Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm glad that the Member asked this question because this is -- this piece here is near and dear to my heart, and this is what the direction as it was given to the department as part of this is reviewing our staffing models in our health centres and not just, you know, our centres that currently have nurses but all health centres across the territory. We have nine communities that have no -- you know, they have a CHR, and if we're lucky they have a home support worker in those communities. We need to be looking at, you know, the incidents of how much, you know, times these clients are having to travel to access services and what the cost is of bringing those services closer. So this review going on across right now with our nursing leadership is reviewing our model of care in our health centres which will identify, you know, the need because in the past, we are working on a federal model, and many of the nurses were put into these health centres, were given housing, were given, you know -- and this is the model we're currently working on. And over the years, we've tweaked it and we've add in home support workers to support, but we need to take a real look at the needs of our small communities and making sure that they're getting the preventative support services that they're needing so that their emergency services are not -- that's not all that they're dealing with. And so that's what's happening throughout. And you know, some of those communities, having access to nurse practitioners, you know, if we can get more nurse practitioners to be working with all of our communities, you know, and then the needs of physicians when they're needed by the residents, you know, that can limit the amount of travel. We all talk about the travel that we're spending on our residents in the Northwest Territories. So this is a whole part of what's going on right now with the medical travel, the, you know, modernization in the health centre and the primary care reform. So there's a whole bunch of things that are kind of working right now that are taking place and hopefully that will help to streamline and strengthen our access to care in the Northwest Territories for our residents. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to thank my colleagues for speaking to this generally, the topic of tariffs and Team Canada today. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier seize this opportunity to encourage a green new deal for the NWT and critical minerals working in tandem with Team Canada and Indigenous leadership? And I'm specifically asking this of the Premier because he is at those tables, not the Minister of ITI. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to stay away from the term "green new deal." That's politically charged and comes with a lot of baggage. But I am working to drum up investment in critical minerals, explain the importance of critical minerals to the rest of Canada, and let them know what we have here in the Northwest Territories. And I know the message has been heard because I hear it when I travel and meet with other Ministers or premiers, and so we really are pushing that angle. And I'll continue to do so. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a real opportunity here to not only be punching above our weight, as I said in my statement, but also to show leadership in the availability of critical minerals in our territory. But as the Premier knows, we don't make a lot of money off of resource royalties right now. Will there be a redesign of royalties coming back into the territory to help us meet both the GNWT's endless infrastructure and social spending deficits and those of our Indigenous partners? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, of course, revenue royalties are under the Minister of ITI so I can't speak to that. My primary concern is getting some investment into the territory and getting some development and getting people working and, of course, doing it in a sustainable way. That's one thing that we always have to balance in the Northwest Territories. The people of the Northwest Territories, they still live on the land. They still hunt, they still fish, they still trap, and many communities supplement their incomes and their food through those methods. So while we have that consideration, we also have a maturing regulatory regime, and we are constantly working to streamline it and ensure that we're working more closely with proponents so that they know what we want out of our regulatory system; we don't leave them guessing. And I'm advocating always for more support for Indigenous governments to be part of that process. If you have a small Indigenous government with an unsettled land claim, they can't deal with dozens and dozens and dozens of exploration companies who are coming and trying to consult, and that creates a bottleneck. And so we need to support the Indigenous governments as well to get things going. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change following up on my Member's statement over potential changes to the quarry permitting.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why the GNWT is considering additional consultation requirements for quarry permits when land and water boards already have consultation as part of the permitting process. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, consultation taken under the quarry permits is not additional consultation to that undertaking by the land and water board for the land use permits. Quarry permits and land use permits are two different authorizations under two separate authorities and under two separate pieces of legislation. Quarry permits are issued by the GNWT, where land use permits are issued by the appropriate land and water board across the NWT except for in the ISR.
For a quarry permit -- for quarry operations, both a quarry permit and a land use permit are required. For example, the land use permit grants access to use heavy equipment on the site while the quarry permit provides the access to the granular material and the authorization to use that material. Any consultation undertaken on a quarry permit is specific to that actual activity, the use of the material itself. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. So from what I understand from quarry permit holders in my region, they are being asked for additional consultation. I understand what the Minister is saying. So I guess if there is a duplication, has the GNWT considered entering into a protocol agreement with the land and water boards to avoid any duplication of consultation efforts while ensuring that their duty to consult is met? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as mentioned, quarry permits are not issued for the same purpose or under the same authority as the land use permit. The GNWT are unable to delegate consultation obligations for quarry permits, for example the land and water board, or other organizations that may issue land use permits. The department, we're always interested in considering ways to better coordinate processes and other regulatory -- with other regulatory agencies. And I'll ask the department to explore any possibilities in this regard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
So, Mr. Speaker, I guess my question is simple, then. Has the department or is the department looking at any potential changes to the quarry permitting process, or is it the same now as it was last year and will be the same again next year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department continues to use the same processes as it has in the past. We remain committed to working with industry stakeholders navigating the quarry permit application process to better communicate clearly with industry as well as the other people in the territory how this whole process works. And I'll commit today to, you know, work with the Member. I understand that there's a specific issue in his constituency that he would like addressed, so I'll stand here today and commit to following up with the Member to better understand the issue and the details and see what we can do to alleviate that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. And, yes, I appreciate that. And the Minister, I will say, has always been willing to work with me in the Beaufort Delta when I do have concerns around this.
Just one follow-up question that may be a yes or no answer, then; I wasn't sure if it was answering the last one, Mr. Speaker. Are there any proposed changes to the quarry permitting process being potentially looked at by the government? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, there are no current changes being considered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Northerners continue to be puzzled why this government is stripping away benefits that have existed for many, many years. Yes, I'm talking about the affirmative action policy changes that are leaving people who live -- were born and raised in the Northwest Territories who have lived half their life here, Indigenous, non-Indigenous, why they're being left out in the cold. Can the Minister explain -- Minister responsible for the public service explain why she is so determined to take this benefit away from Northerners. Thank you.
Member from Range Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not looking to take away benefits from Northerners. Firstly, the definition under the affirmative action policy isn't always what people think it is. You can be born in the Northwest Territories and move to anywhere else in Canada. You are still going to be benefitting as a P1. So it's not necessarily as simple as all that. And, yet, that reality has been on the books for 35 years. So there's lots of folks who come up to the North, who live in the North who are not P1s. In fact, they have no category or status whatsoever. There's folks who may live across the border from the Northwest Territories, Smith's Landing or in Nunavut, also have no status under our human resources policy whatsoever. There's a lot of problems with what we have, and we want to get to a place where we are using evidence-based approach to our policies that we are trying to figure out what it is that we're trying to solve, and in this case, looking at evidence, Mr. Speaker, we have a population that we serve that's 50 percent Indigenous, they make up 28 to 30 percent of the public service, they have an unemployment rate of 14 percent. This is a problem that we need to solve. It's high time we solved it, and that's what we're trying to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree the public service should be representative of the people it serves. How is encouraging more southern Indigenous people to work for the public service representative of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not been a time that I've suggested that what we're trying to do is encouraging the southern -- host of folks from the southern parts of Canada to come to the Northwest Territories. I'd be actually quite interested to see if there was suddenly a line-up at the border of folks wanting to come for the public service here. It might be suggestive of this being a very positive place to come and work. Mr. Speaker, our population's been stagnant for 20 years. Right now over the last four years, the average population growth for the Northwest Territories is at the absolute bottom of Canada and what we have done, and why we tried to make change that we did earlier or initially, opening this to Indigenous persons, there are many Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories who may not be members of groups who are within this boundary who are members of -- for example, of the Council of Leaders, and we were trying to simply reflect that reality here.
Mr. Speaker, I was happy to take this back to Cabinet and suggest that we reexamine that. Obviously, our relationships with Indigenous governments here are very important to us. But at no time, Mr. Speaker, was there an expectation that we suddenly see an influx of folks. This always has been about ensuring that the people who are in the North, and specifically the Indigenous people in the North, would receive some form of priority in our hiring. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So how has the -- has the policy changed, Mr. Speaker? The Minister spoke of bringing it back to the Council of Leaders. Has the policy changed since what Members have been told? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, when this first went out a year ago, or about 2023, rather, for rounds of consultation, the proposal was to do an approach where we would have First Nations, Inuit, Metis persons or members or descendants from groups within the Northwest Territories' boundaries as a first priority and all Indigenous Canadians second priority. As I said, there are a number of people within the Northwest Territories, Indigenous, who -- part of that process and said, look, this doesn't capture me, please, can it be more inclusive. Again, there's no policy that's going to be perfect here. So we went with the one version. Obviously, these last several weeks have suggested that that was not a version that the majority of residents or MLAs wanted to see. So we have gone back, and I've had Cabinet suggest that we revisit that original definition, go back to the idea of having Indigenous Canadians but with first priority to those with membership or who are descendants of the Northwest Territories. I am saying this as a proposal because, again, I had hoped that rather than making a decision that I'd have an opportunity to take that to MLA colleagues before bringing it back to Cabinet for a final decision. We are looking to maintain our April 1st change date. A lot of work's gone into the change management of this process, and I'm hopeful we'll make it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Then I would suggest bringing it to committee before you bring it to the media. That's just a tip for the Minister.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that Indigenous people will be better represented by this change potentially. I think we still need to have conversations. But what about black and brown people, women, people with disabilities, people who were covered by the old policy? Is the Minister taking DEI -- on the anti-DEI train that Donald Trump is on, or are we just leaving these people out in the cold too? The old policy covered this. It was around diversity, around ensuring no one's left behind. The assumption that P2s are all white people of privilege is a false assumption. So what is the Minister doing to ensure that other minority populations in the Northwest Territories are being protected by our hiring policies? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I'm going to take a look at Hansard and decide whether or not a comparison between myself and Mr. Trump warrants some further proceeding -- procedural question. I'm going to leave it alone for the moment and I can, as I said, look back at Hansard and make that consideration in due course.
Mr. Speaker, I certainly did attempt to take this back to committee. I actually was able to arrange an opportunity to meet with committee, but the committee declined to meet with me. And then because of all the things had gone to the media, including confidential letters marked from my office to committee, I had an inundation of requests to speak to the media. I have done my best to try to indicate that this was still something under consideration in those interviews.
And, Mr. Speaker, with respect to other members of the population of the Northwest Territories, again, we want the Northwest Territories public service to be inclusive and diverse. This is one piece of a much bigger puzzle that we're trying to solve here to make this a better workforce. There's a number of different initiatives underway, including, not least of which is the diversity and inclusion framework, which is fairly new. It has rolled out. It is being implemented. And, Mr. Speaker, the idea here is to get at the root of actually understanding when there is bias in a workplace, when there's maybe unconscious bias, ensuring that our workplaces are ones that are welcoming, diverse, acceptable, that persons can go and work there without -- and feel welcome when they are there. And, Mr. Speaker, we are most certainly committed to that as a policy of the Northwest Territories government. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on a question I had asked the Minister of housing some time ago. I had written her an email about naming one of the downtown buildings the Whitford Building. I again brought it up in October asking about that. I talked about the policy, non-policy constraints, other than the fact that she wanted to say there's a process. Frankly, the Minister is in charge of this process, can present to Cabinet with not just one building that's established, but we also have three more -- or sorry, two more buildings coming on stream in the near future. Would the Minister be willing to name one of the three buildings, whether it's the new housing building, whether it's the Whitford Healing Centre for the new shelter, or even the downtown barrier-free building after Mr. Tony Whitford who has honoured this territory for decades. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Housing NT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my discussions with Housing NWT, we are continuing to look at this, examine if naming buildings throughout the Northwest Territories for people that have done great service for the Northwest Territories, like Mr. Whitford, is appropriate. We continue to examine that. Because, again, we work with our leadership across the North, including the Council of Leaders, so things need to be examined carefully before announcements are made. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we have a lot of buildings. I'm not here to go through them all; maybe we didn't name the Legislative Assembly, but we have the Joe Tobie Building, we have the Arthur Laing Building, etcetera, etcetera. We even had the Jan Stirling Building, and she was alive at the time it was named in her honour.
Mr. Speaker, I'm asking the Minister to show some courage, some fortitude on this one, and just make a decision today and say I will find a way to get this done, that we honour our former Commissioner in that type of method such as naming a building, either new or renewed, in his honour given the important commitment he's made to Northerners. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I'll reiterate that this has to be examined, that we have to look at things, we have to be careful in what we do. And understanding the Member's request, we just have to be careful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I don't want to chew up too much more time but it just seems like, well, we're going to examine this. I mean, we could be in the -- we could be in the 22nd Assembly from the sounds of the way that the government's moving so quickly on this. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to commit to bring back a decision and direction before the end of this current sitting showing that we're done talking about this idea and be willing to make a decision? That would be grateful to me and an immense amount of Northerners who would appreciate this gesture. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister's willing to commit that we'll come back at the end of the Assembly with a response for the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Assembly -- if I said "Assembly", I want to make sure I was clear, I meant the sitting just so we're on the record. If the Minister meant the Assembly in two and a half years, I think, you know, that's the definition of bureaucracy in the sense of -- Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit to bringing back a decision and direction before the end of this sitting? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I meant Assembly and, again, I'll talk to the Member about this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions now are for the Minister of Finance.
So the 2023 GNWT employee engagement and satisfaction survey identified a number of sources of major dissatisfaction in GNWT workplaces and, in particular, places where dissatisfaction's been growing. So I understand that in July of last year an action plan, an employee satisfaction action plan, was released to try to address the problems. So can the Finance Minister tell us what progress is being made since this action plan was established, first, on growing concerns that GNWT workplaces are not psychologically healthy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the line of questions. This is yet one more of the suite of things that we are trying to address and trying to implement across the human resources processes within the GNWT. We have, as a part of responding to this, now implemented the national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace across the GNWT. So it creates a very specific target by which staff can understand what their rights are and what the processes are and whereby supervisors and managers can have some toolkits available to them.
With respect to that implementation specifically training associated, Mr. Speaker, I'm more than happy to get some details on where we're at and what we plan to do. There is much more happening. And, really, one of the sort of critical things is that to actually get a more of an action plan on all of these items. Mr. Speaker, we have a committee formed from -- with across the public service and they are, in fact, meeting. I believe they are scheduled to meet this month in order to start to roll this out in a more conservative fashion. Every department has been asked to come up with their own individualized approach with some specific actions. And, again, I'd be more than happy to see and to provide each of those to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Another part of the survey that came out, what is the GNWT doing about the widespread concern that information does not flow effectively between senior leadership and staff? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a particular one that I read several of the individual EESSs for individual departments as well as for the GNWT as a whole, and there's often an interesting correlation between when information is not flowing and then what that can do to the overall morale in an individual place. So this is one of some particular interest to me, so -- and, again, on this one, Mr. Speaker, this is where each department, because there are often different processes and different types of hierarchies within them are expected to have those individualized plans. Again, I have certainly seen some of them but as for the individual implementation of each, I don't have that in front of me. I'm more than happy to get it and put it forward. And, frankly, this might be something that given the magnitude and size warrants a full briefing, but also I'll put it to the House here so that it can be tabled, Mr. Speaker. It's important that employees see that there's action being taken on this. Thank you.
