Mr. Speaker, your Standing Committee on Public Accounts is pleased to provide its Report on the Review of the 20222023 Public Accounts.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Nunakput, that Committee Report 720(1), Standing Committee on Public Accounts Report on the Review of the 20222023 Public Accounts, be deemed read and presented in Hansard in its entirety. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? The motion is passed.
Carried
*Link to Committee Report 7-20(1): Standing Committee on Public Reports on the Review of the 2022-2023 Public Accounts
Member from Range Lake.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member from Nunakput, that Committee Report 720(1), Standing Committee on Public Accounts Report on the Review of the 20222023 Public Accounts, be received and adopted by the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. The motion's in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? The motion passed.
Carried
Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput, that pursuant to Rule 9.1(5)(a), the Government of the Northwest Territories table a comprehensive response to this report, including all recommendations, within 120 days, or at the earliest opportunity subsequent to the passage of 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. The motion's in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? The motion is passed.
Carried
Reports of standing and special committees. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment is pleased to provide its Report on Committee's Initiatives of a Project to Conduct a Review of the Land and Water Use Permitting Regulatory Framework and commends it to the House.
Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment committee (the "committee") would like to inform the 20th Legislative Assembly that committee is in the early stages of conducting a review of the regulatory framework for land and water use permitting under the Mackenzie Valley Resources Management Act, and its operational effectiveness. The MVRMA provides the overarching framework for a robust regulatory regime and committee would like to evaluate the underlying process and requirements, and their interpretation by all parties, to ensure the spirit and the intent of the MVRMA is being met, and to assess the GNWT's role in the system.
Committee's review intends to build on the work already done by subject matter experts across the land and water boards, Indigenous governments, and the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Government of Canada, and other stakeholders who interact with the land and water use permitting process.
Committee has particular interest in examining how the GNWT can provide further supports, make changes where needed and appropriate, and consider ways to enhance the capacity of parties to meaningfully participate in the land and water use permitting process. It is committee's intent to prepare a report on the findings which will describe committee's observations and recommend targeted actions and interventions the GNWT should consider for improving the administration, efficiency, and effectiveness of the regulatory framework.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Frame Lake, that the Committee Report 820(1), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on the Committee's Initiative of a Project to Conduct a Review of the Land and Water Use Permitting Regulatory Framework, be received and adopted by the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Motion passed.
Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community of Tulita is proud to celebrate seven graduates from the Chief Albert Wright School for 2024. They are:
Damian McPherson,
Gosahte Bird,
Jaiden Wrigley,
Tristan MacCauleyAyah
Jaden Lennie,
Lacey Wrigley, and
Rachel Horassi on their achievement.
Tulita celebrates their success, and we wish them very well in the coming years and their next steps on their education and career journey. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe just a quick comment before I get into my question. I think Members are restraining some of their questions to help the process move along, so. Maybe not all of course. That said, Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment with respect to autism supports and programming.
Mr. Speaker, parents have to cover PD days, daycare, afterschool program times, and summer programs, and it's having impacts on families and the relationships of friends and supporters. And I'm going to ask the Minister of education what can she do to further some policy initiatives to support these types of parents who are dealing with children with autism that needs strengths and sometimes even oneonone supports? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we have heard from education bodies across the Northwest Territories, and specifically people who are in the role of classroom support positions, is that they wanted to have a fuller toolbox to be able to help students. And so one of the programs that ECE worked with education bodies to put into place over the course of the last few years was training for classroom assistants through a partnership that was formed with Douglas College, which I look forward to speaking about more in the House this week, and we are just graduating our first cohort of classroom assistants through that program. And this is a very unique program in that the classroom assistants were able to do the training from their home community while still supporting students in the classroom. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's certainly welcome news; I wouldn't necessarily say it isn't. So back to my specific question is, is what policy changes can be done to help parents who have to take time off of work when there's PD days, there's no afterschool programs that support them, no daycares, and even including the full summer break when their young people need fulltime care, parttime care, oneonone care, etcetera, what can the department do to support policy initiatives that support these parents with autistic children? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a funding pot that is referenced as SCIP that is available to licensed centrebased early learning and child care facilities. It promotes staff training to help with the development of inclusive programming, provides guidance, resources, and support to create appropriate spaces, and supports staff positions that can provide onetoone support for children.
Mr. Speaker, I absolutely hear the Member, though, that what I am hearing from not only the Member but from residents of the territory is that they are looking for more supports, and what I would want to ensure is that, first of all, that we are addressing this in a way that is most effective for what parents are looking for, in a way that doesn't just throw money at it but also throws resources that are appropriate to what families are looking for. So I would love to hear some suggestions of exactly what it is the Member would like to see. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentions, first of all, the SCIP program. Yes, but it's very limited funding and, hence, when it only creates one or two openings there's still dozens on dozens of parents struggling to find support. And if you don't have a fantastic employer who's supportive of your challenges, you have to take days off. And if you have an employment position, such as a very unique one or professional, you can't take time off sometimes; that's just the nature of your work. So, Mr. Speaker, my question is is would the Minister be willing to meet with the group of parents and advocates for the autism community, which doesn't just represent Yellowknife but the territory at large; would she be willing to sit down with them and see if she could help them develop policy initiatives to support these people struggling with these daytoday challenges?
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am absolutely more than happy to sit down with anybody. That is one of our key jobs as Ministers, is we spend a lot of time in meetings making sure that we understand what it is that residents of the Northwest Territories are looking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
I'm okay, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Member from Great Slave. I was looking
that's not even a lake mix up on this one.
I don't have a lake. I mean, even though I'm named after a lake. Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, thank you. Would the health Minister commit to updating public facing communications around whether a person needs to call the registrar before or after applying a name change in order to avoid being dead named in the NWT because thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Got that right this time. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we are committed to doing that.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for that yes from the Minister. I also want to thank the Minister for her commitment that the form will be changed and reviewed, hopefully changed but definitely reviewed. But can I get confirmation from the Minister that a genderbased analysis will be done during the review of the form to consider intersectional factors that may increase barriers for transgender or other gender identities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very much in favour on completing the genderbased analysis. At this time, the majority of the health forms have been completed, including an identification of steps needed to make the health forms more gender inclusive. And we are near the completion of this, and the new health information system, the department will finalize its review of the needed revisions to the health forms and the legislation that needs (audio).
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to take that as a strong maybe.
Mr. Speaker, the application form for an NWT health care card also only presents a gender binary. Can the Minister commit to, in conjunction with her Cabinet colleagues, disclosing which GNWT forms are bound by legislation or regulation to include sex or gender in a binary fashion so that they can also be changed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I cannot commit every department, but what I can commit is providing the Member with a list of the health legislation where the forms that are included in the legislation that aren't inclusive and that we will, you know, as we're looking at a lot of the legislation and making sure that we're reviewing those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Cabinet can expect a bunch of BFs.
Mr. Speaker, having to correct your gender to multiple locums on an ongoing basis can be demoralizing. Can the Minister speak to further changes that can be made to electronic medical record systems and patient charting so to be as more inclusive of gender diverse folks? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member, you know, the demoralizing for the folks that have to go through this. And yes, we do see a lot of locums and, unfortunately, at this time that is not possible in our electronic medical records to, other than the male/female genders. But the requirements that are going to be the things that we are working toward in the new EMR will include that like, for the system to be able to do that. But, and, you know, thank you that we've had these discussions between the Minister and the Member is that knowing that I've worked in the systems and, you know, there are other things within our EMR that can help to identify. So in the meantime, we can work with the authorities to find a way for our current electronic medical records have like an alert or some sort that can they may have to identify, but I can't guarantee that this will be across board as it is a temporary fix until we get a new EMR. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
