information. So if there's ways that and I mentioned it yesterday to better this communication, you know, please feel free to bring those discussions to me. Thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to have questions for the Minister of health as well, and as a matter of fact I have doctor questions but I was just realizing I have nursing agency questions, so I'm going to build on my colleague's questions here, Mr. Speaker.
What has the department done to reengineer the nursing agency problem because this is an attack on the health system as pointed out by my good colleague. And even the Premier of Manitoba has defined it as a crisis and attack on the health system. So in other words, to the question, Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to reengineer the nursing agency problem and fixing it here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like I said in my previous statement is that we haven't used agency nurses preCOVID for at least 15 years, and so this is something that has come because of the health care crisis post like, post the pandemic. And so right now what we're doing is strategically within the NTHSSA and within the department is, you know, we're identifying where there's high needs and, you know, and I think the plan like, the work that's going on right now is to try and home grow like, some of the nurses that are employed by our department in these specialty areas. So that is one way that we can try and eliminate using the use of agency nurses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've recently talked to some nurses let me try it again. Agency nurses; there we go. So I'm not sure, there's six, there's ten, there's a hundred; I have no idea. How does the Minister know that there's this minimum, or maximum as she's trying to describe as six or seven, and where are they? I'm trying to because if she says the numbers are so low, it should be easy to explain where they are. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reason that I know this number because it was asked of me, and so I asked the department, where are these nurses and how many do we actually have right now working, and there was seven and they're in obstetrics. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well yeah, I'll start with that. That's a good point. Seven too many, of course. And I spoke to one who was a former nurse in the Northwest Territories, and she told me it's way more lucrative to quit her job and move south to become an agency nurse. Mr. Speaker, as I said, what is the department doing to reengineer the nursing agency problem and to define this; what is the issue that seems to be blocking the problem that the department doesn't seem to understand? Why are nurses quitting to become agency nurses to come back home to the Northwest Territories and work?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure how many nurses have left the health care system to become agency nurses or to become term nurses because they want to go be closer to their family. There are different reasons for it, Mr. Speaker. Myself who worked as a alongside agency nurses at the beginning of my nursing career, there wasn't an option for me to pack up and go live some other territory because I was from here. So, you know, I think that's you know, when I hear the Member saying that it's more lucrative, well, you know, we have, you know, a different group of individuals that are coming out of nursing school and they're not settling down, wanting to live in this one certain area. Some of the nurses that I've like had spoken to throughout my career say they're fine with just travel because it gets them around the country and because it's the nature of the health care system right now. They're able to go and people are paying for them to fly around the country. They're seeing the world. They're taking off the time when they need to. Right now, the Northwest Territories is doing what they can do to work with the staff to try to promote. I think I've read off a list of things that we're doing that we can do. You know, our salaries are equivalent to the rest of Canada. There's and I'll I'll leave it there, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate your eye on the clock because, my goodness, we'd be through question period before we got to all the Members based on some of these answers.
She said we're doing whatever we can. You're paying the agencies too much. It's that simple. That simple. Mr. Speaker, money is the problem and the Minister says well, you know, I don't know but the reality is people leaving here because they know they get paid more coming back here. It's not about family.
So, Mr. Speaker, my question specifically to the Minister is is she willing to table publicly a wage comparison package of what our local nurses are paid versus what the agencies are paying their staff just to come back to the Northwest Territories and work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be able to table what our nurses are making but I can only table what we pay the agency because they don't disclose to us what they pay their staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the department of education. Is the department looking at eliminating the practice of socially promoting our students of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while the department doesn't practice social passing as a policy so to speak, it does endorse peer group placement for students in the Northwest Territories. This is researchedbased education practice, and it's used in many jurisdictions across Canada and worldwide. What I want to add here, though, is that peer group placements do not prevent parents, students, teachers, and also even the education system as a whole, from holding appropriate expectations for students to continue growing in our territory. And I think it's really important that amendments that were made to the Education Act ensure that parents are notified when students are working below grade level and are placed on a modified education plan. So it's really important that parents know what's happening with students and have the ability to step in if they want to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The industrial arts and home economic courses were very popular in high school. It gave the students something positive to look forward to. Can the department look at bringing these courses back into the school curriculum to start the process of building the selfesteem of our students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Northwest Territories we currently have so schools have access to arts and trades programming through career and technology study courses. As we transition to a BC curriculum, these will then be known as applied design and skilled technology courses. So just a name change there. And these, within the BC curriculum, are known as experiential handson programming, learning through design and creation, and really is able to pull on skills and concepts from traditional and Indigenous practices as well. But what it comes down to is the capacity of the schools and the interest of students as well to be able to offer this type of programming. But I want to say I'm very happy that we're having this conversation on the floor of the House today. Thank you.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. Mr. Speaker, with the past success of these trade programs being in the school of the 1980s give the students the opportunity to get involved in a certain trade when they weren't academically ready to go to postsecondary institutions. So will the department commit to exploring these similar options to eliminate the social promoting of our students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to the peer group placement, I want to start there. And what is really crucial about that and what determines if, you know, a student well, what it calls on is that a student stays with their age group because studies have shown that has a huge benefit to students. And what's really important there is when students stay with their grade level, that when they go up to the next grade that they are given an education plan that outlines the student needs and how those will be met in the next grade level to ensure that we are still meeting students where they're at and providing them with the supports they need. So what I want to say there is that is a crucial, crucial part of this being effective. But when I said before that I'm really happy we're having this conversation on the floor of the House, I absolutely agree with the Member that we need to get more students and more Northerners interested in different vocational training and what opportunities might be out there for them and how they can take advantage of those. And so while it depends on what the capacity of a school is, there are also other programs in communities that exist and what I really want to highlight here for the Member and all Members is the SNAP program. And if we go back to 2016, the SNAP program had no students across the territory in it. Today, there are 37 students in the territory in the SNAP program. And I would love to be able to work with every Member here to over the course of this term see SNAP students in all of our communities. So I look forward to maintaining that relationship with our colleagues. Thank you.
