Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, how is the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs proposing to deal with the lack of capacities communities have to deal with the increasing number of emergencies within their boundaries? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So with the capacity issues within communities, the department is working with local governments to establish what more resources are needed, and if there's an opportunity for a local government to or if there's a need for a local government for more resources, then MACA will step in and ask for more assistance or get more resources and tier it up to the point where we may need to call out to other communities or other businesses to assist with capacity issues. But for the most part, it's up to the communities to realize what their capacities are and what needs they might have, and the department's always there to assist them in building these plans for preparedness. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm happy to hear that MACA is there to kind of help communities identified. But in the interim, we're in a situation where there is a bit of a gap. So, Mr. Speaker, how is MACA coordinating with communities for the current fire season and ensuring existing gaps, particularly related to hosting evacuees, are addressed in the shortterm while we work on these longer term solutions?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not aware of any gaps in hosting. And if there is any, the local communities need to reach out to the department to work on these gaps that the Member's bringing forward. During his Member's statement, I have access to the documents, obviously, but I went online to make sure it was on there. I word searched on the document, and I searched up something for an example, like, reimbursement costs, which took me right to the page, annex A, section 8, where it talks about full reimbursement costs. So if a local government is unsure, they could go to the emergency plan, they could resource and look at all the information that's required, and reach out to the department to clarify what help could be more used from the department to assist in, for an example, hosting. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for the answer. So I think the Minister's touched upon something important there, and that is that the communities currently the way the plan is written, communities can come for reimbursement but, Mr. Speaker, this doesn't get at the issue of the costs of capacity building for communities to respond to these emergencies. So communities are in a position right now where they are taking on responsibility that I don't think was completely clear that they needed to take on. I think that that was very clear during the wildfire season last year that the gap is what we saw last season.
So, Mr. Speaker, is MACA doing anything to address the gap? That's what I'm speaking to right now, and that is the capacity of these communities to build up this capacity to respond as the plan is articulated, because it's assuming the capacity is there. I would argue that right now it's not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess if the Member says there's a gap, and I'm not sure of it, I don't see or hear the gaps. I only see and hear of the lack of communication and the lack of responsibility from the department but, at the same time, I'm told by my department that they're working with community governments to make sure that these avenues are all filled up and everything's being communicated clearly. So I would hope there's no gaps and, if there is, I hope the communities reach out to the department to clarify where the issues are and how the department can assist to clarify these or clean up these gaps. I do hear what the Member is saying, and coming from a community where we've done local evacuation I shouldn't say local evacuations isolated evacuations within a community, for an example evacuating an island, Vale Island to the main town, which is what we call New Town in Hay River. We've always set up a reception centre. The Town of Hay River's never gone to the or has never gone to the department for or to the territorial government for fullblown assistance other than the local government assistance. So in small, little areas like that, they're always working on bettering the problems they find out from every evacuation and setting up those little processes with, like, evacuation centres. So that's where you start seeing the little gaps that you might be talking about but at the same time, Mr. Speaker, the department's there to assist, and the government's there to assist with filling in these gaps if they're aware of them. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I think that my last question I'd like to say let's imagine a scenario where a community comes to MACA this summer and says, we don't have the capacity to host other communities, but other communities' local EMOs are saying they're going to be evacuating to that community. So how is MACA going to manage that situation if a community is telling them we don't have the capacity to host?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would hope no community would turn away any other community for assisting them in an evacuation. And I would hope that, you know, a local community would reach out to the department in assistance in hosting evacuation or hosting another community. But that being said, I know other communities have reached out to other you know, between communities, reached out to each other to assess and set up evacuation centres based on their evacuation plans, which has no involvement of the departments, especially MACA. They've done that on their own. But there is that assistance from the department if need be. So I hear what the Member is saying, but at the same time I don't think there should be that neglect or I know you want to call it neglect, but the wanting to refuse another community to evacuate to your area. I would hope that the communities would be willing to assist other communities in the territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister for Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Deh Cho.
Question 199-20(1):
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the importance of providing sufficient health promotion within the schools across the NWT. Recently, the GNWT began using the education curriculum from British Columbia. So I would like to ask the Minister of ECE if there have been any major changes with regards to health promotion in our schools since changing the curriculum? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Deh Cho. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll start by saying that the BC curriculum has not been fully implemented into every grade and every classroom across the territory. That said, the NWT adapted curriculum of the BC curriculum covers a broad range of health promotion topics, and these include things like balanced lifestyles, understanding personal choices, as well as social and environmental factors, healthy relationships, and managing mental health and emotional and social wellbeing.
In addition to the BC curriculum, Mr. Speaker, we also have our child and youth counselling program, which is our schoolbased mental health and wellness program in our schools across the Northwest Territories. And with the change that was recently done that started in this school year, there was the addition of that promotion and prevention piece within our schools, and it provides all of our schools and our school boards the autonomy to design programs that work for what they need to respond to in each of their region to make sure programs are specific to the challenges those students are having. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for that response. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me if the youth counsellor position has been filled in Fort Providence today? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is an interesting one where when we breakdown silos and do things a little bit more together as departments, we end up sharing questions on the floor of the House as well, which I know can be challenging for everybody. So the clinical counsellors that are found within communities and within schools are fall under the mandate of the Minister of Health and Social Services, but I don't want the Member to waste her question either so I can confirm that while this position was filled in Fort Providence, it has become vacant and for any further questions on hiring, that would need to go to the Minister of health. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for that response. I will get back to Minister of health later on.
The next question is can the Minister tell me if there are any health promotion campaigns currently taking place in our schools, such as the Drop The Pop campaign or Don't Be a Butt Head. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So the Don't Be a Butt Head campaign as well as the Drop The Pop campaigns are both campaigns that are put together and administered by the Department of Health and Social Services. They have a few health promotion campaigns that are on the go right now not the Minister of health, though, but they do have programs for tobacco cessation. Healthy eating, that is something that also carries through into our schools, and MACA supplies funding for after school snacks and after school programs. So a bit of some kind of cross departmental things going on. We have some or sorry, health and social services has some staying active campaigns, sexual health campaigns, and substance use education. I would highly recommend that people use some of the material that is on the health website under health promotion. Under sexual health, before COVID hit, the CPHO declared a syphilis outbreak. That has not gone away. I encourage people to go out and get tested. And also for the cannabis and substance use, there are also tools for educators, parents, and for youth as well that are found on the website. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. No?
Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. First, what is the Minister's response to the NWT Medical Association's recommendation to expand the Family Medicine Residency Program from two to four residents per year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I recognize the importance of the family residency program. And this program began it was launched in 2020 and it provides a way to train and retain potential candidates for permanent family medicine positions in the NWT. Four residents have now graduated from this program. Two newest residents started on July 1st, 2023. However, I do agree with this program and, you know, but when we were taking in account as to ensuring the number of residents that we can support and provide expanding their scope in our facilities, we have to make sure that we can provide that to each of the residency. So I'll leave it at that. I'll let her finish asking questions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So given that this recommendation is coming from the NWT Medical Association, which is made up of physicians operating here in the NWT, who would have an intimate knowledge of their capacity to, you know, supervise and train medical residents, does the Minister believe that it could be realistic to aim for an expansion of this program by the last year of this Assembly, 2027? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to commit to that on the floor today as I'm unable to be able to confirm whether we could meet that funding and clinical training requirements as I mentioned in my previous comments. But I'm committed to continue to work with what we can do to expand this program, and if there's ways that we can find other funding to fund this, if we can support it within our system, then I'm always willing to commit to continuing that work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that, and one positive aspect is that the program is partly funded by the University of Alberta and other partners, so I look forward to the Minister's analysis on that.
One final question here, does the Minister see any opportunities to transfer lessons learned and the successes from the Family Medicine Residency Program to offer additional on the job training and residency opportunities within our health care system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I and I really want to I appreciate the Member for bringing this forward in a positive way because this is a good thing for the Northwest Territories. But I would also like to recognize this is just one program. There are a number of areas that we have been doing increasing health practitioners as well. So educating registered nurses in the Northwest Territories for over 20 years, we've been graduating nurses, licensed practical nurses, personal support workers, ophthalmology technologists. And we hope to again soon to be able to bring back social work, educating social workers in the system. But I believe there's an opportunity to continue to grow our ability as to educate health and social services professionals in the Northwest Territories, and I continue to be working with my colleague to ensure that, you know, we can continue to support these things, because these are ideal for the Northwest Territories. You know, when we work together to be able to train people in the Northwest Territories, we're more likely to keep them in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I will do my best to not break your rules today, but I'm going to go back to what I was asking the Minister of Health and Social Services yesterday.
My first question is whether or not the Department of Health and Social Services has asked Indigenous midwives about what would support the growth of midwifery in the territory, specifically in our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the I guess, with the midwifery program that we're talking like, I can't speak to what has been done over the 20 years, but I know that Fort Smith was a driver and the history of midwifery in Fort Smith has been kind of the model. So as to when and where, what discussions have happened with Indigenous midwives, I don't have that information here on the floor today but like I said, midwifery, I mean, we want to be able to provide this service where there's no service available to deliver. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. I realize these are last minute questions, and I appreciate that. I hope she can get back to me on maybe some of the history of what the department has done to talk to Indigenous midwives.
My next question is why have midwives not been considered in the recruitment and retention strategies that have been applied to nurses and physicians? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I don't have that detail. Recruitment falls within HR, and whether it falls within that department within that HR team, I'd have to defer that to the Minister. But as of right now, I mean, I can follow up and get back to the Member on that whole process. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, could the Premier update this House on the status of the after-action review of the 2023 wildfires? Thank you.
Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this is a it's a long story. So going back to February, of course, we sat in this House and there was a request for a public inquiry. That came after the decision was made to hold this extensive after-action review where the department would go out or hire a contractor to go out, look at everything that happened in terms of the 2023 fire season response, hold public meetings, speak with staff, and then generate a report with recommendations. Because there was a desire to ensure that this was not influenced by government, the idea it actually came after a meeting I had with the mover of the motion and the seconder, the MLAs for Range Lake and the Deh Cho, as well as the chair of the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, we had a discussion and from that I left the meeting and we put together a proposal of creating an oversight committee comprised of Members appointed by Council of Leaders, Standing Committee on Accountability of Oversight, and the Government of the Northwest Territories.
That work has been done. Those appointments have been made. Their role is to actually evaluate the RFPs and choose the contractor that will undertake the work. This will ensure that the government is not handpicking the contractor.
Once the contract begins, that oversight committee will ensure that the contractor is not influenced by the GNWT. All of the reports will be given directly to the contractor or to the oversight committee before the government to ensure that there is that the contractor's report is not influenced. And those reports will be shared with the three bodies who appointed the Members. So the RFP assessment process by that oversight committee is underway, and we hope to award an RFP next week or the week after. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my preference, of course, is a public inquiry. I still think it's the way to go. I appreciate we are joining the Premier in this process for now. How long until we get this final report and we can see what the contractor learns from the emergencies last year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One thing I knew coming into this Assembly is that I wanted to work in collaboration with the relevant partners. The other thing I knew coming into this is that collaboration takes a long time. And so if we would have just gone ahead and issued the RFP as government and managed the contract that way, we would have been a couple months ahead but as it is, once the contract is awarded, there will be six months until the final product is to be delivered. So we are looking at a final report in December. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if there is this report now we have a draft we have a draft order on the table, so to speak. The public can see it, Members can see it. If this after-action report is ultimately found lacking by Members of this House and members of the public, is the Premier willing to call a public inquiry? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't want to get into hypotheticals as it's not in line with the rules of the Assembly. But I look forward to seeing what comes of the after-action review, and we'll make our decision then. Thank you.
Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the contractor undertake public engagements in every affected community or every community that was evacuated during the 2023 wildfires? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have the list of communities at my fingertips, but the engagement will be robust. I'm happy to get back to the Member with that information. Thank you.
Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
