Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is absolutely right, our Indigenous development corporations do work very closely with diamond mines and do hold some of the primary contracts of our diamond mines, including Tlicho Investment Corporation, Det’on Cho, and it -- sorry, North Slave Metis Alliance as well as Lutselk'e's Development Corporation as well. And I do sit down and speak regularly with the heads of these development corporations about what work they're currently doing on site, what work they're projected to do on site, and also what other branches of economic...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have approximately 1,400 NWT residents that are directly employed by our diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. In addition to that, we also have staff who work for private contractors that are subcontractors up on site. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to sit down with the Member. I'm very happy to meet over Teams, but travelling with a large contingency of people is not something that education, culture and employment has funds for. We try to do as much as we can virtually so that we can ensure that funding for programs go into communities, go into schools, and go to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member as well as the public that I take this very seriously. As a government and as a Cabinet, there's been changes that have been made government wide from this lessons learned but also specifically for water testing of our schools.

Specific for water testing of our schools, we worked with the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer to establish a testing protocol territory wide for all schools in the Northwest Territories.

In addition to how we move forward as a government, we have also implemented project charters so that we...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, as we know, there was 42 out of 44 schools that were tested originally. The original test that came back for NJ McPherson school was right on the cusp, and so the GNWT retested that school and it was found to be significantly lower than required MAC level. And then out of an abundance of caution, following the testing protocol that was established, it was identified that the GNWT would retest NJ McPherson School based on the original test result that was received. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, there are guidelines for this program and also policy direction on how education bodies provide access to mental wellness services, and that's divided up by a whole-school approach, classroom-based approach, small group, and also one on one. It's important to note that it is not expected by the school-based mental health and wellness program from the education side that educators also be clinicians or that the peer support workers be clinicians. And so what they've identified is through a tiered-approach to supporting students at the end of...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, any kind of investment of that size would have to go through our capital planning process, and so I can certainly look into what the cost would be and make sure that the Member is aware and commit to bringing that back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd have to go and look and see which schools are designated as muster points and which one of those have backup generators. But I can confirm that two of the schools the Member was discussing in his Member's statement do not have backup generators. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had the pleasure of appearing in front of standing committee prior to the start of the capital planning session, at which time we did discuss the direction of the current fiscal situation that we're in and changes to the fiscal strategy, mainly that there would not be -- that there would be some changes. I'm happy to appear back again before committee and to certainly commit to doing so. That's certainly -- as I said, happy to appear back again whenever it works out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the number certainly fluctuates year to year and as different diamond mines get closer, for example, to closure, the types of businesses they're bringing up on to site and the amount of them does tend to decline, so that is a number that is certainly in flux year after year. Thank you.