Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as of right now, the work that's happening with the regulations under the Health and Social Services Admin Act which oversees the professional specific regulations, the regulations that's been working on right now are the midwives, the pharmacists, the dental hygienists, and the social workers. And all that work is in conjunction with the updating, and the LP will be coming forward in the winter of 2025. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what is specifically holding them back? As I mentioned, the example I gave, a constituent went and was told they would wait two months to get a flu shot, which they could have gone to their local pharmacy and got. So that said, what is holding up this work? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the public engagement proposed key elements took place between July 29th and August 30th of 2024, and a What We Heard report was done December 3rd, 2024. Drafting instructions are currently being developed right now, and it's anticipated that the regulations will be ready to come into force with the coming into the force of the Health and Social Services Professionals Health Act.
The one thing that I would like to add is is that we are not the same as -- like we always say, we're not the same as in the south, so we have to ensure we've been working with our pharmacists in the Northwest Territories to ensure that the things that we are going to put forward in the legislation as part of that working group is that they're going to be able to do those things. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, I talked about delays; I talked about opportunities; I'm going to ask the Minister what opportunities can we do to accelerate appointments that people need simple, straightforward care. As I said, someone needed a flu shot, they got to wait two months. There must be a better way. What can the Minister propose as a solution?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we're speaking about flu shots, flu shot clinics were openly open to the public when flu shots are available, usually in October/November. There are ongoing clinics. They have space occupied. It's a walk-in. And so now after that time is over, they have to book the appointments through public health. And I'm -- and, you know, even when we have pharmacists, you know, they're not going to have on ready, on hand, you know, there will be times when -- you know, I'm sure that they're going to have to book appointments there. What's happening now is there is a shortage in public health. There was some recruitment challenges going on. They are recruiting. They have recruited public health nurses in Yellowknife to be able to administer vaccinations so I'm hoping that there will be more appointments coming in the near future. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one day all of us in here will become an elder or senior. And even you said it today that you are senior today so, you know, like, congratulations, and a lot of us will be following between 5 to 25 years, we will be there. But, yeah, so with that in mind, Mr. Speaker, I just -- I want to ask the GNWT if they are tracking -- if there is a tracking rates of elder abuse in the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in 2020, Statistics Canada reported that the NWT had the highest rate of police reported family and nonfamily violence against seniors in Canada. Unfortunately, Stats Canada stopped breaking out statistics of family violence against seniors and so we're unable to provide more up-to-date statistics. The GNWT is currently not able to track rates of elder abuse. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. That's good to know, Mr. Speaker. So what programming is available for seniors that are being abused? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, older adults facing abuse can access the same support services that other adult victims of crime use. This includes victim services, court orders, emergency shelters, counselling, help lines, legal support. Older adults may not recognize these services are available to them which is why the 2024 Seniors' Society Handbook includes information about elder abuse, warning signs, where to seek help. This handbook was distributed in the summer of 2024 and is also available online. Additional work undertaken by the department includes a territorial-wide elder abuse awareness campaign that was launched in June 2024, resources with information on elder abuse available supports. The department is also in the process of drafting materials to support the development of training for service providers and the public about recognizing and responding to elder abuse.
In addition to this, the department provides funding to the NWT Senior's Society for a variety of initiatives and workshops that empower seniors and community members to identify and address elder abuse.
Also, the GNWT's Office of Public Guardian and Public Trustee under the Guardianship and Trustee Act can support older adults who do not have the capacity to make decisions for themselves if they are experiencing or are at risk of psychological or financial abuse or neglect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Without a Minister or ministry responsible for seniors -- I know she answered some of these questions but I would like to still ask -- responsible for seniors, where is the best source of information for people who want to help seniors bwho are being exploited or abused? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT maintains a dedicated elder abuse web page on getting help for elders' abuse. I would be happy to send these links and pages to the Member or all MLAs. People can also phone the NWT Senior's Society information line for relevant information. People can also call 811. And if it's an emergency, 911. And, you know, I -- Mr. Speaker, I think it takes all of us to, you know, to be keeping aware of our elders in our community, you know, educating, you know, youth, advising our seniors in our community when we witness the abuse. We know that we find sometimes that our elders do not want to push, press charges, and things like that. But there are ways, you know, and I think reaching -- having them reach out to the seniors' society, the help line, to be able to find ways to support their individual needs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake. Great Slave, that's it. Try one of those lakes. Great Slave.
So many lakes, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, can the Premier please explain if our main focus and strategy moving forward with transitional and supportive housing is only with building new stock with federal dollars, or will other opportunities being considered? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All opportunities to expand our transitional housing stock will be explored, whether that is renovation of existing units that we come into possession of or whether it is the development of new units, we're open to doing whatever we need to do to make things happen. We're not going to limit ourselves to one, you know -- to one way of procuring these units. And so in -- recently, we've done some more temporary measures. So the on-the-land camp, we are looking to set up a temporary transitional housing unit until we can get something more permanent in place as well. And so I hope to be able to, you know, have something on the ground built here in Yellowknife and in the coming years, and it's -- you know, this is a territorial-wide issue. We've been working with NGOs, and Yellowknife has been identified as a location where we can do this work now and make some serious impacts, and so that's why the efforts have been focused in that region. And we're also exploring opportunities to partner with NGOs and Indigenous governments as well. There's no reason the GNWT has to be doing this work alone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm the daughter of a journeyman electrician, so I know that existing multi-dwelling housing stock in the territory is not always up to snuff or code and can require major upgrades or overhauls. So can the Premier tell me whether in conversations with -- led by EIA with those partners that he just spoke of around existing housing stock, are renovations proving to be cost prohibitive to proceed with more renovation-based housing projects like Aspen Apartment or Nordic Arms? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so it sounds like the Member's aware that once you start renovating something, once you open those walls, you never know what you're going to find, and there could be extraordinary costs that you don't expect. That being said, if there are units that lend themselves to potential renovations, we can have a look at those and do our best to figure out whether or not we might run into some of those issues, and then they go from there. So we don't want to write anything off without even looking into it.
When it comes to the transitional housing piece -- I don't want to speak to social housing, but when it comes to transitional housing, there could be some more requirements for the builds if there needs to be wraparound spaces, if there are supports, or other types of supports that could lead to some increased costs as well. So that's all very specific about what units we might be looking at if it's something we're looking to renovate and what is the -- how do we want to use those units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Premier's staff have let me know in writing that the regional partnership will be the means used to implement the NWT homelessness strategy here in Yellowknife. So many former members of that -- of an ad hoc working group on the encampment last summer are part of that table. So, Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell me if the options that are identified by these partners are also being considered in the near to mid term for transitional and supportive stock? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, and it's actually the regional partnership that really put the focus on Yellowknife. And so, you know, we're already working with them, taking their advice and insight. Of course, when you work at an NGO and you are doing this work on a daily basis day in and day out you have a lot of expertise and insight and, of course, we want to leverage that and work with these organizations. So not every organization's priorities will align with each other’s, and so going forward there will be some -- you know, partners who are probably happier with what we are doing and some partners who might not be as happy with what we're doing, but regardless we'll continue to do that work. There will be a meeting in early March of the regional partnership and again in early April, and that will include NGOs, the city of Yellowknife, and we'll be using those opportunities to build on the work that's already started and discuss the studies that have been undertaken and any plans that might be underway to see how we can better work together and improve any projects that any of us collectively are working on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake. Got the lake right this time.
It's the best one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I talked about ground search and rescue in the Northwest Territories. Can the Department of Justice indicate when they're going to provide an action plan to start implementing the recommendations provided in the review of ground search and rescue services that they commissioned themselves? Can we get a timeline and a costing -- a cost of plan so we could get these recommendations in place and improve ground search and rescue in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple years ago, a few years ago, the federal government offered us some money to undertake a review of search and rescue in the Northwest Territories, and so we did that, and the report came back with a number of recommendations. The responses -- the government's responses to those recommendations have been tabled in this House as part of a response to a written question that the Member made. And so what that written response says is that the government is not adopting those recommendations, so there will be no action plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mean, that's concerning, and it's concerning to volunteers who are working in ground search and rescue, and it's more concerning to people who might get lost and need ground search and rescue.
Mr. Speaker, at the very least, can we improve -- can we ensure there's consistent recording of data? Because there's not. This data's lost year on year. We don't have a central repository. Can we at least start to implement some of these things that are low cost options like a central repository for search and rescue data. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I believe that would be sort of a difficult task. The RCMP records some statistics about search and rescue. They provide incident command services during search and rescues, but there is no central body beyond that that records this data. So the cost that a community or individuals might spend on a search and rescue, that's not covered. You know, there might be individuals out there supporting efforts that don't let anyone know that they're supporting efforts, and so we can't necessarily record that information either. So because this involves so many different groups and we don't have a coordinated system, I can't make that commitment, but I'm happy to look further into it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope the Premier does because this is life and death stuff, Mr. Speaker. Can we -- can the Minister -- the Premier establish regions at least to organize ground search and rescue efforts with part-time staff responsible for their administration? These meetings could be done via Zoom. They don't have to be expensive things where we fly everyone in, but can we start to see some of those changes where we could get administrative regions in place so we can ensure there's more than just one team in Yellowknife doing work and we have teams in every region of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And there is more than just one team doing work in the Northwest Territories. Throughout the Northwest Territories, there's dedicated groups of volunteer who might not be part of a structured incorporated group that go out and do this work on a quite regular basis, depending on the circumstances. But that group is -- you know, we don't have a coordinating body, as I said and right now the report itself suggested that the EMO, the emergency management organization, take over these functions. The EMO does not have that capacity at this time. And we'll be responding to recommendations from the afteraction review when it comes to how to organize themselves and what they need to focus on. And so at this time, I can't commit to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in my Member's statement, I talked about the issues in my community of the drug issues. I just wanted to ask the Premier, or the Minister of Justice, during my Member's statement I talked about a new drug strategy, a dedicated RCMP crime reduction unit, and SCAN legislation. Mr. Speaker, when can we expect that SCAN legislation to be brought before the Legislative Assembly to give the RCMP more tools needed to keep our community safe? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Member's comments. I speak about this topic quite often, but it's good to get the information out there. Because there is a lot going on. I want residents to be aware that we are doing what we can to deal with these issues.
So the SCAN legislation, which is a legislation that would make it easier to close or shut down buildings that are causing public harm, like a drug house, is going to go out for public consultation this spring. We hope to have a legislative proposal drafted by the summer. That would then go through the normal process where it is sent to Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight for their comments. It would then go to Cabinet, and then a bill would be drafted. So hopefully at the February sitting next year we'll be able to introduce legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, how is the territorial government working closely with the Indigenous governments, the federal government, to provide feedback on the RCMP new drug crime strategy and the crime reduction unit given these initiatives are just beginning to roll out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, as a Cabinet, as Ministers, we engage with Indigenous governments quite often, whether it's a one-on-one discussion, whether I just get a text or an email or a phone call from an Indigenous leader, or it's through a more formal process like the Council of Leaders or the bilateral meetings that we as Cabinet have with Indigenous governments, and this is often a topic of discussion in those different forums. And so that's how, you know, we get a lot of our feedback.
I'll let the Member know that just the other day I was on a call with the federal Minister of Public Safety, so the Minister who oversees the RCMP, and I talked about Fort Resolution. I talked about the Member's community and the impact that drug and crime are having in that particular community because it is -- I recognize the severity of it.
The staff from the Department of Justice and Public Safety Canada met with representatives from Fort Resolution in December, with the community justice committee, and we've also offered to go into the community to provide presentations on drugs and the impact of drugs and share information on a workshop that is currently under development that speaks to these issues and brings lived experiences of Northerners, you know, to the communities so people can actually see what the impacts are and hopefully prevent some of the folks from getting into that lifestyle. So I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. My third question would be how is the GNWT working to bring the input of Indigenous governments to the table when discussing public safety and crime reduction? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So one of the things that I do as Minister of Justice is I set policing priorities for the RCMP G-division, and one of those four priorities is to build and strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities to understand and establish community-driven policing priorities and services. So the RCMP themselves in the communities are, on at least a month basis, supposed to be meeting with leadership, is my understanding, and they share information, they hear back from leadership, and they develop their own community policing plans using that information. So there's opportunities at that level. And as well, I mentioned a number of other forums where we work with Indigenous governments, and drugs and crime are quite often topics of those discussions, and I always take that into consideration as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on my Member's statement and my comments around the energy strategy, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. Can the Minister give me an -- and I understand this will be more than one initiative and there's a lot of -- probably likely a lot of categories, but a ballpark kind of what our spending is on renewable energy -- our renewable energy initiatives, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Finance.
