Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, around the concerns of accessibility, when a person gets through or doesn't get through, they finally just show up and find out they can't get appointments for weeks or months. Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister doing again about in-person now accessibility to see a doctor? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I will, you know, take the Member -- and, you know, we've heard this in Yellowknife that this has been an issue, and we've just recently moved into the new building this summer and started the primary care clinic. There are going to be, you know, wrinkles that come out. As for appointments, you know, if there are -- I can bring this back to NTHSSA to find out further information or what's the wait times or how -- and I've had other people come and say the opposite saying that they are able to get appointments, they are able to get walk-in appointments. So I will follow up with the NTH SSA to see where we're at with waitlists or how long it is to get an appointment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I'll certainly look forward to what I'm being told -- or sorry, looking forward to the Minister's response. And further to that question, the other issue is accessibility to their information, Mr. Speaker. So, of course, the Minister did say they've moved in there, but it's been five months.
The next problem of course is, as I said, accessibility of medical records. Patients aren't getting their records referred to south and they can't get the responses from their needs -- from their tests et cetera. So what can the Minister do to improve those rates, and does she track them? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, that level of information on record moving is very operational. And right now what we do know, and I have mentioned it in this house before, that our systems do not communicate with Alberta where a lot of our referrals go. So there is, you know, work going on right now to -- and I mentioned it in previous sessions that we are looking to upgrade the EMR, electronic medical records system, within the Northwest Territories. And with all of those options that have been raised by Members have been highlighted as things that we need to ensure that when we look to building a new electronic medical records system in the Northwest Territories that it's going to have all of those components in it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just quickly, another clinic in town here, you can dial in and get your records through the internet obviously. I'm old. I say dial, but stream. Mr. Speaker, the dental clinic does phone follow-ups and check-ins, Mr. Speaker. Why is the technology so available, Mr. Speaker? I want to know what the Minister is doing, what -- I want to know what the serious blockage is, why a dental office can do services the health care system can't do, why a local medical clinic can do services, again a billion-dollar department can't seem to manage. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do know that there is technology out there. It's how are we going to implement it across the Northwest Territories. And that is what we are -- that's why we are looking at the EMR. We're not just going to look at it in one section and in one region as that's what we've done in the past, and then they don't even talk together. So we have to look at it as how we're going to roll it out throughout the Northwest Territories. And in the meantime, you know, one of the other barriers is some of this technology has to go through these privacy issues, is it safe enough to use for health information. So, again, these are issues that arise when we -- even to try and have a booking system online, there's so many layers that have to make sure that there's going to be no breach to this system to breach private health records. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As we are in the capital budget process, we're all aware that there is no new money for a new Yellowknife polytech campus. So can the Minister please explain why the issue of locating a campus on Tin Can Hill has been silent after much fanfare in 2023? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member continuing to bring up the concerns of her residents around Tin Can Hill for much of the last ten months. The Tin Can Hill site was originally identified for the proposed Yellowknife North Slave Campus for Aurora College. The site is currently owned by the city of Yellowknife, so some work needed to be done to assess whether or not it was an appropriate location to consider. So prior to any potential land transfer, an environmental site assessment was required to be done. There was a phase one that was done. At the completion of phase one, it was recommended that more information was needed. So phase two was initiated. Of course, phase two, with evacuation last year, the sampling that was required could not happen last year, and so there was a delay in that process. That process was completed this summer, and a series of technical reports were produced. And what I am waiting for now is all of that technical report information to be consolidated and then look forward to being able to publicly share that information. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, you know, the Minister told me last fall that the ESA would be ready in March 2024, and then it was May 2024, and now it's nearly November. In more recent conversations, the Minister has asked me to reach out to the board to ask more questions about the specifics but then the board turned around and told me to talk to ECE. So that's why we're here today. Regardless, however the ESA turns out, however the technical report turns out, positive or negative for development, what is the intent for the MOU with the city? Will we terminate the MOU, or will we just delay a choice over and over and over again? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will admit that there are some fine lines between what decisions were made with the GNWT and what decisions will ultimately be the board of governors for Aurora College. So I will acknowledge the Member's frustration and that, but I'm happy to continue that conversation.
The phase two of the site assessment is now done. It is highly technical information that I'm going to be honest that is something that I need to be able to work with the experts within multiple departments in order to understand what is required so that I can make sure that I'm passing along accurate information to the Member. So phase two is now done. All partners involved in that being the Aurora College board, the city of Yellowknife, and also the GNWT, will ensure that everybody is receiving the same information so that we can ensure that we're working together to communicate that information. I want to apologize to the Member for the delay in that but also want to ensure that we have accurate information that we are able to share publicly. Thank you.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I'll reiterate my question perhaps in a different way. If the environmental site assessment and all of the technical work shows that there is contamination and remediation needed on the site, will ECE terminate the MOU? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ultimately the decision of where the North Slave campus will go rests with the board of governors, so I would need to make sure that I'm getting direction from the board of governors as to whether or not they would like to hold on to that site or see that MOU go. But for right now, I don't have that information because that's not a decision that rests with the GNWT; it's a decision that ultimately rests with the board. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Yes, but as I said in my Member's statement, the board then threw it back to you when I asked them the same question.
Many Yellowknifers believe there was inadequate public consultation, a flawed site options analysis for this location. Will ECE commit to adequate public consultation and a transparent site evaluation process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I hear the Member. I heard the Member's statement. I hear the Member's concerns of her constituents that she continues to raise. The intent of doing the site assessments was to determine whether or not the site was, even to begin, viable for a North Slave campus. And so as always, there is a commitment to keep the public informed, to seek meaningful input on decisions that absolutely may affect residents of the Northwest Territories, and so I want to recognize and acknowledge that the Tin Can Hill is obviously a site that's very important to the residents of Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories and that should any further steps be taken beyond the -- or sorry, once the conclusion of the environmental site assessment and that information is made public, then for sure there would absolutely be public engagement that would occur.
I think it's worthwhile here, Mr. Speaker, informing this House and members of the public that while I have oversight over post-secondary, I do not have oversight over the operations of Aurora College. The board of governors does maintain that control. And while I -- it is my authority to open and close campuses on the recommendation of the board of governors, ultimately where within a community that piece of property resides is the authority of the board of governors. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ITI. When we're looking at workforce planning for capital projects, what analysis are we employing to help us plan to ensure that we're maximizing northern employment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Industry, Tourism, and Investment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Finance has a number of procurement practices, and the strongest one being the Business Incentive Policy that is used for procurement practices with all GNWT procurement. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, respectfully, I'm asking about workforce planning, not necessarily procurement. When we're looking at workforce planning for capital projects, so planning out how this project is going to be implemented in such a way and what needs to be done to ensure that there is a workforce to implement the project, a northern workforce, what analysis are we employing to help us plan to ensure we're maximizing northern employment? Sorry to repeat the question, Mr. Speaker, but I just felt that the answer was speaking more to procurement than employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd say one of the strongest workforce planning documents and tools that we use within the Government of the Northwest Territories is our Skills 4 Success document. And that document has a -- it acts as kind of a Bible, if you will, of what jobs are and will be in demand over the course of the next 20 years in the Northwest Territories. So that document works by looking at, you know, what are the expected capital infrastructure happenings in the Northwest Territories and what skill sets are we going to need. So that talks about positions of leadership, it talks about trades positions. It's identified 20 different trades positions that we will need. Thankfully, earlier today we were able to celebrate 33 new journeypersons in the Northwest Territories as well. In addition to that, we also have plans, like for example the revitalization of the Great Slave Lake fishery. So in addition to our Skills 4 Success, we also have very specific documents within different sectors and those documents have deliverables as well. So, for example ECE and ITI teamed up on that one. ECE was able to offer subsidies, ITI was able to offer grants, and we were able to really work to make some great change in that sector over the last few years. And so there is a primary document but also very sector-specific ones as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a much more comprehensive answer and more along the lines of what I was looking for.
Mr. Speaker, considering these plans that we have in place across sectors, why aren't we making more progress or increasing northern employment figures at the diamond mines, projects like Giant Mine, or even GNWT contracted projects? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess there's a couple different ways that I can answer this question. And I'm not trying to be evasive of the Member at all. I think there's a few different ways that we can kind of interpret these questions. But for within the example say of diamond mine, fly-in/fly-out work is not for everyone. I know over the course of the last two decades, a lot of people who started working in diamond mining aren't necessarily there. Some have chosen to return to employment in their communities or return to life at home. But certainly a fly-in/fly-out isn't for anyone -- or everyone.
One piece of good news is that a lot of the advanced project mining are on existing road infrastructure or around and centered around communities. So, for example Pine Point, people will be able to drive to mine sites. You know, we're looking at -- or hearing about -- good news about gold mining close to Yellowknife. We're hearing about a mining project close to Fort Simpson. And so that will really change the dynamic that currently exists at a lot of our bigger mines in the Northwest Territories. Some work that is being done in order to improve some of our numbers in the Northwest Territories as well are looking at things like our curriculum renewal, making sure that we are focused on affording students the education that they want in order to meet our desire to see as many northerners employed in these projects and also working with organizations like the Mine Training Society and dev corps as well to make sure that it really is everybody working together at the end of the day to connect people to the training opportunities that do exist in the Northwest Territories. We have a number of training programs and subsidies within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and we want to make sure ultimately that people are taking advantage of them because we really do want to see Northerners successful in the workforce. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate, again, the comprehensive answer from the Minister. I always appreciate these exchanges where we go back and forth like this and get these comprehensive answers on the table.
Regarding Pine Point, I'm glad she brought that one up because the Standing Committee on Economic and Development and Environment recently met with some representatives from Pine Point, and they were saying one of their big challenges is going to be finding employees to staff this mine, that we're simply not producing the numbers of trades people that they're going to need. So I guess what I would ask the Minister is how can we move the needle on this? How can we ensure that we are preparing Northerners to enter the workforce, to shift into positions that are available in the workforce, so that we don't have this problem of creating economic activity that Northerners can't benefit from? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm very thankful for this question. I had the opportunity in June to travel with a number of deputy ministers down to the Pine Point mine site where we had an incredible tour of what was there before, what they envision being there tomorrow and years down the road. The good news here is that we've got a few years to put together the trades people that they need. One of the things that I asked them for on that tour was their workforce planning document of exactly what trades people that they will need so that we can make sure that we're supporting that in the Northwest Territories.
One of the key things that we need here, Mr. Speaker, is employers who can support trades people, so that is employers that can support our SNAP students. If you are a red seal journeyperson in the Northwest Territories and you can support a student whether you live in Yellowknife, and hopefully outside of Yellowknife as well, we need employers to be able to support these students so that we can grow more trades people. That is the number one thing I would say today that I need is the support of employers so that we can get more people trained up and through the system. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Colleagues, we've had three sets of question, and we spent 20 minutes on answers and preamble. Please be succinct in your questions and succinct in your answers. Thank you very much.
Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my statement on the winter road preparations for this coming season in the Sahtu -- and I just remind the House it's an annual resupply. And so my first question to the Minister of Infrastructure, when can the Minister of Infrastructure be available to meet the project contractors/participants to engage in preparation discussions similar to last year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would expect -- I expect that the project officers in the department, officials there, are already doing that. They've certainly been expected to do that for some time. We know that there's going to be more traffic on those winter roads this season just as there was last season when there was less barges. With no barges, fully expecting that road to be busy. So those meetings are already underway. Mr. Speaker, it was -- certainly, it was helpful for me to meet with some of those involved last year just to get a real picture of it, to have that opportunity, and I'm certainly happy to do that again and can work with the MLA for the region and for perhaps from the Nahendeh region since folks are coming through that area as well. We want to make sure we're maximizing everyone's ability to get as much through that winter road as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that reply. In addition to my statement of cargo and fuel and essential services going into the Sahtu, we've got another developer that's going to be coming there to the Sahtu to do some activity around the Colville Lake area. I'm not too sure if the Minister's aware of that, but that'll be additional traffic.
My next question: Will the Minister confirm this preseason/prejob meeting, if that can be held in Norman Wells? This will give us -- I plan to attend -- and other opportunities for other engagements. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can confirm on behalf of the department that someone's going to be there. There's no question that some senior representatives from the department can go. I want to just double check my own calendar. I've got commitments already to -- a couple of other regions where I've been waiting to get to. So certainly best efforts on my part. I'm always happy to go back. I've been to Norman Wells here a couple of times already in this government. Happy to go back. If I can't be there in person, I'll certainly make sure that I'm available in some other means. But I also wouldn't want to delay having that in-person there in the region based on my calendar. So someone will be available to make sure we're there and, as I say, I'll make my best efforts. But it was a helpful meeting we had last year. Going to need to do more this year, and so I want to emphasize we all want to work together and have a task force that's moving this ahead. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that willingness to participate. I feel comfortable already that we'll have a safe discussion.
My next question: Will the Minister support more resources as similar actions taken last year during our January discussion to ensure that we have a suitable, durable road surface for the heavy truck traffic? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, absolutely we will have to prioritize that work again. Just by way of some example of what we did last year, we were widening the road that gave the ability for trucks to be going but also didn't impede smaller traffic with folks who may be doing their own personal resupply, had more signage, increased patrols, increased checkpoints, which was not only a safety issue; it helps increase the flow of traffic and make the flow of traffic better. And we've also had some increased maintenance, increased improvements. Again, everything we can do to keep the road in a state that people can continue to pass. Mr. Speaker, that worked well last time. We had positive feedback. We'll take any constructive feedback on that as well if folks have it available so we can continue to make it even better this year. Thank you.
thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks for the final supplementary. I feel very assured here. The winter before, it took our department and traffic to go five hours for 90 miles, 90 kilometers. So you can do the calculations on the speed limit. Last year was excellent.
My last question there, Mr. Speaker, is this industry is challenged by a shortage of drivers, particularly experienced winter road drivers. What act of measures or efforts the Department of Infrastructure is doing to support that industry? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This certainly is a challenge. It's a challenge across industry. But given the situation we're in, we are trying to bring in more licensed drivers. Some of that backlog, I will say, you know, a bit of a plug for folks who are looking to get their licenses as new drivers, if they want to take a driver's course first, that might reduce the number of repeat customers that we have over at the DMV. But with respect to those that are looking to be professional drivers, that's a different category. They're struggling with the same issue in that we have the same limited number of people doing the licensing exams. I can say knowing what's coming, knowing the pressures that we're in for supply, we are opening up additional appointments here from the end of this month and into next month. Doing that by ensuring that we're maximizing folks within our department with these skill sets and looking to bring to ensure that all of the positions are filled and try to do everything we can to fill those positions quickly so that we can address the existing backlog to get more drivers licensed and move supplies where we need to. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Based on the Minister's experience as a nurse, as a Regular MLA for four years sitting over on this side, and now as health Minister, can she confirm from her experience whether the problem exists, whether the problem of health care shift workers not being allowed to take the full leave that they're entitled to? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the health care system, there are areas where health practitioners have to provide 24-hour care and within that health care system, those practitioners, nurses, you know, they fall under, you know, unionized employees and they are allotted time based on their years of service. So the longer employees have way more time. You know, and we've heard -- and I know we have -- there is an acknowledgement within the health authority that within that 24-hour care model that sometimes it's unfortunate but that not everybody can access all of their leaves due to operational requirements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think it's a great first start to just acknowledge that there's a problem. And understanding that the health authority is an independent authority, is the Minister aware of whether policies are being reviewed around when and how frontline staff can take leave, or will she request that those policies be reviewed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I can commit and say that what has been committed to by the Stanton is that the policy that is within Stanton for leave is going to -- or is being reviewed currently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
