Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on August 8, 2023, the Government of the Northwest Territories announced improvements to income assistance program for seniors with disability. The GNWT provides benefits aligned with the Northern Market Basket Measure. So I just want to ask the Minister how does income assistance recognize the higher cost of living for families with more than two children? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciated the Member referencing the press release from August. Unfortunately, the Education, Culture and Employment Income Assistance Program, which was slated to be brought into force before we began the 20th Assembly, has unfortunately not been brought into force yet and so those changes have not yet occurred. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What supports are provided to assist people with disabilities to complete the application to income assistance? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECE employs what's called client navigators, and the client navigators work for income assistance and are responsible for providing that support to income assistance clients. And I can say that Behchoko does have a client navigator that is available to residents and to provide them with support to complete forms and let them know what forms might be missing or what else is required. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For applicants that are denied support, can the Minister explain the appeal process? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, clients who are denied would be able to work with their client navigator to be able to access the appeal process and would be able to access that right away. It is recommended that they do that immediately once they find out that they are denied. Sometimes it's something as simple as paperwork is missing from the client and the client navigator, again, can take residents through what information is missing and how they can rectify that together. And if that doesn't work out, they can go through the appeals process.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister commit to reviewing the rejections from income assistance for seniors with disabilities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I would say to that one is because there might be, you know, some things that I don't know about in my role here as Minister, I don't have eyes on to all the applications that do come through income assistance, but as always if there is an issue with any file with any income assistance client, I do recommend that they speak to their client navigator. If that doesn't work, of course I do receive emails from Members on a regular basis letting me know what has gone wrong or what support someone needs. And so absolutely, speak to either your client navigator or your MLA and we can look into it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of health. What is the Minister doing to engage local people to support healthy living outcomes that are healthy living outcomes in the community? Thank you.
Member from the Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I mean, I can we have health centres. We have staff within those health centres. We have community health representatives in the communities. There are we provide information. We work with in collaboration with Indigenous governments. You know, there's wellness departments in some communities. You know, there's mental health and addictions programs in all of the communities. I'm not clear on what the Member is asking. So I mean, if there's more detail that the Member can provide for me as to which areas that she's looking into, I'd be willing to provide that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm looking for information on how mental wellness, mental wellness healthy outcomes. Like, support for people. And, that's okay.
Will the Minister commit to working with communities to support homegrown solutions for mental wellness outcomes, healthy mental wellness outcomes? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I just mentioned it. I mentioned it in this House. I mentioned it before I got here. I think one of the things that in order for us to be able to tackle the mental health issues that we all have stressed in this House is collaboration with our communities, collaboration with our Indigenous governments, collaboration with NGOs. You know, and I think that, for myself the direction has gone to the department. That is what the department is doing, and I'm committing here that we'll continue to do that work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member from the Deh Cho.
Member from Yellowknife Centre.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm excited to ask some questions regarding extended health benefits to the Minister of Health and Social Services just in case she's hoping someone else will take them.
Mr. Speaker, we all know the current Minister sat on the social development committee for four years, Mr. Speaker. And I have no doubt she was a robust Member talking about policy and whatnot and how it affected Northerners. Mr. Speaker, the last Assembly shared its consultation regarding extended health benefits with committee and given the fact that over 700 people of the public wrote in and gave valuable input through the public engagement. So out of the 700 people or more who wrote in or expressed their points of view, how many of them suggested we should reduce health benefits to Northerners? Thank you.
Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the Member for being able to have this conversation. And I was. I was a Member of the Standing Committee on Social Development, and we did make we did have lots of consultations on this. And what we we did reduce the costs. Like, with the changes that we've put in place, there are members of the residents of the Northwest Territories that had no access to any benefits will now be able to fall under the extended health benefits policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, it's the opposite. The people wanted the expansion of the program, not reduction of the program. So therein lies the question, Mr. Speaker. How does the Minister of health explain such an aggressive policy that takes away coverage and forces Northerners to become copays in their own health care? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the extended health benefits policy addresses gaps in some of the NWT residents. Like I mentioned that they did not have services. It's not taking away any benefits from anybody. The policy before, you had to fall under a specific disease. Senior benefits haven't changed. Extended NIHB, like, they all have their own programs. So this is just actually giving access to health care benefits for those residents who never had access before. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I go back to the similar question not the same question because that's against the rules, but I go back to a similar question because the Minister doesn't seem to want to answer the question. She's doing this but literally moving something with the other hand.
Mr. Speaker, how does the Minister explain such a policy that takes away opportunities from Northerners by making them copay? Did anyone say deny coverage from those who weren't covered?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before, this is not taking away benefits from anybody who was previously covered. In the previous policy, it was outdated and there were it was put in place where specific diseases and you had to have a specific disease to fall to be able to qualify for the program. Within that program, there was no like, it just it was a blanket so we didn't you know, and so this time what it's doing is people who are applying are going to be you know, if they make above the threshold, there's and that was part of the standing committee, that there's a sliding scale above the income threshold based on cost of living within the territories. That was a recommendation from the standing committee. That's being put into place in this policy.
Mr. Speaker, as for the four you know, for the prescription cost, that is if the person is making over, they're going to you know, if depending on how much their monthly costs for their medication is, then they may have to go at 4 percent. But if you're like, and the questions that I've asked even when we were doing this, and this was part of standing committee, if I'm we know that we may have adult children who live at home because affordability, and a household with parents, maybe they don't qualify for any benefits. It's not the people that they live with is not going to impact their threshold. So if they're going to school and they need access to health care and they don't fall within any of those other programs, they will be able to apply and qualify whereas before they wouldn't have had any access to dental service, any access to any pharmaceuticals, any access to supplies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister for Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Goodness, that was the longest response, Mr. Speaker. But thank you for the detail, and I'm sure Northerners appreciate it.
Mr. Speaker, my last question is this: When consultation went out and asked people their thoughts on the health benefits, Mr. Speaker, it did not present a policy change. So people didn't know, I guess, in some ways what they were agreeing with or knowing what they were going to get. Mr. Speaker, therein lies part of the problem and there is the question, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister be willing to send the policy to the social development committee so they can have a look at it? Because we're about expanding benefits, not taking them away or making people pay because it just doesn't work, and it's not fair. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will not hold up this policy any longer. The changes will be implemented on September 1st. You know, we will be monitoring the program and, you know, if there are people that are impacted, you know, with the changes that are made, I would suggest them come back. You know, there is appeal process going to be you know, within it and so that's you know, we can look at each case by case once the program rolls out September 1st. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, mining is fundamental, and I want to ask the Minister of Infrastructure how we are changing our policy environment to better support the mining sector and get exploration back on track. Can the Minister give an update on the Taltson project as it is crucial to providing cheap, affordable, clean power to the Slave Geological Province. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister for Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to talk about the Taltson project. So the Taltson project is being developed by way of a steering committee that involves the GNWT as well as Indigenous governments who are traditional landholders in the watershed region. Steering committee has to meet and have the first does need to make a decision about the potential routing. With that decision, then we can move to finalizing a business case but that is the next decision that needs to be made. I certainly have been asking as to when that steering committee will be happening. I understand that that should be there should be the next steering committee in the month of March, and then that should allow us to proceed forward. Once we have that, we can also be making our applications for permitting and obviously that is a critical next step. But getting that decision on routing is the next part. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister. Can the Minister update the standing committee after that meeting has been completed and any updates around routing or any other decisions that have been made? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be very happy to come to standing committee as soon as that decision is made. With that we can also bring forward to them an update on the business case as that will assist in determining what that business case should be once we, of course, know the routing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course there's other forms of clean energy but often they aren't good enough for the Northwest Territories given our high need for quality energy. Is nuclear on the table and has I'll just ask the Minister that. Is nuclear energy on the table? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think that's an excellent question for this House. It certainly traditionally hasn't been something that's been widely considered or widely discussed in the Northwest Territories. But the reality is we have over 20 different energy grids scattered across the territories. We're not linked into the North American energy infrastructure. And it may well be that the future of nuclear, as it's proving to develop and if it's proving to be safe, could well be a direction that the Northwest Territories wishes to go, that communities want to go. And so that certainly is a conversation that should be had publicly and should be had with regions and Indigenous governments and community governments. Thank you.
Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a number of pilot projects for small modular reactors taking place in the southern provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta in particular. Can the Minister commit to monitor the outcomes of those projects and report back to the House or to the standing committee? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd be more than happy to report back. I can say certainly beginning in the last government, I had an opportunity to have some Saskatchewan Research Council folks meet with members of our government, senior officials. I'd like to follow up on that work myself. I do know the GNWT is a part of a federal, provincial, territorial SMI working group that's led by Enercan or Natural Resources Canada. So we do have our finger on the pulse of what's happening but, again, a bit of pressure never hurts to be making sure that we are at the forefront of those conversations as they may be relevant to a future here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to go back to the first questions for Minister of ECE. I sent her an email earlier today so hopefully from there will consider changing a policy. But I don't feel like she answered the questions so I'm going to ask her the same questions but differently.
Mr. Speaker, what if a family has double or more the number of children than calculated in the Northern Market Basket Measure? How does the Minister consider the cost for more children in the family than are measured under the Northern Market Basket Measure? Thank you.
Member from Monfwi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I always like to do my best to answer questions, but I simply don't have the level of detail about how particular dollars are calculated for each family and how their children are calculated in that. I'd be really happy to get that information from the department and to be able to share that with the Member. So if the Member is willing to either do a written question in the House so that that can be shared widely or, if the Member would prefer, I can correspond by email in regards to the finer details of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will do that.
Please do the questions, folks. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up with a couple more questions to the Minister of housing. Just moving forward, though, before 2038 what are the Housing NWT's plans for their public housing assets and public housing debts? Thank you.
