Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not encouraging but members of the GNWT's public service are members of the same pension plan. I believe all three territories are in the same situation. As such, when this change was made by the federal government, it impacts our employees as well. And we were given the opportunity to give employees this choice if they want to take it at no cost to us. It would be under the federal budgeting process. So it's really at this point that we're not taking this choice or opportunity away, that if people -- if this is passed finally at the federal level, that GNWT employees who wish to take this opportunity will have it available to them. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that clarification about workforce reductions. So does this mean that right now GNWT employees can go ahead and take advantage of the early retirement incentive program if they wish to retire early? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And no, not yet. So at this point in time we were still waiting for final approval from the federal government. I believe that the Department of Finance for the GNWT does have a follow-up scheduled in the next week or so to see where things are at on the federal system but also to get the details as to precisely how this would roll out and when. There's two different groups that would be potentially eligible, depending upon age and length of service. And so those exact details, again, we would need to get that from the federal government to then roll that out to our employees. And, you know, again, Mr. Speaker, at this point it's not a finalized program from them so it's certainly not a finalized program from us, but just wanted our staff to be aware they were going to get these letters from the federal government. We want them to know that we'll work with the federal government and more -- so it's really a more-to-come situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I guess my final question is, when can employees expect to know for sure, and how are they going to be informed? Are they going to wait to hear from the federal government directly? Are they going to hear through Bear Net? I hope it might be more than that because many might miss this important information. So when and how can employees expect to know for sure about this opportunity? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the federal system is at its decision point now which then means we have the opportunity to get that final confirmation and detail over here. It would still need to go through some review on our end just to make sure that we are aware of, you know, exactly for whom it would apply to. And because they are part of that pension plan, there will be letters that go out directly to all pension benefit members from the federal government. Just as we communicated initially when those letters went out the first time, there will be communications that go out from the GNWT as well. I take -- and I appreciate the point. It'll go to Bear Net, but we'll also make sure that -- some folks don't access Bear Net or don't have access and so we'll take that under consideration and make sure that everyone has access to information from our government as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, heavy reliance on contracting out healthcare staff is expensive and doesn't build local capacity. Investing in permanent northern staff will save money long term and improve continuity of care, particularly in regional and small communities. My question for the Minister of health is how much money are we spending annually on contract and agency staff? Thank you.
Thank you, Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that level of detail; however, I do know that I do get monthly updates when I have my meeting with the NTHSSA. And since December, I believe we've used two and that is to ensure that the Inuvik obstetrics stays open. However, we are more and more relying on just continuing with our long-term casuals and our terms that do come back. A lot of the recruitment and retention that's been done has -- although it's not filling all our vacancies, they are filling job shares which are more permanent in the communities and that's -- you know, we're trying to change the way we're staffing. That's how we got the nurse practitioners into the Dehcho, is just trying to look at different ways to permanently staff in different ways. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the numbers would be good because my next question is how does -- how much do we spend on contracts and agency workers compared to what we spend on recruiting permanent healthcare workers? Because that -- if there's a deficiency there and it's significant, then we need to ask ourselves the question are we really investing in a northern workforce. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that, I will have to take back as I don't have that information, and I'd have to work with my colleague, Minister of Finance, to be able to come up with that type of information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to that information and so do healthcare workers.
Mr. Speaker, how is this government balancing permanent staff and contract agency workers in northern health care? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated that the reliance on agency nurses is declining in the Northwest Territories as we are strengthening the way that we are recruiting and the type of -- you know, we're recruiting half-time positions and job shares and we're looking at different ways to meet the needs of the workforce today. So that is one of the most important pieces is that we're not solely reliant on filling a lot of the needs. There's a lot of misunderstanding because there are casual term nurses that do come into the system but they are paid under the collective agreement the same as all the other nurses that are on the floor. And those are to ensure that we -- you know, we have enough staff to be able to take care of the residents when they're in our hospitals and our facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Rule 7.2(7)(2), I received follow-up information for the following oral questions of the first session of the 20th Legislative Assembly: 977 and 1007. These follow-ups will be printed in full in today's Hansard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you for your both kindness and generosity, Mr. Speaker. Good Speaker. Greatest Speaker. Best Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I got some information with respect to the speech and language pathologists back, and I am curious if the Minister can talk about the challenges of how many young people time out of speech and language support given the fact that there's an age limit and then they get kicked to ECE for responses. Because the challenge, of course, is always to help young people early when it comes to speech and language pathology therapy. Thank you.
Thank you, Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when there's people on the waitlist, whether they're children, adults, you know, from birth to end of life, they are triaged as to the need. And so the waitlists, they will remain on there and be seen based on availability and where they are triaged on the list. So they don't get kicked off the list. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister speak to the fact that Northerners, they're triaged out of the system based on the government servicing Nunavut clients first? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that Nunavut has a contract with the Northwest Territories to be able to provide those services; however, I do believe that we prioritize, you know, all of the -- everyone that's coming into the system, but I'd have to take that back and get more detail on how that would work. But I do believe that if we weren't able to meet the needs, you know -- like, I don't have that level of detail here in the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer, who will get back to me on that particular thing. I just want to return for clarity.
When a young person is being served between the ages of one and four and they time out of support and services, then they're timed out. That means their time is gone. Just like question period at the end of it.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is, is if they're on the list and approved to get supports but supports aren't available, can the Minister change the policy to make sure that those young people aren't lost in the system because the system is unable to rise to the need or is just incapable. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I said before, they would just -- everybody would remain on the list to be seen and assessed based on their assessment. I believe that we work collaboratively with doing the assessments and then within the schools, they might make recommendations, if the support is being provided in the school what those supports will continue to need. However, as I stated before, that with the staffing levels that we have and the vacancies that we have, we continue to try to manage all of our waitlists within the Northwest Territories. We pull from the different regions and so if there's a higher need, we may send our speech to a region that may need them. However, we will continue to, you know, triage the list. So those that are higher needs, swallowing and things like that, will be assessed first. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'd like to ask some questions of the housing Minister. I know we're all concerned about safety and security in our communities, and I know there's a lot of concerns too about safety and security around public housing units and within those units of the people that live there. And so we see in the Housing NWT business plan that one of the things to try to address safety and security related to public housing specifically is something called safe growth training and a safe growth program.
I wonder if the Minister can actually explain what that safe growth training and program actually involves and how it would enhance security either for residents in public housing or anyone else in the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Yellowknife North. Minister of Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for the question. Safe growth training is going to be instrumental in this territory over the next number of years. We've begun with three communities and three communities that are facing a lot of illegal activities within their community. So we pulled in safe growth to work with our LHOs as partners within the community with the RCMP, with the local housing organization, with the municipality, with Housing NWT and the district office, to work together on identifying issues within that community and how we can prevent that or how we can look at things in advance so the community is not faced with a lot of the issues that are currently faced with today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I wonder if the Minister can explain, does this have to do with just, like, changing protocols or behaviour, or are we changing physical structures or arrangements? Is this, like -- is this an infrastructure changing program or just sort of sitting people down and changing policies and protocols? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now our local housing organizations are faced with a lot of violence within housing, and these are staff that are not necessarily trained with crime and crime prevention but they're facing it every day in our communities. And it's a really tough situation, especially for our local housing organization staff. In terms of safe growth, it's more about policy and protocol, what to do next in certain situations, how do you work with partners like the RCMP or the sheriff or the rental office or the local housing organization. But we are also expanding how we look at our future designs for housing. What are we looking at in terms of infrastructure builds and how do we prevent -- like crime for example, what are we building and how are we building apartment blocks for crime prevention and environmental design. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So which communities have these trainings or this environmental design work -- which communities has it been completed in already and will it be expanded to more or even all of the communities in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we've begun with is we found that Hay River is hit with a lot of illegal activities. Considering the situation, the geographical location and the highway system, Hay River is hit with a lot of legal activities. We see a lot of illegal activities within our public housing. So we began with Hay River. We've reached out to Fort Smith to begin the work there. Again, a highway system. We're having discussions with another community. We haven't finalized that community yet, Mr. Speaker. We were thinking perhaps Fort Resolution. We have to do more discussions with local chief and council to see if they'd be up to having those conversations about safe growth within their community. But I think the work with safe growth is going to be instrumental in how we think about housing and how we think about community, especially around illegal activities and just making sure that the local housing organization staff and also the district office understand that policies and protocols are in place to keep them safe, to keep the tenants safe within the units, but also to keep the community safe. And that's why the crime prevention for environmental design, looking at the Hay River build, the 30-unit build, how we're building that. Instead of having hallways, you know, inside the building, we're looking at exterior access. So that's really important to have as part of our crime prevention for environmental design. I think of, like, when we look at parks around housing units, to make sure that they're properly lit. That exits -- when I first went into Bigelow, my experience here in Yellowknife with Bigelow, I was really struck by a lot of the hidden entrances and exits. So housing is looking at that as part of our territorial expansion with infrastructure build, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Yay, Best Speaker ever, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have some easy questions for the Minister of housing but they're critical, Mr. Speaker. That's the problem right there, Mr. Speaker.
So, Mr. Speaker, when there's a new initiative in a community, is it normal to invite the housing authority that will be overseeing or managing, running or coordinating the programs involved with those particular initiatives? Because there was two recently worked on and developed, the Aspen building down from the bowling alley, and the future Tony Whitford building. So I look forward to the Minister's answer. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from the Yellowknife Centre, Minister of Housing NWT.
Mr. Speaker, of course, we work with the local community in partnership. We have consultations with town councils, city councils, hamlets. Just to have conversations around build development permits are instrumental in our building and design. So these are all conversations that we have at the local level to make sure that everything fits in place and is appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's all fantastic. Can the Minister confirm that the local housing authorities are a standard invitee in any of these types of initiatives when it comes to public announcements, public tours, public engagement. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't confirm at this moment because I don't know if it's absolutely true or not, So I can't stand here and say I can't confirm. But as the Minister and as working with the president and working with Housing NWT, we are strong believers in collaboration and partnership and that means at the local housing level. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't try to get the Minister in a pickle on this one. But I will say, can the Minister guarantee that all future events that involve, you know, goodwill, cutting ribbons, talking about programs, those types of things, will she guarantee and direct the department to ensure that these local housing authorities are involved in that process, because they deserve to be part of the initiative. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure what the Member is getting at. I talk about partnership and collaboration and working together. I can't make any guarantees. I am not the one operating Housing NWT. But, again --
