Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in continuing with my -- with questions to support schools, working families, students, teachers, I'd like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment how the department is working to support schools. And, of course, this requires coordination across multiple departments because there are a lot of requirements so we might jump around a bit, but I'm confident the Minister can answer it.
First off, there's a youth mental health crisis in the Northwest Territories, and our schools are on the frontline. So what are we doing to support them and now that we've tweaked the child -- the youth child counsellors program, we've seen changes to therapeutic -- or to the clinical services offered in schools. We've been taking a look at this. So what are we doing to ensure that these new supports, the way we've changed are working and that if schools need additional support, that it will be there for them? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of ECE.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, both at the officials level, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has regular meetings with the education bodies themselves, and twice a year I get together with the education body chairs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Therapeutic services are another aspect that is important in schools as there is access to occupational therapists, speech language pathologists. These are highly technical specialized roles that schools need to provide supports to students. They currently don't have access to these. How is the Minister going to ensure therapeutic services are provided in all of our schools in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is no secret, I think, to anybody in the Northwest Territories that access to therapeutic services absolutely is important part of access to education. However, I'm not the Minister of health and social services. But I will continue to point out the need for the access to therapeutic services within our schools. Thank you.
Thank you. To that point, one of the issues is the referral process that gets kids from the school to the health system. This is going to take someone to streamline that process and make it easier for that to happen. I suggest the Minister's in a good position to figure out who that person is if it's not herself. So would the Minister commit to working with school boards and health authority to streamline the referral process for students to get them the care they need? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a subject area that is very important to me, very near and dear to my heart. I can confirm to this House that the Minister of health and social services and I have started conversations to work through this. We recognize this as a challenge, and I can commit certainly to continuing that conversation. And I am also meeting today with the NWTTA and will continue to meet with education bodies, and I will continue to make myself available. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake. Final supplementary.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's going to make herself available, but I'm going to keep asking these questions and I hope it's more than availability. We need some answers, we need some solutions, we need to move forward.
Mr. Speaker, another issue is there's no -- currently, the quality of school infrastructure is up to the school -- most school boards to care for in Yellowknife themselves. The GNWT owns those buildings in other communities and for other school districts. But there's no dedicated funding for technical assessments. Since the pandemic, many of those assessments have fallen behind. Will the Minister work with the Department of Infrastructure, again, to find a way to ensure technical assessments are provided for all schools in the Northwest Territories on a regular basis and that that informs our capital planning? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to talk about technical assessments today with the Member. This one definitely bridges a relationship between my portfolio and one of my colleague's portfolio over in infrastructure. So Yellowknife schools were not originally included in the assessments for many years because they're not technically GNWT assets. However, because the GNWT funds the major capital upgrades, those buildings have been put back into rotation. And I can confirm for the Member that multiple Yellowknife schools are on the assessment schedule for next summer. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go on to my next on the list is from the Mackenzie Delta.
Okay. I'm going to go to the Member from the Deh Cho. No questions.
I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
