Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a good first start. Would the Minister agree that when someone applies for leave, there should be a deadline for either approving or denying that leave that gives reasonable notice for that person so that they might plan their leave? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those employees that are unionized employees, they have -- you know, when they apply for leave, it is the expectation that as the employer that they do follow the collective agreement, so 18.02-2(2) does speak to that. And so it gives them two weeks to respond to any employee that puts in leave. And if there are scheduling needs that need to be done in this advance, that those employers notify the union and that those -- they still have to have a set date as to when leave is put in and they still have to follow a two-week, and they have to respond in writing and the reasons why if they're declined. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So will the Minister commit to ensuring that a plan is developed to enable health care staff to take all their leave, to address policies and planning procedures in the short term, and over the longer term, to address chronic understaffing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do and I will and I have had communicated this to NTHSSA and to the other health authorities, you know, and so that way that we do have a plan in place and that, you know, when people can't get their leave, as many members said, that it does impact them. So thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the swimming pool in Edzo burned down, there was insufficient insurance proceeds to rebuild the swimming pool. Due to newer building standards, the replacement costs, even when limited insurance, was something the community government could not afford. To make this matter worse, the insurance payout was less if you do not rebuild within three years. Therefore, I want to ask the Minister, can the Minister commit to trying to find funds for the Behchoko swimming pool? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The territorial government supplies -- or sorry, funds communities through our community funding. It's up to the communities whether or not they want to utilize some of that funding for things like the pools -- or for, like, pools. However, the government doesn't build pools or operate pools for communities so it's up -- at the end of the day, it's up to the community whether or not they want to use their own revenues or go out to other sources of funding for building such facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, with the CPI cutbacks, it's not possible to do that so that's why I asked the Minister. So can the Minister work with other government or charities to fund our swimming pool? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that the regional staff have worked with the community governments on their funding and how they can utilize it; however, at this time it's not our responsibility as a government to go out and look for funding for communities for infrastructure like this. If the government is looking for resources and assistance on maybe what funding could be available, I'm sure the department would be willing or working with the community to look for those funding sources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I'm sure this one he can do. He's got a lot of staff. There's a lot of staff that are out there. Can the Minister commit to supporting community governments in the Tlicho region for writing grants and planning swimming pool projects? There's a lot of staff out there, so I'm asking the Minister if he would commit. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Municipal and Community Affairs, unfortunately, does not have a lot of staff. And I know that we do have staff available that could potentially assist with the community, so I think it's best if the community reaches out to the regional superintendent so that maybe resources could be found if we have them available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Mr. Speaker, the territorial government hired the -- recently like 1,600 employees within the last few years. I'm sure those people can do something. They must be useful for something, to do something for the community. So I'm just asking the Minister in -- or I don't know who, or maybe for finance. But in the supplementary budget, is it possible to divert money for a swimming pool in the Tlicho region? Thank you.
Member from Monfwi, your questions were to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs so I'm going to turn that question to him. Should you have another set of questions, you can reach it out to the finance Minister. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish I had all those employees. At the end of the day, I think we have to realize not all these employees are indeterminate full-time employees that are working -- you know, they're term employees. There's relief workers. So at the end of the day, we don't have those employees to assist with the community right now. Any other questions like that, I guess would have to go to the Minister of Finance. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to ask a second round of questions to the Minister of ECE. Will the Minister work with the board, the college board, to conduct a robust public consultation process for site selection? 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'm always happy to respond to the board anytime they reach out to me. It would certainly depend on whether or not the board was welcoming of that but I will support the board any way that I can and any way that, you know, works well for us. But I certainly can't dictate to the board how they choose to do their operations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister make the technical report she spoke of earlier today publicly available? There are members in the community who would like to review them. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that some form of report from the environmental site assessments will be made public, and I look forward to ensuring that I share that with the Member once it is out there.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can specifically the scientific reports be made publicly available? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will have to check in with the department that actually owns those reports. It is not ECE that owns those reports at the end of the day. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I don't know how many ways to ask it, so I'll pass along.
Member, could you please stand.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Nothing further.
Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the health care worker I spoke to about the recent round of engagements within the system the Minister's undertaking and the authority's undertaking said, quote: We don't need more opportunities for feedback. The reason health care workers don't feel heard is because there's never any real action or bold moves on the feedback we've given for years.
So I'd like to ask the Minister of health today, in these town halls that she's having with health care workers what is she hearing? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, alongside with the CEO and the deputy minister as well as the COO of Stanton, had a town hall for Stanton staff so not -- we did not have one with the Yellowknife region as of yet which the primary care falls under. What we heard were a lot of operational issues. We also heard a lot of, you know, even just internal how, like, funding for different things within. We did hear leave, you know, and that's where the commitment was made to review the policy. You know, there is a sense of frustration, and I acknowledge that, and so what we are taking away from that first town hall that we had with Stanton is to compile everything. The one thing that we'll do is that we will -- you know, it's now the Minister's office has heard from the staff, the department has heard from the staff, you know, I -- and we -- the CEO has heard from the staff, the COO has heard from the staff. So we are going to be following up back with looping that back to the staff as to where we are with following up. Some of them were easy fixes and were committed to right on the fly during those meetings.
We'll continue to have those meetings throughout the territory. Some may say that they are -- they're not -- you know, that they're not the all and be all for everybody, but they are one voice where I'm able to hear what the concerns are as well as the CEO and as many people -- you know, as the Minister of Health and Social Services, the NTHSSA is the operations and they do have a governing council, and with that, I have to go work through and with the governing council in order to -- you know, to know what's going on and to the -- with the direction that they're giving. So this is a better way for me to really hear, and in partnership to be able to work with them, in looping that information back around and providing me with areas where I can then be more holding them account to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the governing council joining the Minister on these listening sessions? Thank you.
Thank you. As Stanton is a territorial hospital, it doesn't fall within one of the regional wellness. So each of the regional wellness, so each of the regions have a COO, and then they have a council -- a regional wellness council that has a chair. And so what I have -- within Stanton, we did not have the chair of the governing council at this meeting. But we do plan to have the chairs of the regional wellness as long as -- as well as the COOs and the CEO and the deputy minister moving forward with all of the other regions because they do have chairs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm looking for accountability as well, and I hear this refrain that it's the governance council that's in charge; it's not the Minister, there's only so much she can do. So why are these -- why are we not bringing the governing council to listen to these meetings? It doesn't matter if it's Stanton. They're responsible for the entire thing. The individual wellness council's, fine. But the overall management of the system and oversight of the system is one body so why are they not being involved with this effort?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the chair of each of the regional wellness council is a member of the governing council, so that is the governing council. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the workers are looking for bold action. They're looking for a clear commitment. So what is the Minister's idea for how to solve this problem? What's the clear commitment and deliverable that she can give hope to workers that things are going to get better and improve? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before that, you know, we are -- as this whole year I've been working with the governing council and working with the Members, hearing from the Members, hearing from the public. It's not that I -- you know, it's -- I don't sit here on having deaf ears. I know that there are real issues within our health care system. You know, there are real issues that people are sicker and that we need serious -- and so I hear the Members. And, yes, there are things that we are looking into. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for Finance. I know that from the budget, we know that the Government of the Northwest Territories have over 6,000 employees and over 4,000 positions are located in Yellowknife. We don't even know what some of these people are doing because maybe many of those positions -- we know many of those positions are duplicate. Maybe GNWT can hire a consultant to help small communities to apply for programs in the small communities, such as a swimming pool or other recreation facilities, because many of these communities lacks a lot of recreations. We need recreation programs for our youth.
So with that in mind, I want to ask the Minister, GNWT has many projects that are funded by the federal government. Can the Minister work with other government or charities to fund projects like our swimming pool? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first, with respect to the fulsomeness of the public service, a lot of the growth in the last little while has actually been in the Department of Health and Social Services. A lot of other growth has actually been as a result of Jordan's Principle funding which is allowing additional services in ECE. And that said, there is a very active conversation happening, led with the Department of Finance human resources, around ensuring that we don't have positions that are sitting unfilled, that are not being fully utilized, and with a view to having those positions taken off the books so that they don't artificially or inappropriately inflate the numbers. It doesn't answer the end of the question which is to what extent there can be some supports to communities to help increase their recreational capacity.
Mr. Speaker, that, I think, is a shared goal of many people in this House, including Ministers here. It's not one that I can come up with a solution standing here. I'm happy to sit down with the Member, with a human resources perspective and with the Minister of MACA and see if there's ways that we can support communities so that they can use the funding that they have to achieve their goals. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure the deputy ministers are listening or they're understanding -- they're listening right now. So what I would like to ask the Minister is that -- this question that I asked the MACA Minister. In the supplementary budget, is it possible to divert money for a swimming pool in the Tlicho region? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, nobody likes a short answer of one that just says no, but unfortunately this instance the short answer is no. The supplementary estimates are -- they come forward as having been gone through the financial management board to bring about issues or things that arise. One example is the collective agreement that was finalized, so this comes forward to bring a couple of collective agreements in. And I have to obviously comply with the collective agreement. Another major item in there was fire suppression funding. We have to pay the bill for our fire suppression funding. Another big one in there, Mr. Speaker, is commitments made in the House for the main estimates. So the supplementary estimates right now aren't going to be the place where we can just move that money around. But, Mr. Speaker, there are funds -- I know the Minister of MACA already spoke to to work in his department. I know the Minister of MACA wants to see supports to communities. So, again, my suggestion is that we all sit down and see if there's a way to assure that the money that's for communities is being effectively used by them. I know as a Minister, I have funds that sit in infrastructure that we want to see go out the door to communities and if they're not going out the door, that is a problem we want to solve. Thank you.
