Caitlin Cleveland

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, June 3rd, 2021, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that the Northwest Territories Electoral Boundaries Commission, 2021, is hereby established; and further, that the Legislative Assembly recommends to the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories that the Honourable Ted Richard of Sydney, British Columbia, be appointed Chairperson, and Mr. Glen Abernethy of Yellowknife, NWT, and Mr. Jack Rowe of Hay River, NWT, be appointed members of the Northwest Territories Electoral...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Northern Birth Work Collective is all about accessibility. The First Nations Health Authority, the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, and the BC Ministry of Health, currently work together to provide $1000 grants for doula services for Indigenous families living in British Columbia.

To make doula care accessible in the Northwest Territories, the services needs the financial support of Health and Social Services here at home. So will Health and Social Services provide financial grants to NWT residents to support doula services?...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I get started, one thought that came to mind of a few people over here is that we do have GSOs in communities, that we've got them in 23 of our 33 communities that might be able to provide some assistance to getting information out and helping people access funds hopefully.

But further to my statement today on doula services, I'm very excited to ask some questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services today about the NWT Birth Work Collective and the work that they're doing to make doula services more accessible in the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this past budget session, regular Members negotiated $600,000 to implement phase 2 of the NWT Midwifery Program. While the GNWT works to expand safe options for communitybased birth, it's important that this government also consider how to expand culturallysafe traumainformed family supports. Healing our territory and supporting the health and safety of Northerners starts before a baby is born, and for some, it starts with a doula.

A doula is a trained professional who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support through significant...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, June 3rd, 2021, I will move the following motion:

Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that the following guidelines are set down for the Northwest Territories Electoral Boundaries Commission, 2021:

1. The commission shall review the existing electoral districts using the most recent and accurate census and other population data available.

2. In keeping with Canadian constitutional conventions, relative parity between electoral districts shall be sought, to the extent possible, except...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just I guess a very selfless plug. Today on the NWT Birth Work Collective's Facebook page, they did advertise a course that will be taking place this summer that will be available over Zoom. And so I would like to invite all of my colleagues to share it with people within their constituencies and the cost of the course is on a sliding scale for what people can afford. So it's a wonderful opportunity.

Given the potential, Mr. Speaker, for great benefits of doula care, I'm wondering if there is a mechanism for how low income NWT residents can access...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that's great news, and I'm really excited to hear the synopsis of the evaluation from Health and Social Services. I think that's all really good news, and I think it lends well to the direction and the support that we as an Assembly would like to provide to the people of the Northwest Territories.

My next question for the department, which kind of plays off that, is does the department recognize doula services as a viable prevention tool for the people of the Northwest Territories to support healthy families? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The OAG found that ECE “took steps to plan, support, and monitor the delivery of equitable, inclusive education programs and services that reflected Indigenous languages and cultures, to support improved student outcomes. However, we concluded that these actions were insufficient for it to fully meet its commitments and obligations. Providing sufficient support in key areas, such as Indigenous language and culturebased education, and monitoring the outcomes of its education programs, is necessary to help ensure that students in the territory are being given the best...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as it stands right now, the last numbers that I saw, I saw a lot of summer students really concentrated in Yellowknife. And there's a great deal of need in our communities as well. If we look at what's happening in the Northwest Territories to date, there's tremendous amount of flooding that leads all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. I'm sure that there's students that would love to be on the ground and helping out with that too, with cleanup opportunities and being able to see, you know, a different community or being able to help out their own...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that response. The numbers are much better than the last numbers that I have from the Department of Finance, and so that is good news to start us off with today. And so I thank the public service and the Minister for that.

But this number is still lower than previous years, and I'm wondering if the GNWT has plans to beat their numbers from preCOVID times. Thank you.