Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think my statement spoke for itself earlier.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of health. Has the health department done any work to date on regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists under the Health and Social Services Professions Act that they can report back to the Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time our efforts are being currently focused on bringing current regulated professionals under the Health Professions Act so not -- we are not considering counsellors and psychotherapists at this time. Psychologists are being brought under the Health and Social Services Professions Act. However, this is not an issue specific to the Northwest Territories. From the information that -- you know, that I've gotten from my team is that nationally there is a consistent -- there is not one consistent approach to regulating counsellors; however, for our counsellors that are employed by health and social services' community counselling program, we do have program standards that state that if they're able to be registered with a professional body that they should do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just following up on that response, I heard a "should" but that doesn't sound like a requirement to me. So can -- first of all, can the Minister just clarify for the House about that; is that a requirement or is it simply a recommendation? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. He'd have to be more clear when my response of what -- which part of my -- that I said "should". Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope that this is simply a clarification of the second question as opposed to my third. But I simply say that the Minister said that -- something along the lines of counsellors under one of their programs -- I can't exactly remember which one off the fly -- but should register with a regulatory body. I was trying to determine if that is a requirement or simply a suggestion. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. And I'm going to say it's a clarification. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And sorry, yes, it does say "should", and that means that we encourage all our staff. And, like, there are different ways that they can, under their -- like, with their -- the difference pieces in Canada, the Canadian association, some can register through that, but then there are some social workers that are professional counsellors and so they would be under the Health and Social Services Profession Act. So there are some clinical counsellors that are being regulated under Health Professions Act, and that being social workers, but if they're not social workers and they're just clinical counsellors -- and this is a -- this is the area where, you know, we have many different levels of social work, so this is something that I would be considered to have more discussions with the Member and -- you know, and to kind of find a way to move forward with the things that he's looking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final Supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, and I appreciate your indulgence, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister has highlighted exactly the problem that I'm trying to raise today, and that is that we do not have a regulated counsellor and psychotherapist under the Health and Social Services Professions Act. Will the Minister commit to investigating the potential for regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists and report back to the Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would only be -- as I said before, what we are focused on are currently bringing in regulated professionals under the Health Professions Act at this time, and so that would be -- you know, at this time I'm not going to be considering that, but it's something that we can discuss further in the future. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and it's with respect to vaccinations.
Recently, Yellowknife had an outbreak, had to close the school through the community network, making sure that the messages got out there so parents didn't drop their kids off at school and hence the measle outbreak happened, and it went through the process, and we all know measles can be very dangerous and as well, lastly, Mr. Speaker, there are requirements for, for example, school-aged children to get their vaccinations, but the question is more -- I'm going towards is focusing in on teachers and administration and employees.
Mr. Speaker, given the recent event and potential risk that could be applied to our loved ones, is the department willing to consider a vaccination mandate; in other words, a must requirement for staff and administration at educational facilities that, again, take care of our loved ones? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not currently a vaccination mandate for teachers outside of, you know, when we went through COVID and there was expectations around that. That was under the direction of the CPHO, the chief public health officer. And so our education bodies and our schools work very closely with the chief public health officer in events like this, and we ultimately follow the direction of the chief public health officer to ensure that we are aligned to protect residents and children. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the risks that can happen with, for example, measles and given the most recent example of what's happened by shutting a school down, Mr. Speaker, why wouldn't the department look at considering the option of legally requiring staff to -- staff and teachers to be vaccinated? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this would be, you know, a much larger conversation. I'm certainly happy always to take conversations like this back. I would also say that -- you know, recommend that people reach out to health and do their vaccinations, and then we can work together to avoid situations like this. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
You know, I appreciate the shout-out to public health. You know, they do a great job, and they certainly help ensure that people are ready. But, Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the department of health -- or sorry, department of education, not the department of health and, furthermore, we're talking about schools, not that. So I would be curious on what the Minister meant by some type of conversation. Is she willing to take it back to her department to look at is this something we could do, is this something -- how could it roll out and how could it be envisioned and certainly in the sense of timing. Because, I mean, I wouldn't expect something like this to be done before the end of May, and I would say something like this does require a fair bit of thinking and transition as well as acceptance if it was part of a process that the government ended up moving forward. So what could that look like, if the Minister would be willing to take that back to her department to evaluate or consider? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, obviously there are many other factors here. First of all, I would need to speak with the Department of Justice to find out if something like this -- you know, where the limits are. This is also a question for the public service and to find out kind of what the limits and expectations for public service. At this point, Mr. Speaker, outside of a public health emergency being declared, neither the Department of Education, Culture and Employment nor education bodies can mandate vaccinations or proof of vaccination for school staff. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's been some very high profile reporting on information breache,s related to this government recently. You look in old filing cabinets, old desks, and find names, dates of birth, addresses, contact information, employment history, financial and credit card information, and health care numbers. So – and, also, we hear other reports of staff snooping in medical records. The state of our information, our records system, our management of this information, seems to be in disarray.
Can the Minister of Justice, who has the access and privacy office within his department, explain why this is continuing to happen? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a very sensitive area, and I'm unable to respond to the Member at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I know it's sensitive which is why I'm concerned about it and, certainly, the Information and Privacy Commissioner is concerned about it as well. So there's been a number of recommendations in these reports, including a clean desk policy when these things get done. Is the Minister working on implementing the recommendations of the privacy commissioner and implement things like clean desk policies, so this does not happen in the future? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department is reviewing the recommendations of the report, and I can't specifically answer that question at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the Minister know when he'll be able to answer that question? Because I think the public would like to know. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will follow up with the department and provide that information to the Member within -- before the end of the week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's not often we get together here in the Northwest Territories and especially in Yellowknife with western Premiers. And I just wanted to just continue on with housing. My question would be to the Premier.
If there's a way if he could continue to work with the Premiers from -- and the three territories' Ministers -- sorry, Premiers to really push the housing issue for the Northwest Territories and operation and maintenance dollars, if you could look for support and then continue to build on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's been significant advocacy by all the provinces and territories regarding housing funding. That was a prominent theme in this last federal election. And the federal government has been responding to that with some significant announcements and plans on housing. And so we'll continue to push that advocacy forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, the Akaitcho region, this year we got funding to do homeownership inspections in our region, and thank you to the -- sorry, I want to say mahsi to the Minister of housing for helping out.
My question to the Premier, though, is that once -- this report is going to be done by this fall, and the chiefs from the Akaitcho would like to work together with the Premier to bring this report to the Prime Minister and ask for further funding for homeownership repairs in our region. Thank you. So my question to the Premier, can he help us out with Indigenous governments to knock on doors in Ottawa. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can always work with Indigenous governments to knock on doors in Ottawa, but there's more than just the Prime Minister in Ottawa, and there's more than just the Premier in the Cabinet, so I'd have to defer that question to the Minister of housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from -- oh sorry, Minister responsible for housing.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this question is important because the work they're doing in the Akaitcho territory, talking about the conditions of homes in their communities, this is something that housing is doing as well through our territorial housing needs assessment. Again, we've done the quantitative assessment and now we're wrapping it up with the qualitative assessment that's hoping to be done by fall of 2025. And with that engagement, we have reached out to all Indigenous governments and Indigenous leadership in communities asking if we can have conversations about this assessment. So it's important work that we hope to see results and then we bring that to Ottawa, along with Indigenous leaders, and talk about needs in communities for housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And yeah, I'm very happy to hear that because it's very important on these two items. One is to restore and reinstate the homeownership program, and also to go to Ottawa to push for funding for the homeownership repairs in our riding, and I'm happy to hear that we could probably work together with the Akaitcho chiefs, along with the GNWT leadership, to go to Ottawa, knock on doors together, so I just want to say thank you. Just a statement. Thank you.
Colleagues, I do not want to have statements; I want questions. It's question and answer period. Please, you want to say thank you to the Ministers, do it after session. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance, who is also the Minister responsible for the Public Service.
So on May 5th, the Ministers of Finance and Health and Social Services issued a joint press release announcing that the government is embarking on a second phase of changes to the Public Service Act that will focus on modernizing section 41. That's the section that defines bargaining units and prescribes who will be the bargaining agent for public servants.
First, can the Minister explain what is the objective of this modernization effort that the government is embarking on; in other words, what is the problem with section 41 that you are seeking to solve? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, modernization of the Public Service Act has, in its whole, been happening now over many years. There's been much work done in this space, and we already are at a stage with most of the Act such that it is already in legislative drafting and will be coming forward to the House later this year. That is with one exception, and that was with respect to section 41. That section, of course, the Member's already detailed, does involve bargaining units and is one that is a little more complicated and so we left that aside from the rest of the Act.
What it is is it does speak to a Charter right, a Charter right with respect to freedom of association which has a couple of parts to it. You have the ability to organize as a group what kind of your group of union -- or of employees you may want to be when you decide to collect yourselves. You have that choice, and you can make that choice independently. And then also, Mr. Speaker, would be about ensuring that that group of employees can make a determination about who would represent them in a collective agreement proceeding. So, again, that choice would be independent. That choice is one that it's about choice and independence, or reflective. Right now, our section prescribes who the group of employees shall be and who their bargaining agent shall be. And so it does appear that since the time sometime ago when this Act was initially drafted, it is now out of step with what seems to be the direction of the Charter and so we are looking to bring that in line. A commitment was made to Members of this Assembly earlier this year that we bring forward an LP to make this change, and we are looking to getting that work underway. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank to the Minister for setting out a clear goal for that, the amendment to that section. For clarity, is the government committing to establish a labour relations board or similar mechanism to certifying these certified bargaining agents during the life of this Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the commitment I want to make really is one of fixing the problem that I just described in the last answer, and it may well be that it's -- that the solution is a labour relations board. It may well be that there's some other entity or organization that can conduct the bargaining or that can conduct a certification, if that's what is ultimately required. I'm hesitant, Mr. Speaker, to say here and with too much detail what -- where we may end up because we haven't necessarily gone out -- well, we haven't gone out yet. Certainly not to our unions currently that are in the Northwest Territories, the Union of Northern Workers or PSAC, to discuss with them. They have a lot of expertise, quite obviously, are more than simply stakeholders in this matter, and we want to have a time to engage with them as well as with the employees who are the public servants that this will be impacting. So, again, wanting to fix the problem that we have laid out but wanting to do that in the right way which is one that involves an opportunity to have discussions and engagements with those who are impacted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
