Debates of October 30, 2024 (day 35)

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. Will there be any targets for this -- with the program and information made available as the program rolls out to measure its effectiveness? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as it stands with the existing program, education bodies already formally report on types of food and program -- that their program offers and the average number of children and youth served, and those are all available online through annual reports that are already published.

In addition to that, ECE is going to be engaging with education bodies to set more formal targets specific to this new funding. So that could be tracking the expansion and enhancements of existing programs and infrastructure improvements to really show what kind of impact these dollars are having to our classrooms to learning and ultimately to food insecurity of children in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Colleagues, we've almost spent 25 minutes and four sets of questions. So, please, make your answers more succinct. Thank you.

Oral questions. Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of health. In small communities, how are health promotion activities rolled out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in most of our communities, we have community health representatives, we have health care staff, we have home care staff; however, you know, there are some initiatives that are sent to the schools. You know, they may work with the health centre to get information if there's certain things going on in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What formats are used in health promotion campaigns to target different demographics such as youth and elders? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within each community -- and I had the privilege to go to the Sahtu, and while we were attending the AGM there for the Sahtu Secretariat, there was the CHR there and they were there in collaboration with health and the RCMP and they had a campaign going on for illicit drugs. You know, we've heard many times that there are those things. That was happening. And I spoke to the CHR, and she just goes out to the community and sees what the needs are in that community, and then she tries to design her program what's based best needs, and she utilizes her support, her team, within the health authority to be able to roll out any projects or things in her community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How do we ensure the right resources are reaching the people at risk? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we hire these frontline staff in the community, they're usually members of the community, they're usually -- like, most of the CHRs that I have met along the tours that I have done as a health Minister are Indigenous people from the communities so they know their communities. They know that they can access -- they can do presentations in the school, they know that can -- you know, they can work with the home care workers to do community events. Whenever there is a community hall event, they can do those types of things. You know, that's where I think the -- if you have a CHR in your community and you want more things, I suggest that, you know, meeting with those staff to see what's going on in their community, how can you better support your community. I think we all as leaders in our community, we all go home after, you know, session is over, and we know who these people are in our community. And we know what we're hearing as MLAs, so how do we go back and we say this is what we're hearing, how could we do things better. And I encourage that MLAs do that within their community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I said earlier, I'm concerned in my riding that not enough's happening. What areas of health promotion are prioritized in small communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that there's -- you know, there each specific -- like, right now, we're hearing illicit drugs across the territory so the Office of the Public Health has started to be able to come up with the materials that are needed to give to the people on the ground. I believe that it's each individual community, whatever their priority is in their community they should be reaching out to the health centre saying we want education on this stuff. You know, we have elders that are asking this kind of information. Every community's going to do it different and that's the -- that's the good thing about CHRs, is that they're flexible to be able to do this. So that's what I would encourage, is every community may have their own priorities on what they want. The information within health is available, and if it's not available in their community, they can -- you know, like the Member, if she finds that these things are not available in her community, bring it back to me, come or send an email. We can direct where they can get the information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today is for the Minister of ECE. The Sahtu is approaching the winter road reason which is the affordable connections to all five communities. And prior to our February the 5th sitting, I would like to take the opportunity to invite the Minister to support a road show to promote education, education security. I'm wondering if the -- my question to the Minister if she will support a group of beneficiary trades team to do a presentation to the high school students in each of the five communities in the Sahtu? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member knows that trades are near and dear to my heart, and I certainly want to see more trades apprentices and trades students in every region of the territory, and I am certainly willing to work with the Member, and we may have staff in each of those regions that are already there that can already support some of this work if I am unable, of course, to make it to all the Sahtu communities before the February sitting, keeping in mind that we have busy schedules, but I certainly want to support the Member in this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that support. In consideration of the high fuel costs, would the Minister support the cost of this road show team? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I always like to make sure that we are working smarter, not harder, and that we are saving dollars for where we really need them in the territory, and so if there are staff already located in a community, for example in Norman Wells, we do have a regional superintendent who would be able to do some of this work within the school, and we may even have teachers within the schools that can help support having the conversations about how to access trades and how to get involved in trades within the schools. And so I certainly want to explore this with the Member and see how we can do this together and ensure that we are being fiscally responsible at the end of the day when we're doing that too. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks for the Minister for that support. I am anticipating we're looking at a group of six. Will the Minister work with my office to help coordinate the logistics and planning of this road show promoting education for trades? Will the Minister commit to seeking employer time off for the employee trades to participate in this? For example, this government has beneficiaries in the Sahtu that would fit this agenda. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly don't have control over the operations of departments, and I know that the Member started this conversation by referencing the Sahtu winter road, and I think it's worth stating that the Sahtu winter road really is a good news story at the end of the day. It is maintained by contractors that are local Indigenous contractors all the way up the road and, you know, these are private employers, of course. I wouldn't be able to dictate or determine whether or not they would give staff time off. But the good news is that what really we need in the Northwest Territories, when it comes to building trades, apprentices, is employers and those relationships with employers. And so I would love the opportunity to find out if there is space for added apprentices, and especially added SNAP apprentices, within those workplaces of those employers, and I think that would be a great start to building some new trades apprentices in the Sahtu. Thank you.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member's statement, I may only have one question for the Minister of Infrastructure. Would the Minister commit in this House to me, to the residents of Inuvik, to the former AOC Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, to finally pave the muddy, dusty bypass road in Inuvik when the paving project starts for the Inuvik runway project? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the paving project for the airport is right now expected to be over 2027-2028 and somewhere in the course of that, we will be able to include the paving of the bypass road. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. That was the quickest set of questions and answers.

Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm using my colleague from Mackenzie Delta's microphone; he's been very gracious.

Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister of Health and Social Services doing to clearly communicate to EHB applicants that they have payment plan options? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've communicated this in different ways. So the application web page has information about the payment plan options under the EHB menu system. This is new. As this came about, as the changes started rolling out, we realized that -- you know, that some people were asking these questions so we started to make things available. We also have a series of EHB Facebook posts, if people are on social media. There are changes made to the introductory letter that are being sent, that are those that are being accepted into the program which does -- is going to be stating that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what benchmark does the Minister of Health and Social Services need to see demonstrated that the band cutoff as currently working is appropriate, and how is this monitored? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So, Mr. Speaker, just to be clear, additionally, when the rollout of the program, we made a -- we made changes on, you know, when Regular Members had, you know, raised issues with this and rolling it out. So what we did do is we waived from September 3rd, 2024, to August 31st, 2025, the deductible for the first ten income bands to be able to determine what the annual costs, so those Members that fell within that band two to ten, so they could determine what their actual costs are for the year, and then they were aware of what their deductible would be coming up for September 1st, 2025. As for how we're monitoring that, you know, we are only into it two months now, I think just over seven weeks. So what -- we will be monitoring the program, collecting the data on number of applications received, number of approved applicants, and distribution of applications across the income bands. We don't have any claims data, but this will also become part of the information analyzed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm just frantically writing here.

Mr. Speaker, EHB was touted as a way to address cost savings by putting some costs back to those who could afford to pay a portion of their medical necessities. Can the Minister explain what cost savings we are anticipating based out on the rollout of this program extrapolating on the data collected to date over the last seven weeks, I guess. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, we have less than two months of data so the information on that work is expected to take place after we have a year. That was the commitment, you know, that we would look at all of the data after a year of running the program. But our expectations of saving is geared towards the sustainability of the program. So as residents are sharing the cost of the benefits, total program cost to the government are offset which will help sustain the new program. It's also important to note that more people are now eligible for EHB than previously. As the costs of drugs and medical equipment were increased, residents' contributions will help to offset those. But we will continue to work to sustain the benefit program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So what I'm hearing is we'll understand the data after a year but we'll make changes after a year. It's a little unclear, but I'm happy to talk to the Minister further.

Can the Minister explain how we are saving money of the administration of the -- if the administration of the EHB program has been exported to Alberta Blue Cross? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the administration of the GNWT public benefit plan has been contracted to Alberta Blue Cross since early 1990s. So Alberta Blue Cross is a non-profit organization that processes benefit claims for multiple organizations, both government and private. And Alberta Blue Cross has the infrastructure, the adjudication expertise, systems to do this, whereas GNWT does not have the capacity nor the financial resources to deliver this service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister for Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in reference to my Member's statement with the highway, summer and fall. What were some of the factors that caused the deterioration of the Dempster Highway between Wrangling River and Inuvik this summer and early fall? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has been a tough year -- or a tough season for a lot of the roads in the Northwest Territories, including this stretch of particular highway. There were some challenges this year with maintenance, Mr. Speaker. One of the contracts that had gone out -- it went out, and there was a request for a negotiated contract. That slowed down the procurement process. We were able to ask the existing contractor to continue to maintain the road but certainly not the same as having someone in place more permanently. So although the work was getting done, it wasn't getting done perhaps with the same frequency that it would otherwise, so add to that some snowfall and -- or sorry, some early snowfall and some wet conditions and it certainly made things a little more difficult. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What contingency plans, if any, have been put in place to address similar situations in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have the relevant contracts now awarded and that will provide more consistency in terms of the maintenance that is occurring in that region. Mr. Speaker, there's also some particular contracts related to larger scale repair work, for example dip repair right at the crossing, so -- and along with a number of other projects. And, again, a couple of them certainly did get delayed over this summer season but I can say, again, that those are now awarded. And what I'd suggest with respect to contingency is ensuring that there's a wider degree of overlap in terms of the timing of when contracts come due for the maintenance so that we don't wind up in a situation where there's any gap in time or any reduced services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the past, I suggested that major maintenance be conducted during the seasonal closure of the highway when there's less traffic and all maintenance can be completed, including dust control. Has this option ever been considered? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have to look back over time and see the degree to which that has been considered but also whether or not that impacts any of the work that's happening. As I've said, for right now the work that is coming through in terms of some of the repair of potholes and ruts that have arisen over the course of the summer, that is getting dealt with as much as possible before too much snowfall. And with the snowfall, they are doing what they can to, you know, still monitor and do some ice blading, some snow plowing, to try to mitigate where there were some tough spots. So, again, happy to take that back, Mr. Speaker, and see whether it's been considered or whether it can be something that can be implemented. Thank you.