Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, in addition to the dollars I've just said, the million dollars a year are what Aurora College is currently getting. And then in addition to that, they do have their operational funding dollars that they're able to redirect towards that as well, which is the dollars that they would normally use for the Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Social Work program that are currently not running. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister's talking about all of these, this and that, but the reality is the college itself says it's not being funded specifically for the transition. We can talk about the programming all we want but, that said, the transition policy going from the college to the polytech. Mr. Speaker, they're funding this out of their surplus. They have the staff doing this project and initiative, and the board is completely going ahead without the support of the department. So what is the department not understanding versus what the college is doing to make it into a polytech? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's other programs within the government that I think would really welcome a million dollars a year in order to run a transformation and to run a program. So currently, the Government of the Northwest Territories is giving $1.04 million to Aurora College. At this point, I have not had communication from the board of governors as to a requirement for additional dollars, but if they do provide me with that request, I would definitely sit down and talk to them about it.
The other piece of this is when you are at arm's length and you are working your way into a polytechnic, one of the exciting things is it really opens your doors as to where you can get some of that funding. And a lot of institutions across Canada source third party funding in order to bring in extra dollars to be able to do more and bring in extra students to be able to do more. So I think it's a really exciting time for the polytechnic and for Aurora College and through this transformation and that there's a lot of opportunity that sits before them. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the Minister to actually pick up the phone or send an email to the college because they have a completely different view of how the transition is being supported.
Mr. Speaker, I guess maybe the only question, really, left of the day is will the Minister make that commitment to follow through so we can actually get a formalized commitment from this government in conjunction with the college that this is actually happening rather than these grandiose statements that aren't producing anything. So ultimately, will the Minister do that? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to say I have a very good working relationship with the board of governors' chair. I speak with him approximately twice a week. I spoke with him as well or I received an email from him last night. I spoke with him last night again, carrying on with that twice a week timeline as well and following the meeting with SCEDE, or with the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, actually reached out and said this. And if there's something that you are looking for, I encourage you to put it in a letter from the board of governors and to send it over to me because I really want to maintain that positive working relationship, and I want to see this project through. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm excited that Health and Social Services and NTHSSA want to support birth work in our smaller communities. However, I understand that to build capacity in those smaller communities, work needs to be accomplished in the capital to sustainability grow midwifery capacity throughout the territory. Yellowknifers also need access to midwifery. So can the Minister please explain to me why this program is effectively proposed to be shut down? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Members, I will allow the question but, folks, you got to remember that anticipating a matter that's on the orders today of consideration of this sitting. So budget is in the committee. So if you can maybe reword the question so that it's not about a budget, we're not negotiating on the floor, that would be greatly appreciated. Member from Great Slave.
So I guess my question is the proposed budget is saying that positions will be cut, and I'm wondering why that might be.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to clarify. The expansion of the midwifery service into Yellowknife has been proposed. Existing midwifery service in Fort Smith and Hay River are not affected. The health and social services system proposed this into Yellowknife but there has been years of recruitment and retention challenges in the Yellowknife midwifery area. Despite years of dedicated efforts, you know, advocacy, that we just there's just been a continuation of this. But I just want to make sure that, you know, the Members know, and the public know, in addition to this it's important to remember that the expansion of the midwifery service into Yellowknife is an enhancement to the existing birthing options that already exist. And, you know, I I'm here, I've travelled, you know, to Fort Resolution on the weekend and, you know, and I hear from the community members in the small community that they don't even have basic services. You know, so when we're talking about doing the work that we are doing in this House, we're trying to make sure that we're not duplicating service. And I understand, and I fully am behind Indigenous you know, the work with Indigenous midwifery, but what's going on right now, this is a decision that's, you know, put before us, and I'm continuing to put the efforts in to making sure that the midwifery program in Fort Smith and in Hay River is supported and we can get those programs so they're not shutting down. We just announced that Fort Smith being just opened again after being shut down. So this is very important that we can get these two communities functioning properly before we can even consider expanding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services.
Colleagues, the main estimates are on the order paper for later today in Committee of the Whole. As per the guidelines for oral questions in Rules 1.7 is that 1 or d d.7(6), the question must not anticipate a matter visited on order paper consideration at sitting. You will have the opportunity to ask those type of questions during budget during Committee of the Whole. I apologize to the Minister and to the Member. So Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not want to break any rules, so I suppose I don't have any further questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. And I apologize, I should have called that at the beginning there.
Oral questions. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on May 5th, 2023, the MACA Minister wrote to the Worship Mayor of Fort Resolution, Patrick Simon, citing the Hamlet Act for failing to meet their obligations, so they pulled the trigger to take over third party management of Fort Resolution. But at the same time, it's been a year, and MACA, they're still not taking responsibility of Fort Resolution with following their own rules and procedures, so that's concerning.
Mr. Speaker, MACA has been responsible for governing Fort Resolution for a year but still has not implemented an emergency plan nor have the proper support of the community emergency services. Another fire this weekend burned down several housing units. Mr. Speaker, we just don't want to have a repeat of what happened in Enterprise.
So my question to the Minister Vince McKay is will MACA work with Housing NWT to rebuild the homes lost in Fort Resolution this past weekend? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member from Tu NedheWiilideh. Minister of MACA.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are well aware of the situation that happened in Fort Resolution this weekend. During the whole event, Cabinet was made aware of the situation and communication was constantly ongoing to ensure the safety of the residents of Fort Resolution.
To the question, MACA has engaged with housing, and they're leading the work in respect to the homes that have been lost in Fort Resolution. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. What are MACA's plans to deal with the nearby wildfire if it begins to move toward the community of Fort Resolution as there are no emergency plans in place? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Wildfires are the responsibility of ECC. When it comes into the community, the Department of MACA will be involved. Even prior to it coming to the community, the Department of MACA will be involved. We will have staff, a regional EMO, local EMO, involved during that time to prepare of any potential emergency. That being said, the emergency plan has been continually being worked on. It's been involved in the community to or it's been communicated to the community for involvement from NGOs and other agencies. And the draft plan is expected to be completed by middle to end of or early June, sorry. And once completed, it will be available publicly to all residents of Fort Resolution. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. As you know, I mentioned that water intake lines in Fort Resolution has been a problem for last year, and as the water is receding. And the fire over the weekend just added to the problem because the fire was drawing so much water, the water intake lines couldn't keep up with the demand. And so is the Minister going to address this issue so that whether we move the lines out further just so that we could keep up with the demand? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The water plant was operating as designed. 60,000 liters is required for fire flow, and Fort Resolution has 129,000 liters capacity. The fire took an exceptional amount of water. Because of that, the Department of Infrastructure was notified, and a water tanker truck was brought in from Hay River to support the fire fight efforts. Also, we are going to work with the community to look at doing a fire flow bypass in the water intake for the community in the case of need of emergency, but also we are looking at other options for getting water off the lake in case of an emergency. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my next question is that we had a firefighter that had injuries, broke his hip, and the other one has problems breathing. Does MACA have anything in place or the Hamlet ofFort Resolution right now to look at how we could cover some of these injuries and his loss of work, etcetera? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are aware of the injury during the fire fight. That being said, the hamlet is reviewing the insurance coverage with the insurance provider for the incident, and MACA's also going to be working with the administrator to assist in the confirmation of the insurance policies for the fire department. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in February of this year, my friend, the Minister of Health and Social Services, had mentioned that she was going to raise the issue of agency nursing at the national level, in particular with the Minister the federal Minister of Health. So can she report back on what efforts she's made? I note that other provinces have now committed to banning or severely reducing the use of agency nurses. Where are we at? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was able to meet with the Minister of Health. I attended the meeting, alongside two members from the Council of Leaders. We discussed the issues that related to the Northwest Territories. Agency nurse was one of them. This is a discussion that is continuing at the federal level, and there is a Ministers' meeting that will be happening I think in the fall time and that is, again, on that agenda. But I would just like to make also aware that right now in the Northwest Territories, we do only have five agency nurses, which are working in obstetrics right now, to make sure that we can still provide those services in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it costs the government $4.4 million last year in private agency nurses. That's equivalent to 31 positions. So I'm not sure if it's seven agency nurses to 31 public nurses, but that's a staggering ratio and the amount of money we're spending on these. So we need to put a stop to it. We need to wean ourselves off this addiction to private agency nurses. They're not working for our staff. They're not working for Northerners. I appreciate we want to keep the lights on in obstetrics, but there must be other solutions.
So can the Minister bring forward a plan working with the authority on staffing OBS without the use of private agency nurses, and can she bring it forward tomorrow? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yes, I can say that we are changing the staffing model in obstetrics, which is being done to support the obstetric nurses as per some of the concerns that have been brought up over the years. And, Mr. Speaker, you know, when we talk about the cost that agency nurses have cost, the cost that it cost the government for closing down the obstetric unit for two months was $1 million. So if we were to close it down, that's 700 births in the Northwest Territories annually in the obstetrics unit in Yellowknife, those people would have to travel. Two months it cost us a million. So a year, and putting those families, displacing those families, if we don't come up with you know, if we can't staff it, that is a priority too. You know, we have to look at all different sides of it. And that's my job to be able to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we hired 84 nurses frontline nurses last year and of those 84, 69 left. Recruitment's become a revolving door. We must have a solution. We must staff these wards. So OBS worked just fine until it stopped working. What was working at OBS that's not working now; can the Minister tell us. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like I said in the House before, we haven't used agency nurses. We've been able to recruit, retain. You know, the salary of nurses hasn't changed. And so the other territories and provinces are starting to compete better. There's lots of different things that are in place that is challenging us to recruit. COVID, many people left the health care field. That is the biggest impact on our health care system. And we're still trying to recover from that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just for if my arithmetic's right, that's 15 net frontline positions that we were able to recruit from last year. And I think that's a shame. We need to do something. I'm going to propose, again, that the Minister work on phasing out agency nurses within a period of time, so let's throw a date out there. Will the Minister agree to phase out agency nurses by the end of 2026? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will not commit to anything that would impact our patients' health. And so if there are ways to get around this that we can increase our staffing and our workflow and maybe the changes that we're making in obstetrics right now will help to better. But it's not just obstetrics, you know. There's other areas in our small communities that we are struggling to get health CHNs, so community health nurses. Those health centres shut down, it's going to impact those communities greatly. You know, so there's so many things that we need to look at before we just discontinue the use of agency nurses. I'd rather not use them. I'd rather not use them. I'd rather use that money to keep it in the territory. And, you know, if there's more nurses that want to train in obstetrics or in community health nurses, you know, that's something that we're trying to develop. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my statement I spoke about MTS and the need to think outside the box with some suggestions. One of those suggestions, Mr. Speaker, was looking at moving all or part of the operation further north to Inuvik or Tuktoyaktuk, and I know the department is currently doing a review. Can I ask the Minister of Infrastructure if part of that review will look at relocating some of MTS to the north? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the review itself at this point, which is quite close to being completed, doesn't consider, to my knowledge, whether or not to split the operations up, but really, rather, to look at what the different types of models there might be for the operations as a whole. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, I reiterate, I think that should be a part of what this government's going to do with MTS.
Can I also ask the Minister as part of the review process as well, has the department engaged with Indigenous governments on how MTS is affecting everyone in the region? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the process of the review did send out an invitation, I believe at the end of last year, to communities who rely on MTS so that they had the opportunity to participate. I don't have details in front of me confirming which communities did or did not. I know that some did, but I don't know that all responded to that inquiry to participate. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we're not committing to moving it to a location that would make absolute better sense. We're not sure what the Indigenous governments are saying about this. So, Mr. Speaker, maybe it's time we look at privatizing, look at Indigenous governments or private partnerships to sell this business and have someone run it outside of government. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister of Infrastructure comment on consideration for privatizing MTS?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly one of the questions that is part of this review, is what kinds of different governance models we might have for MTS. Not that long ago, MTS was privately owned, and it went into receivership. And when it went into receivership, all of the communities that depend on the resupply were put at risk and at that point is when the government decided to step in. From that point forward, I'm not sure it has ever turned a profit. So if somebody out there wants to take it off our hands, that might be very good news. My concern becomes resupply, to ensure that we as a government are not leaving small communities in a situation where they can't rely on a situation for resupply. So, again, that is part of the review. Different governance models, Crown corporation, privatizing, maybe those doing the review, which hasn't reached my desk yet I think it's due only just next month maybe they've got those creative solutions that my colleagues across the floor are looking for. And I'd certainly look forward to that opportunity to discuss it with them as soon as we have those options before us. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
