Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of health clarify the rationale behind Alberta Cancer Care's requirement that all blood cancer patients from the NWT travel to Alberta for blood work and treatment? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in April, we were notified by Alberta Health Services that effective May 1st that they would no longer be providing virtual care and allowing for the hematology oncology patients here in Yellowknife to do their blood work. Under the standard of practice, they felt that their patients weren't being able to be serviced virtually, and so they made the decision to have all of the patients have to go to Alberta and be serviced through their oncology department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It should come at no shock to anyone that this is a huge imposition on people who require this care. It's stress inducing. It is jeopardizing their health further potentially to make these trips. So what measure is the Minister taking to address the concerns raised by blood cancer patients regarding this anxiety, exposure to potential germs, and logistical challenges, and possible job losses associated with frequent travel to Alberta for cancer care? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to, you know, say to the Member I as soon as I found this out, this was a priority, this was something that I brought made sure that I had all the information as to what happened and to direct the department to come up with what the resolution is, and I hear the Member. I don't believe that it's you know, and I've heard from constituents and other constituents of other Members that, you know, this is not a sustainable for them already having to go through cancer treatment and going through this process, adding on having to travel, some of them and everybody is different weekly, this is not sustainable for anybody. And so that I made sure the department has come up with a plan. The plan is to work with Alberta Health because they are the drivers of what needs to be put in place, and that is being done right now with the department and Alberta Health Services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to acknowledge the Minister has been responsive to my constituent and the other constituents as well. Is this I'd like to know more of the detail of work with is this bringing an oncologist to the North? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think what it is is there are approximately there is about 50 residents that are impacted and 11 residents receiving active cancer care. All of their plan of cares are different and so what the ask is that because of the I mean, and we've all heard it in this House the process of transferring blood work and records down to Alberta Health Services, well, their system doesn't speak to our system. That way the oncologists don't have the information because when we send it down to them, it's not being entered into their system on a timely manner. So what they've done is they've asked to increase to have a dedicated hematology oncology and to have a dedicated oncology nurse for this program in order for it to be able to resolve the issue and then come up with a plan in how to make sure that we're running it again in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. That sounds like what we need and what we're looking for. What is the timeline for this plan, Mr. Speaker?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And this is the question that I keep asking the department, what is the timeline. This is what I heard from your constituent, from my constituents, is I can't sustain doing this. We cannot and, you know, put aside the medical travel, it's the like, the things that you said, the things that you know, the stress of having to travel, you know, the some people are still working and trying to do this, so there is recruitment, so, you know, the Alberta Health will have to recruit an oncologist and then we will have to recruit an oncology nurse here in the territory to support that oncologist to ensure that this program is up and running again. I have asked to have it done as soon as it can be done, but I cannot push Alberta Health Services on how fast they can go. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you for everyone's patience and to Mr. Speaker. So my questions are for the infrastructure Minister. Has the Minister looked into what the Yukon is doing in terms of piloting renewable diesel and considered possibilities of working together with the Yukon to get a pilot project off the ground here in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact, I have actually reached out myself to my counterpart in the Yukon, Mr. Streicker. We had a brief exchange on what efforts they might be engaged in with respect to renewable diesel. They so far have run into similar challenges as we have here in the Northwest Territories, which is, for one, not being able to find Arctic grade to do a pilot on or when we find it, for a small volume, it is extremely expensive. That said, obviously, Mr. Speaker, if we can band larger numbers together, it would be easier, and so Minister Streicker and I, I expect, will speak again about this at EMMC, which is the Energy Mine Ministers of Canada Conference later this summer. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Has the Department of Infrastructure been in touch with potential suppliers, such as the new Tidewater Refinery in Prince George, or Imperial Oil which is starting their refinery in Strathcona, to better understand current supply and pricing for different grades but also to explain the potential in the NWT in terms of our market and our needs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been outreach to a number of different suppliers. There was an effort, in fact, to run a pilot as I alluded to in my last response. But in terms of exactly which suppliers they've reached out to, I don't have a list in front of me. I can say again, though, that the challenge was, firstly, not even being able to find any supplier. If there are new supplies available, we can certainly go back, make sure that we do have the latest information. I'm happy to commit to do that and to report back. Again, I know I have followed up with the department actually quite recently and the challenges were still the same, which is what I heard from the Yukon. If there's new options, again, I'll commit to make sure that we are up to speed on the latest availability. Thank you.
Okay, and thanks for that. I mean, recognizing some of the challenges, has the Minister had any conversations with the federal government regarding both the potential to fund renewable diesel projects or ways to incentivize the production of Arctic grade renewable diesel? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have not had those kinds of conversations with the federal government, Mr. Speaker, nor do I nor can I say, really, how receptive they would be. The direction that we seem to be getting of late on areas when we do try to push the federal government for some awareness of the continued need for diesel in the Northwest Territories, in the North in general, tends to not be one that is received very favourably. So certainly can look at an opportunity to bring that forward, noting the realities of the North and noting the fact that some form of diesel is still going to be around here for quite a long time in terms of our redundancy if nothing else. So thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So has the department had discussions with De Beers or other mining companies about the potential for renewable diesel pilot projects in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier, as was mentioned earlier in this government, the Member actually had put us in a room together with a number of folks who are in this space, and it came up that De Beers was looking at this, so we have the department has reached back out to them. I understand that while that may have fallen off the radar for De Beers, there's been some further conversations now with some of their folks. So as I said earlier, if there's a larger coalition able to look for Arctic grade not just winter grade and definitely not summer grade, but Arctic grade it may be that we can, A, find some and, B, find some at a better price. So we will continue those conversations with De Beers, possibly other large mines. I'll certainly commit to reporting back to the Member on that once we had a sense of whether the situation on this area has changed or not. Hopefully it has. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my statement I talked about trying to be innovative, exciting, and maybe even in some ways courageous about trying to find housing solutions. I did point to two different types of Ministers, which is, you know, one could be municipal and certainly one could be housing. But I think I'm going to go to my favorite Minister today which would be the Minister of housing. I'm saying today.
So that said, Mr. Speaker, I'm going to focus in on the area of my statement that talked about Rockhill. Mr. Speaker, the reason I specify that and this particular Minister is pulling the land titles, which I'm creating economic development I just spent the four bucks to get the title Mr. Speaker, it says NWT Housing Corp or Housing NWT owns the property. Mr. Speaker, does the department have any particular plans with the property at this very moment? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. Housing NWT does have plans for the property. They're working with a local NGO, and they've leased the property for the next few years with the local NGO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I pointed out, in October 2018 there was that tragedy of the fire sorry, not tragedy as someone died but the sadness of the fire in general. 33 families have been without a home, Mr. Speaker, and I bet it's been at least five years it's been, say, construction ready in the sense of once it was cleaned.
Mr. Speaker, would the Minister consider the options I proposed in my statement, which is be innovative, give the property away to industry, and have them create a social component that guarantees low cost of living for a certain element; in other words, create a public good opportunity and work with business to get a building built without delay? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Housing NWT is working with the NWT Disabilities Council on a project. They are working on a federal funding arrangement. NWT Disabilities Council is waiting on the proposal and the approval of the project. So we have to give it some time, but we're working in partnership with the NWT Disabilities Council. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as Speaker, whatever way you describe it is perfect.
That said, Mr. Speaker, my concern is, and this is not a strike against the NWT Disabilities Council, but I would rather see an agency that's designed to create leasing and housing opportunities to the core as their primary business and focus. B, take the opportunity to create something.
So I'm asking the Minister would she perhaps revisit this issue? And I can talk to her more about it, but would she be willing to revisit this issue and maybe create we'll call it a partnership where industry works with the disabilities council, or other types of appropriate NGOs, so we get an effective company or organization that runs it that's designed this is their business and format. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd be happy to have that conversation with the Member, but I would not be able to revisit the issue until I talk to the NWT Disabilities Council and also to the president of the Housing NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NWT Housing. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, I would have obviously hoped for a yes, and I would have been fine as that my last question. But she did say something that did cause me some worry is, is there an agreement or contract or some type of formalization that they automatically get this property? Because I'm worried about not this being the first I've ever heard of it. And so if this has been worked behind the scenes, I'd like to know if this is formal, is there a contract, an agreement, that type of thing, or anything similar in place at this particular time? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And from what I've learned with Housing NWT, there is a term lease in place with the NWT Disabilities Council, and they have four years on that lease left. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Premier.
With the high cost of living in the Mackenzie Delta and throughout the Northwest Territories, in my region there's the community of Aklavik who's isolated yearround, and Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic are seasonally isolated. The Nutrition North program is set up to help the customer with the prices of food. There are news articles that highlight grocery stores are recording profits while many families in the NWT struggle with food insecurity. Has the GNWT advocated for increased reporting under the Nutrition North program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to get back to the Member with that information. That could have occurred in the last government, but I don't have that information at my fingertips. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Premier explain what work is happening with the Indigenous governments to address the high cost of food in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has a number of food security programs that support Indigenous governments to help their members go out on the land. Through the antipoverty fund, funds are distributed that go to food security programs often, often by Indigenous governments. The GNWT provides funding to schools, education bodies, to provide meals in the schools. I can provide the Member with a full list of all of our food security initiatives as well as the associated funding amounts, but I don't have that on hand right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to the list that's going to be provided. Can the Premier explain the status of the GNWT Food Security Strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're in the process of assessing all of the strategies that we have here in the Northwest Territories. We have a number of them. Some of them sit on shelves, and they can be very labour intensive to produce and sometimes they're forgotten about. So we are looking at ways to limit the number of strategies we have and be more strategic with that, and I will get back to the Member with an answer to his question. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Premier explain what supports are available to subsidize transportation costs for food in the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I'll have to get back to the Member on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement, I had the wonderful opportunity in working and associating and interacting with the youth at the Tulita workshop. The ages were 14 to 18. My question to the Minister of Health and Social Services, and I know we've had some questions previous, but adding to that, in talking to the audience, which has recently spoke out, can the Minister supply youth identify and supply some information on youth support funding sources there? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
