Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Will the department consider funding willing communities to establish a working committee to counsel potential individuals who would like to enter the substance abuse program? At the present time, the interested individuals who want to go for treatment have to seek counselling elsewhere, so they have to leave the community. And the community members know best who need the help, and they know each other. So will the department consider funding potential communities with these committees? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this area where the Member is speaking to has been identified. There were changes put in place to ensure that programs for wellness and recovery addictions can be in one pot of money and be flexible. So within health and social services, we have the Community Wellness and Addiction Recovery Fund which Indigenous -- regional Indigenous governments can apply, and then there's a deadline if there is no uptake in the regional governments and the community Indigenous governments can apply individually as they're -- you know, for their needs of their community. But what I can say is for the Member's riding, the Gwich’in Tribal Council, which would cover two of the communities through -- well, actually three of the communities that the -- were approved for $303,033. And then the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation has a multiyear agreement that does also provide programming individually for those communities. There's also an additional pot of funding that Tetlit Gwich’in band council has accessed and their CA is in progress. There is the suicide prevention fund so that can be used to promote wellness and programming within those communities. Again, there has been $72,000 allocated in this budget for Gwich’in Tribal Council to provide programs and the Tetlit Gwich’in Council, $71,000 signed for those communities. So all of that money has been allocated to be able to be used in those communities as per the community wishes. So, you know, and then alongside of that health and social services still does provide clinical counsellors. The health and social services still provides if there is a need for out-of-territory treatment, so there is many -- and then if they're NHIB clients, there is medical travel to help assist to support those that are under those NHIB addiction recovery programs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for all that information. That's real good news to hear that money has been allocated. There's another barrier that, you know, that we have to look at policies and procedures that will go hand in hand with these committees if they're established at the community level. Will the department look at assisting these communities with policies and procedures in order to make this committee work effectively? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as for, you know, I think committees, we do have the regional wellness councils that do help, and there are members from the Member for Mackenzie Delta's riding on the regional wellness council. They do provide feedback. Mental health and addictions have been one that has been highlighted by many of the regions and especially from the Beaufort Delta. This area -- you know, the thing is that we do collaborate with the communities on the GNWT provided programs. There has been, you know, some work done in the Beaufort Delta on how we provide services within our communities at the community level working with Indigenous governments. But as well as those funds that we give, like all of the money that I had mentioned before that we give to those Indigenous governments, that is on them to decide how they want to use those monies and we don't have any -- like, other than it's used for wellness and recovery and addictions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are there any active committees like that are actively working in to helping their residents of these small communities that we can learn from that are active within the NWT at the present time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would have to have further conversations with the Member to understand the committees that he's wanting information about. As I mentioned, we have the regional wellness councils that give the input to NTHSSA on how programs work. Those are vital committees. They're members from the local communities. And, again, the direction of how those monies that are flowing to the Indigenous governments would be through their own committees to do that, so. But I'm willing to have more conversations with the Member to figure out how to respond to if there is more work that can be done to support Indigenous and small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under Dene law here in the Northwest Territories, for a long time we've been taking care of our own people including loved ones as they pass. Most recent, up to two and a half years here in the Northwest Territories, you would be able to buy a casket from Fort Smith, Hay River, and Inuvik, and but right now the only funeral home in the Northwest Territories has that market now. So if a loved one passed, you have to go there and buy a casket. But as a carpenter, if somebody comes up to me and asks me to build a casket, we don't question it; we just do it. But now I'm told that you have to go to McKenna -- sorry, the only supplier in the Northwest Territories to buy the casket. So my question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is that if we can look at a policy to amend it so that we could open it up again to go to these suppliers to look at buying caskets based on what community wants and the families want. Thank you.
Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear what the Member is saying, and I too have had these conversations as soon as I became the Minister. However, before there was this -- the bereavement pot of money that sits within the health and social services to assist with low income families, you know, to assist with caskets and some funeral costs; however, over the years, this has been sole sourced, you know, and so there were issues coming up about how in procurement that this is not fair. I guess I don't -- I wasn't part of any -- most of those discussions. However, now as the Health and Social Services Minister, this has gone through procurement, and so the program that we currently have that the funding is allocated is procured to a business and that business, whenever somebody needs to access that fund, has to go through that person, that contract that's been approved for these funds. However, we also have heard many of these issues so, you know, these -- this is something that we can always take the feedback and, you know, when looking at this contract when it comes up, you know, we can take a look at it from all the feedback in how we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had an elder that passed just before Christmas and who had worked for the Government of the Northwest Territories for a long time and very well-respected in our community and when a casket was provided, it was provided to the elder in the community, and we learned that that casket was used. And in our culture, people get really offended and upset about that kind of thing. So my question to the Minister is what can we do better so that this does not happen again to -- especially to our elders and loved ones in our community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I can do is I can commit to looking into the delivery of the service to better understand how it's -- you know, how it's operating within our communities just so that there's more clear understanding for myself -- not just for myself, but for residents in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, also I just want to bring up another issue is that when we have loved ones that have left our communities to go south or to be with family and that and sometimes they pass away and they need to come home, the thing is that the way the government has their policy set up, they -- because they're out of province, the family would have to go to the chief and council, the Metis council, and look at ways to try to bring the body back to the community. I just want to know if the Minister is open to looking at how we can fix this problem because originally these guys that are -- our members have moved away and they come back, so we want to see what we can do as a government to help out in this -- on a policy directive to look at this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, when a loved one dies, you know, and whether they're in our home, whether they're anywhere, this is a hard and difficult time; however, this program, this is intended to support current eligible NWT residents, you know, and I think if they are NWT residents and they are outside the territory when they pass away, we've had this conversation in the House that people that travel outside the Northwest Territories for any type of recreation, you know, visiting, holidays, business, anything, you know, if you're travelling on business, you're usually covered by your employer but if you're travelling for your own personal, you should be looking at out -- like, for travel insurance, and I mean that is something that we've heard many times happening recently. And so getting that information out to our residents that, you know, it does cost if something happens, you know, while you're outside of the territory. But this program here is intended for Northwest Territories residents. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain what the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has done to consult residents in small communities about the closure of the community learning centres? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question.
Mr. Speaker, under the Aurora College Act, the Aurora College board of governors is responsible for operational decisions of the college. So this was not a decision that was made by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, so they wouldn't have done community engagement or consultations with communities for a decision that they did not make. Thank you.
Thank you. Now, so will the adult learners in small communities now be expected to attend high school classes in regular K through 12 programming? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, at this point we don't have the clarity we need, based on the plans going forward of Aurora College, to understand what parts of the adult learning and basic education components they plan to continue to fill and which ones and how they plan to roll some of those back. And so without that clarity, we can't put a plan in place going forward. But I can say that some communities have reached out as well to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment because they have plans as to how they'd like to see the community learning centres used. But at this point, the work that's being done by ECE is working with Aurora College to understand their go-forward plan so then we can create a plan as to what the future looks like. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. So does the department have a plan to expand services for academic upgrading and basic programming in small communities to something more developed such as GED certificate programs or partnership with the college to offer more trades programs locally? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have said as well, ECE still remains responsible for ensuring that there is access to enhanced education and employment programming in small communities. So with that in mind, that will be some of the work that happens once we gain that clarity of their go-forward plans from Aurora College. And one of the things that I think is really interesting happening within some communities within the education and employment space is some dev corps are really looking into working with the government in how they can use government existing funding and existing programming to be able to work in partnership to create more education and employment opportunities for communities and by pairing up some of the projects that they're working on. And so there are some different exciting pieces that don't relate to CLCs that are happening, and I'm more than happy to talk about that with the Member as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are actually for the Minister of Health and Social Services following up on previous questions that I've been asking earlier this week.
With regard to the new public administrator, there's lots of sort of concern and anxiety and worry going around about possible, you know, budget cuts associated with this role. So can the Minister clarify is the public administrator's focus simply on finding cost savings, or is the public administrator also going to be focusing on how to actually improve delivery of primary care in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the role of the public administrator is to -- as the Member has said, is to do both. Not necessarily to come in now and then -- but to make the work plan so that way all of the things that I highlighted yesterday in this House on recruitment and retention, you know, the historic deficit of the NTHSSA has been hanging over the NTHSSA and being able to be strategic in how -- because they've been focusing on just how to manage within that system. So this is support to that to be able to look at how we're providing care in the Northwest Territories, looking internally and working with the executive in the NTHSSA to ensure that, you know, what we're spending on health care, ensuring that the end user is getting access to care. So it's improving the services while also, you know, looking at internally, yes, there might be some things that we are going to be having to change internally because of where we are with our -- you know, with the deficit budget year after year. So we will have to -- the PA will be responsible as the governing council before was responsible to ensure that they look at in building their budgets. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I am heartened being able to take away from that that there is a focus on actually improving the patient experience and delivery of care for patients. So given the rumors of impending cuts, can the Minister assure us that we will not see cuts to frontline health care practitioners? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, in all the conversations that I've had with the PA is to look internally to see how we can improve frontline services. And so by improving frontline services, I've -- you know, that is -- that would not be meaning cuts. We are having issues accessing care. We've heard it over the years, you know, this is not something that's new. It's grown over the years. So the priority that -- you know, within the direction and under myself, with the PA, has been to ensure that frontline services are not touched, but how can we improve them and expand them with what we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, finally, can patients expect to see the closure of any specialist services offered by Stanton Territorial Hospital or regional hospitals, meaning will patients now need to travel out of territory for treatment when they could currently access that within the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister, that's pretty in the weeds for me but I can tell you right now whatever services that we are trying to provide in the Northwest Territories, we only want to improve and enhance. That is why we're also looking at modernizing our medical travel. That doesn't mean that we're going to expand medical travel services so everybody's flying more. It's modernizing it so that way we're looking at it so that when people need to travel, they're travelling, but how can we make sure that they're not needing to travel as much. And so that does not mean to be closing down specialized services. Those specialized services that we have, we want to try to maintain. However, the workforce across Canada is becoming harder and harder to recruit some of those areas of those specialists so, you know, working with Alberta to try and ensure that we can, you know, that we can be working with them to ensure that our programs are, you know, that are more closer to the residents than having to travel. But with saying that, you know, we will continue to manage within the system that we have and the health care personnel that we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, immigration is a hot topic. I got an email whilst we were having that exchange earlier and, you know, the concerns are really -- are a live issue. In this email this individual says, quote: What makes this even more frustrating is the recent news that the NTNP program will reopen soon but with conditions that grant all applications equal opportunities regardless of how long they have lived in the North or how much they've contributed to the community.
Now, I know that the Minister has put a pause on those changes, but the perception out there is that it's still first come/first serve. Can the Minister speak to that today and confirm that that is not the case. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, whatever program we decide to put in place for the Northwest Territories, we have to have it approved by IRCC. And so at the end of the day, I can't commit either way because I do have to have our tactic going forward and our way that we plan to roll this out approved first by the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the last time the NWT designed this program, did the federal government not accept what we brought forward? Because, Mr. Speaker, it sounds like there's a chance that we'll design something, we'll send it, and Mark Miller will say no and send it back to the Minister for improvement. Like, I just want to understand the process because we're not getting straight answers today and, again, people are worried. People are worried they're going to be deported from the Northwest Territories. And we can't let them -- have them living in that kind of fear. So can the Minister explain what the process is. Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure how I'm not being very clear right now or how I'm not being -- or how I'm being evasive but that is definitely not my intent. I started today by saying that I understand that we are dealing with real people's lives and that this is very important. It is very important to the Northwest Territories on many different levels. I have long been committed to the success of this program. And we are seeing great success in the territory in this program. The way that this program works is the federal government tells us exactly how many people we get for our allocation. Next, we have to tell them how we intend to roll this out. They have also told to us how -- what percentage of people have to be from temporary foreign workers within the country. Luckily for the Northwest Territories, 98 percent of our program uses temporary foreign workers. So that's not so different. What we need to determine, though, is how we're going to allocate those 150 allocations, nominations, that we get from within the Northwest Territories. We know that we have far greater people waiting to get their hands on those nominations like the rest of the country. Every jurisdiction is experiencing this right now. There is a great number of demand, and we need to make sure that we are, A, yes, being fair, but also ensuring that there is a very notable benefit to the Northwest Territories in how we choose to roll this out. No matter what program we go forward with, I am very aware that we're not going to make everybody happy and that weighs very heavily on my heart, and that's why we're making sure that we get this as right as possible. Thank you.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, the reason I'm confused, people are confused, is because we have a date of February, which is a month not a date, and we're unclear on how people will be prioritized. So, again, for people who have lived in the North, who have contributed to the North and whose permits are running out, are those people going to be prioritized? That's what the chamber wants. That's what our residents want. That's what business owners want. Can the Minister commit to that or at least -- at least give clarity that that is the top consideration that is going into this framework? If she can't commit that today, is that at least being part of the calculation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely part of the calculation. I have heard from an equal number of residents, probably to the Member, who have said this needs to be part of it. But to be honest, I've also heard from an equal number of people who have said that's not fair. So we're seeing both sides of it. We're considering everything, and I'm certainly considering that piece of it. Thank you.
