Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is interesting news, Mr. Speaker. I believe the Northwest Territories has already welcomed around 80 asylum seekers and refugees to the Northwest Territories. Seems like something we can do. Is the Minister going to be taking the federal Minister up on his offer and get our quota back? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I have asked for further details from the federal minister to better understand exactly who he would be speaking about and then also the potential demands on our system for -- so, for example, our healthcare system. And then, in addition, have wanted to better understand what support services the federal government would be open to offering the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the clock is ticking on the federal government. I don't think we have much long left with them. And certainly many people who are asylum seekers are able to work in the Northwest Territories as well. This seems like it could be two birds with one stone. And certainly the North is welcoming to people, and this would help solve a lot of problems. We have precious little time to get it done. When will the Minister have an answer for the House on this issue? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So I have asked for those further clarifying details from the federal government myself and then have also had a sit-down meeting with MP McLeod to also indicate the additional information that I'm looking for, and he agreed to take that back to his -- to the federal Minister as well. So we're both working together to try and flesh out this information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to pick up where some of the questions were left off with respect to the Minister of Finance and the Indigenous employment program. And one of the things she had mentioned how Indigenous Canadian summer students would be able to qualify. So I'm curious would they qualify above local P2s? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the summer student program you do need to be ordinarily resident so that right now persons who, as P2, would be born in the Northwest Territories. If they are not an ordinarily resident, then they would not. If they are a P2 because they have lived more than half their life and might be a student from that -- in that respect and if they're now still ordinarily resident, then they would qualify, Mr. Speaker. If under the Indigenous employment policy, you would have -- of course, again, it's related to persons who are Indigenous to the Northwest Territories or Indigenous Canadians but, again, would also still have to be ordinarily resident in the Northwest Territories. So, again, depends, I guess, what kind of P2 you might have under the current policy. But in any case, the individuals applying to the student program do all have to be ordinarily resident. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance, not infrastructure. Same person, but I apologize. Back to oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the similar note, Mr. Speaker, in the committee just recently the Minister had said known the policy of -- the affirmative action policy to be clear -- was known to be unconstitutional. Now, I'm not asking her opinion. I'm asking for her facts. So what facts does she have in a legal opinion that state this, and would she be willing to share this secret knowledge to Members? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that there have been discussions in public and with myself and perhaps with other Members and perhaps with other Members or representatives from the Department of Finance with respect to concerns around Section 6 of the Charter which relates to the mobility rights of Canadians to be able to move between jurisdictions. It's obviously a hot topic right now as we are facing challenges with tariffs and a response to tariffs that includes removing mobility or encouraging mobility across jurisdictions.
With respect to legal opinions, Mr. Speaker, it should, I think, be fairly well known by most people that legal opinions are not the kind of document that get readily shared by anyone who is in possession of one, and I won't be doing that today. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, only for a sentence at most, really, Bill 21 in Quebec is used to protect them from their philosophical position. I don't necessarily agree with it, and I want to make that clear. But that said, that is a state which is protecting their objectives, culture, rights, whatever. I'll let them defend it, not me. That said, the affirmative action program was a way of recognizing the value that P2s provide, including the other areas of women and persons with disabilities. Mr. Speaker, how unconstitutional is it so bad that people don't even have a legal opinion but yet flog it and say well, it doesn't meet the rights. Like, in other words, why can't we just do it until we're challenged? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's not that the department doesn't have legal opinions over the last 35 years; however, I just won't be putting forward legal opinions that are subject to solicitor-client privilege here on the floor of the House. Mr. Speaker, certainly happy to sit down and engage further about the various risks that go into determining policy. I'm not going to speak to what Quebec may or may not do. And there is a significant difference in the application of, you know -- if where this was going was some suggestion around, you know, what kind of risk mitigation strategies one might go into, and you are concerned about having an unconstitutional policy, Mr. Speaker, there's, again -- the question was difficult, quite frankly, to follow. I'm not trying to cast dispersions. I'm just wanting to ensure that I'm not now told I'm not answering the question. We have legal opinions. Mobility rights are a live issue. It was quite clear based on the language within the former affirmative action policy that it would more likely than not be across the line of being against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Mr. Speaker. And I think I'll leave it there. And there's 11 minutes on the clock; I'm happy to take more questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I wanted to ask the Minister about the policies of the GNWT-run day shelter and sobering centre here in Yellowknife around how and when they might restrict access to prevent individuals from using those spaces for reasons other than immediate safety threats. And I just wanted to especially note that the day shelter is the only co-ed space available in Yellowknife for social connection and community support.
Can the Minister confirm, do the day shelter and sober centre have policies to refuse access to anyone who may regularly seek shelter somewhere else, such as the women's shelter or the Salvation Army? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Health and Social Services that does oversee this temporary day shelter, they do have policies; however, I don't have those policies in front of me to be able to go through them and respond to that question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Okay. Can the Minister confirm whether the sobering centre restricts access to intoxicated individuals if they already have a room allocated to them, for example, at the women's centre or the Salvation Army? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have that level of detail. I do know that they have their processes and if they are an intoxicated individual, they -- whether they know they have a room somewhere else, I don't know how they work with the shelters within the network of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I do look forward to following up with the Minister to pursue this further. But my final question is just that given that the women's centre has a policy now stating it can't safely support intoxicated individuals during the daytime, even if they rent a room within that space, if these folks are being turned away at the sobering centre and they can't go back to their room at the women's centre, is the Minister aware of anywhere else those folks can go if they're intoxicated to safely get off the street? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, the health and social services does operate the sobering day shelter which acts as an emergency shelter at night; however, there are many other facilities in Yellowknife that are NGOs that run their facilities. Those things that I don't have as most of the shelters do not fall under just the shelter -- the sobering centre. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier this sitting I had asked questions about physician staffing in the Northwest Territories. We learned that nine physicians have left since fiscal year 2023-2024, and now we're hearing that 64 percent of physicians in the Northwest Territories are planning on leaving. This is a crisis to put it mildly, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister's plan to reverse this trend and bring either new physicians here or -- or bring new physicians to the Northwest Territories and keep the ones we currently have? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NTHSSA and the department, you know, they work closely together and they work with their partners with the medical association on, you know -- and I'll highlight an article today that the medical association is doing a lot of things that they feel that they can try to, you know, work with their staff; however, turnover in physicians throughout the Northwest Territories, historically, you know, has happened but this, again -- and I highlight this is not something that is isolated to the Northwest Territories. This is something that my colleagues, health Ministers in jurisdictions across Canada, are struggling with. There is some work being done at the national level to identify -- as I recently was at the FPT, and we had this discussion on data. So we actually know what the vacancy rates are in physicians and primary care physicians and family physicians, in specialty areas, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, all of the fields that we are currently seeing that we have vacancies in. And, Mr. Speaker, one of the things that they've identified through gathering that data is the amount of positions that -- or amount of spaces in schools that are producing -- that are college students and, you know, going into. The graduates of all of those programs across Canada are not even enough to fill those gaps with the numbers of people that average retire through every year. So there is a national plan on looking at how can we open up more seats across Canada, how can we use that data to improve, you know, providing more training, more health professionals across Canada, because that's the area that we're struggling right now across Canada in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's a great assessment of the problem but we're looking for solutions, and the Minister mentioned the work the association's doing. But what's the work that the department is doing for recruitment and retention of physicians? She mentioned university spots, there's too few. Are we funding new university spots? Are we expanding the residency program? There's a ton of things we do that are actually very helpful that we've heard from physicians are useful. Are we going to expand those programs? Like, when are solutions going to come forward? We all know the problems. They're loud and clear in our ridings. They're loud and clear in our hospitals and clinics. So what are the solutions the Minister's bringing to the table? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the solutions that we are doing is we are actually doing the health sustainability system review. We need to find out what our core systems are and the dollars that we are getting in that -- you know, and if there's changes to our system that are going to support our core programs to make them more robust and to be able to do the things that we need to do to attract more physicians or health care workers within the system, we need to get that work done. That is the big part of the work that needs to get done because we have a system that is constantly, you know, moving. It's a 365-day system that never stops within health and the other work that we're doing is we're now looking at models of care in the small communities, and so that way we're looking at primary care reform. You know, we're looking at ways that other health care professionals can do and work at the scope of their -- like, their profession. And that takes the burden off the physicians to do the things that they can do. You know, we've heard from physicians what their thoughts are in primary care reform. We're working with them. The PA is working with them to continue this work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in 2023-2024, we lost a family physician, an obstetrician, a pediatrician. These are frontline physicians that provide primary care services that families need, that Northerners need. I get the public administrator is busy doing this work. We haven't seen that plan. So I'm going to turn again to this: What's the public administrator's role in this, and when are we allowed to find out about it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before, we will be having -- offering a briefing to standing committee within the early first quarter of the next fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, back, I believe in June of last year during oral question 253-20(1), my question, I was asking about the future of Rockhill. And the Minister in her response said that they had an agreement with the NWT Disabilities Council, and that's in Hansard, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to get an update with respect to what's happening with that agreement, and is it moving forward in what form, either with the disabilities council or what is happening with that property? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in February I shared a highly confidential letter with MLAs that indicated the progress with the Rockhill properties. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, Mr. Speaker, there must be some future with respect to what's happening with both. The Minister can speak to that. And it's her letter, so it's not confidential if she speaks about it. It's confidential if I speak to it. So that said, can she enlighten the House as to the direction of this relationship: A, with Rockhill; and, B, with the NWT Disabilities Council; which way or where is it going? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The most important thing we're doing with Rockhill properties is we're working in collaboration. We want NWT Disabilities Council to succeed, but we also want Housing NWT to succeed. We have a prime piece of property in downtown Yellowknife. We have potential projects on the go, and we want this to succeed. But we have to work in collaboration; we have to work together. Success is really important, especially with Yellowknife. I mean, we have many families on the waitlist that are looking for Yellowknife housing. So it's important we work in collaboration, and that's what we're doing, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm trying to find out has any new agreement or objective, even a handshake deal, been done between any of these situations that can be clarified in the House? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Nothing to share at this moment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
