Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

What is the cause of delays in the notification of the affected individuals following the occurrence, detection, and patient notification of the 574 confirmed privacy breaches at the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority from October 2015-April 2025?

What legal or policy provisions prevent the NTHSSA from disclosing the job title, department, or region of an employee responsible for an intentional privacy breach?

Of the 750 plus confirmed privacy breaches in the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are public interest provisions in the current act but they're never used to disclose the identity of staff found to be snooping, Mr. Speaker. So my question to the Minister is we don't have to wait for a new change. There is a public interest disclosure provision. We could make it apply to these inappropriate cases. So tell me why we can't essentially. Is it too narrowly drawn, or is it just never used? Because it's already in the legislation, but it's not getting used. My constituents can't wait until the next Assembly. They deserve justice for what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to information breaches, especially health care information breaches, Northerners deserve better. Other Canadian jurisdictions have set a higher bar for transparency and accountability in privacy breach reporting, and the NWT should be doing the same. Our Minister of health must act with greater urgency to address threats to medical record privacy, whether from employees improperly accessing records or external cyber intrusions.

Mr. Speaker, if an investigation into a privacy breach is complete and my constituent has been notified, why is it the Minister's...

Why yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you very much for the support of colleagues on this motion. I just want to point out, in case it wasn't clear, but the application that's specifically referenced in the second clause of the motion around the 41-hectare Frame Lake parcel is not a selected -- is not land selected by the Akaitcho process or any Indigenous group that I am aware of. So that again -- and I gave a lengthy speech about how that works, how interim land withdrawal works. And, of course, the motion also, the final -- or the second last clause talks about not infringing on any...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the City of Yellowknife is located on Chief Drygeese Territory, the traditional land of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and respects the histories, languages, and cultures of the North Slave Metis and all Indigenous peoples of this region whose footsteps have marked these lands for generations;

AND WHEREAS the City of Yellowknife is experiencing sustained and accelerating growth, driven by military presence, major remediation and infrastructure projects, mining, tourism, and public administration expansion;

AND WHEREAS the population of the City of Yellowknife...

Merci, Monsieur le President. [Translation] The facts are clear and worrying. More than 750 violations of confidentiality in terms of healthcare information have been identified in the Northwest Territories over the last decade. This is an unacceptable number for our population. At a time when personal data are more and more sought after, these numbers can't be considered a fatality. It demonstrates a systemic failure that undermines public trust and unnecessarily exposes the residents of the NWT to risks. An article from the Radio-Canada showcases one of my -- one of the residents of my...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, Members' attendance is an accountability mechanism to ensure that Members are attending to the duties to which they are elected to perform as Members of the House and to which they're appointed to by the House by way of standing committee. The purpose of those attendance reports is -- again, is squarely an accountability mechanism so constituents and members of the public can see that Members are discharging their duties faithfully to the institution and attending meetings that they're supposed to attend. Additional meetings, I am not sure what accountability...

Yes, the ongoing problem with Yellowknife lakes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week I spoke of a constituent of mine who is being forced to leave the territory due to her acute medical needs. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain to this House how it's acceptable that a specialized front line health care worker is being told by her own physicians that she has no choice but to leave the NWT for care. And I know the Minister knows this because I have sent the file to her office, so I expect a full response. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The key word is inappropriately accessing. We're not talking about a benign breach or an accidental breach. We're talking about an intentional breach.

How does the Minister justify treating the identity of a staff member who improperly accessed health records as equivalent to the protected health information of the patient affected? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pursuant to Rule 6.2(14), I wish to withdraw Motion 85-20(1). Thank you, Mr. Speaker.