Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Referring back to my Member's statement today, I talked about the concerns of our general assignment of doctors or I should say availability of doctors. So I ask the Minister of Health and Social Services is why can't our system be set up in a way that we assign patients to doctors as opposed to the other way around? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within our system, I hear what the Member is saying, however, there are doctors assigned to the primary care teams that are in Yellowknife, so that's the structure that we work around now. You know, if we look back over the years of how health care was provided and basically clinics were -- we went from a private health care model where doctors set up their own private clinics and, you know, took on patients, whereas right now all of the physicians in our system are now contracted to the NTHSSA and they are -- you know, they -- within that department, they're working within the model of the primary health care model. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer of defending status quo process and paperwork because I'm not sure we are doing anything better. I can't -- I'd like to hear what the Minister says we've solved health care problems and assignments. Can the Minister answer that question in the context of why don't we go back to fee for service where doctors could see more patients a day and deliver the same type of results, about serving citizens, and that's exactly what we want. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have not heard from the physicians that want to go back to fee for service, but I will bring that forward to NTHSSA to see if that's something that they're hearing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the last doctor who talked about, if I may say, a soft way complained or highlighted or raised the flag of scheduling and administration, when they retired, they were no longer welcome back. Mr. Speaker, that type of frustration, in other words if you speak out about problems you're going to be benched. Mr. Speaker, what type of environment can we create and foster to get intake directly from the doctors about how we can serve our citizens better in a system that works better and is more efficient? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not familiar with the -- what the Member is referring to, but what I can say is that just even in this last few months I've had meetings with, you know, with physicians, with the medical -- NWT Medical Association. The PA has met with them, the CEO has met with them. You know, so we are trying to understand what, you know, some of the highlighted issues are with primary care reform and work with the physicians through that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Health and Social Services dismissed the health leadership council that provided overall governance to the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority. In their dismissal, which was very clear, that it was not due to cause, that they performed their duties effectively. So can the Minister explain why we need a public administrator if the outgoing council did such a good job? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, you know, one of the things with the governing council, I will give it to those Members that sat on those -- that council from those four -- or from the communities, from the regions, they worked very hard representing their communities, bringing forward some of these issues, transitioning them into, you know, how to move this system forward. Many of them have been there since the beginning of the NTHSSA's creation. But the mounting pressure, the mounting financial pressures that they were raising, became clear that the complex situation that, you know, we hear it every day, like, we're hearing it right now - how are we providing access to care? We hear constantly about access issues. You know, we have small communities where we have health centres that are on emergency services. We have equipment within the NTHSSA that is inhibiting people to phone and make appointments. So it's not just from the access to care. But we also have recruitment issues, morale issues, you know, and I think there's many complex things that this board who work and do this work, they all have other careers. They all -- you know, and so they do this in quarterly meetings. They meet with the -- they used to meet with the chair. So there is more focus now to be able to work with the PA who is continuing to work with the chairs from the regional wellness council to do this work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly, I don't think anyone expects the governance council to run day-to-day operational concerns of the health authority. My question was what does the -- what new powers -- or sorry, what did the council not have that the public administrator does? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the council -- the public administrator has all the powers the governing council had. You know, and I think that's the one thing that the PA also has, is he has the expertise to be able to work and create the plan that everybody wants to see. And so the -- before what was happening was the governing council was expecting this plan to come, you know, and I've heard from many of the regional wellness council chairs that they, you know -- as this deficit grew over the last many years, you know, they continue to be wanting a plan on how they were going to deal with this but the ever growing cost of providing health care in the Northwest Territories, and then many of them said after COVID it got even, you know, more hard to be able to come up with more strategies to be able to provide the access to care that the residents need. So right now what's happening is that the PA is in place to be able to work with the regional wellness councils to work with -- you know, with the priorities of this government to create that plan to move -- you know, to make sure that our health care is sustainable and that we do have access to care to our residents in the Northwest Territories. 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 NTHSSA has had deficit reduction plans. They've had independent third-party consultants review their operation. So, again, what is -- what will the public administrator do differently with these plans that the board didn't do and that the current administration of NTHSSA is not doing? I just don't understand why this is -- can the Minister just explain why this is such an important decision that is going to move things along when the old board and council could not do so? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I'm working with the PA, once I have -- what is he doing right now is he's analyzing, he's working -- like I said, he's working with the regional wellness chairs, getting their feedback. He is doing the work that he needs to do right now with the CEO, understanding the complexities of our organization, and he will be coming back with a plan. And as soon as that plan comes back to Cabinet, I will be sharing it and discussing it with the Regular Members so that we're all 19 members in this House moving forward on a better plan on how we are going to make sure that the health care in the Northwest Territories is sustainable and that our residents have access to health care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain what part of the agreement with the federal government for affordable childcare doesn't allow larger operators for making financially sound decisions like growing reserve fund or modest salary increases for workers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Canada-NWT Canada-wide ELCC agreement requires that the GNWT implement a certification system and a wage grid for early childhood educators and also that it achieves the average $10 a day per childcare fees for families in the Northwest Territories. However, the agreement does not define specifics on how the GNWT is to implement the certification or wage grid. That's something that we were able to do here in the territory by meeting with our stakeholders.
The wage grid identifies an hourly minimum that an educator must receive but doesn't set out the maximum, and the regulations do not prevent them from going above that.
In regards to a contingency fund, the centre-based operators are allowed to maintain funds as long as the contingency fund does not exceed an amount equal to three months or more than three months of operating expenses, and that amount can also exceed those three months as long as the funds don't come from ECE. So, for example, if they are doing fundraising and events like that, they are able to keep that amount and it doesn't count towards their three-month maximum. And in addition to that, there is nothing in the regulations that prohibits a licensed centre-based operator from accessing alternative fundraising -- or sorry, alternative sources of funding like fundraising, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Okay, so the math is not mathing still for me because -- I'm happy that the Minister has explained that a little bit better; it helps me put things together, but I also understand that the pressures of operating such a large daycare, largest in the territory, mean that there are cost pressures that are not adequately being addressed under these parameters.
So, Mr. Speaker, is it possible for the Minister to amend the regulations to allow for different scale and scope of operators to exist in the territory noting that, of course, daycare looks different in Tsiigehtchic than it does in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member. And I think it's fair to recognize that there have certainly -- I don't think it's a secret to anybody in this room, there's certainly been some growing pains as far as implementing our $10 dollar a day average childcare across the territory.
Our existing wage grid regulations have not fully come into force. So right now, ECE is working with operators to determine what that looks like, so with our centre-based operators. And that also means that not everyone has gone through the process of doing their certification and so not everyone is seeing the -- or sorry, early childhood operators across the territory are not yet seeing the increases based on their level of experience and as well their level of education. So until we see the regulations fully come into force, we won't be able to see how it's working throughout the territory. And so at this time, I would say to the Member that we really need to see how it comes into force and how it ends up working out throughout the territory before we determine what is and is not working. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding -- and I've highlighted this to the Minister already -- that this operator is concerned that the ELCC staff at ECE are -- you know, not in great contact with this operator. Can the Minister work to resolve this? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am in direct contact with the senior staff of education, culture and employment seven days a week unfortunately for them, but I very much appreciate how accessible they are. And as soon as I did receive the correspondence from the MLA, I immediately did reach out to the deputy minister because like I did say last year, these relationships are paramount and we want to ensure that the childcare sector is well supported and well informed and has access to answers to their questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To date, since the announcement of closures of the community learning centres, what has the department done in making recommendations as to what is going to happen in the near future with the community learning centres? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So in regards to the community learning centres, where we're at right now is working with Aurora College to gain clarity on what part of that space they continue to filling within communities and which part of that space they intend to pull back from so that we know as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment where we need to kind of react and be able to work with communities on ensuring access to adult education in small communities across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister give me and this House the number of employees who are directly impacted by the closure of the community learning centres? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can certainly pull that back up for the Member. We did all receive an email that spoke directly to that. I just don't have it immediately at my fingertips right this very second. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta. Final supplementary.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister conduct public consultation to the employees and affected communities on what the plans are for the learning centres within each respective community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess there's two things at play here. The first is that Aurora College will have a responsibility for communicating their plan, but ultimately as Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, I think there is a responsibility to ensure that all residents of the Northwest Territories understand what the go-forward plan is and what parts of that plan will be administered by Aurora College and what parts might fall to either Education, Culture and Employment or another entity within the Northwest Territories. And so I think there is a responsibility for some joint communication here to be able to share with all residents of the territory what that looks like. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. So on Friday, the Minister committed to publicly releasing a report on the community learning centres, completed just last year, that was based on a set of community consultations that assessed how well the community learning centres were working and what could be done better. So can the Minister confirm whether in those consultations, did communities recommend that the community learning centres be shut down, or did they provide suggestions for more innovative and effective approaches to adult education programming? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that this afternoon those reports are now online and as soon as I stop answering questions, I'll be able to send an email to my colleagues to let them know those links. So, Mr. Speaker, there -- to start, there was a facilities master plan that was released by the GNWT in September of 2022. In April of 2024, there was community learning centre reports, along with What We Heard reports, that were commissioned by the GNWT and also community learning centres facilities report. These reports, Mr. Speaker, did not identify the closure of community learning centres as part of their recommendations. They did identify things like flexibility, variety of programming, and being responsive to community needs as some of the preferences and suggestions, and then they also did talk about different projected enrolments, staffing models, financial capacity. So there was a variety of things that the reports did explore, and I look forward to providing those links both to Members of this House, and I can commit to also putting them on my Facebook page. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for confirming that, in fact, the actions taken by the college went against what communities had been saying in the consultations about the CLCs.
What has the Minister heard from organizations other than Aurora College, such as Indigenous governments or development corporations, the literacy council or Dechinta, regarding their interest in offering the kind of adult education to fill the gap being left by Aurora College? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point I don't have specifics to share, but I mean, certainly there's been interest in everything from filling the space in its entirety or filling parts of the space. There's also been interest in using some of the facilities for something different that might speak to some of the needs in communities. So this has certainly started a lot of buzz and conversation about what the future of not only adult learning in communities looks like but also future uses of these facilities, which I think is really interesting, because I think it's important that we do use this as an opportunity and be creative in what the next chapter looks like. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so on the related subject of family-based literacy programming, what is ECE doing to promote family- based literacy and learning instead of just school-based learning, or has this fallen off the radar with the introduction of junior kindergarten and the focus on childcare? Thank you.
So, colleagues, that's a different line of questioning where we started off so I'm going to go to -- do you have another question with CLCs? Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. Can the Minister confirm what will be the next steps in terms of her interaction with Aurora College to help sort out what parts of this adult education space Aurora College still wants to continue filling? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
