Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have an issue here that, you know, we have a mandate letter from the Premier to the Minister. All we got to do is implement that. And why do we have to wait years to bring baby Alma home? My question is the Minister mandate includes implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the TRC Calls to Action, and the MMIWG Calls to Justice. How does interfering with residential school investigations into the death of these children align with those commitments? If the Minister cannot even allow such an investigation to proceed into the death of these children, is there any genuine intent to uphold Indigenous rights during her term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is something that is incredibly important to me and something that I definitely intend to uphold. Mr. Speaker, within this legislation -- sorry. Can we come back to this question, Mr. Speaker, please. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ECE. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on my Member's statement regarding the conditions in the Nova Apartment building, I'd like to ask the Minister of housing what housing has been doing and what they plan to do to ensure that the security of the building, first and foremost, has been managed and the conditions are improved. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Nova Apartments in Inuvik has been an ongoing issue over the last ten years. Both you and I know it, MLA Rodgers. Like, this is really important because these families that are living in these conditions are seeing ongoing violence and trauma every day. And the work that Housing NWT is doing is we're working with the landlord, the private landlord, to improve the conditions within Nova. It's difficult times, difficult conditions. We're see a lot of illegal activity. We're seeing drug busts on an ongoing basis. We're seeing crack being smoked in the hallways, and we're seeing tenants having to live through that. So Housing NWT is on this. They're aware of this. They're having these discussions with the landlord. And these are serious things that we push every day, and I push as Minister. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate that. And I know the Minister is well aware of what's happening up there. I know she has very close ties to Inuvik and is very respected in Inuvik.
Would the Minister consider in the short-term, you know, if possible, relocating some of -- at least the families and the elders out of that building until such time as that their work's been completed to get this building to where it needs to be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have asked the same question to Housing NWT, how can we relocate these families to get them out of Nova, to get them away from that situation. The problem is that we don't have any other units available in Inuvik at this time. We continue to push it. We try to move them out and move them to other locations that are safer within the community. We're looking at different security measures within Nova to beef that up. We are talking to the landlord. But at this time, we do have a lack of available public housing in Inuvik. That's the crux of the problem, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hopefully with our spanking new budget and our $50 million, we can get some of these boarded up units in Inuvik ready for some of these families to go in and enjoy life the way they should.
My final question, Mr. Speaker, is that would the department or has the department considered looking at -- and I'm not sure where the landlord is on this -- but, you know, purchasing this building, taking 100 percent ownership of this building, taking 100 percent responsibility to get this building up to where it needs to be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, we are so fortunate that this Assembly approved $150 million over the next three years for housing and public housing replacements across the North. Inuvik is one of the communities that will see public housing replacements, considering many of their housing units are 50 plus years old and families are still staying in those units and struggling in those units. But I talked to Housing NWT about the opportunity to look at purchasing -- perhaps purchasing Nova. They're having ongoing discussions with the landlord to see what's possible and, hopefully, we'll get some good news soon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today is follow-up from my statement to the Minister of ECC. My first question, what did the ECC do to prepare for the 2025 wildfire season? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question.
You know, I'd like to start off by saying that, you know, it's early days in the season for 2025 and to date, one thing that our ECC staff did is they've already responded to ten fires in the Northwest Territories. And, unfortunately, of those ten fires, nine were human caused. I'm happy to report that all ten have been declared out.
ECC has also done a lot of work in -- that we scanned for holdover fires to ensure that we're able to properly and proactively address those. We have brought our firefighters on earlier and done larger training engagements across the Northwest Territories with more centralized groups interacting from multiple regions. We've done cross-training between structural and ECC firefighters. And this has started and will continue through the summer to ensure that our -- we have a coordinated effort when we're -- if we run into instances of wildland/urban interface fires. We've worked with the NWT Association of Communities and held wildfire preparedness workshop in Yellowknife in April 23rd to 25th. We had participants from all across the NWT, Mr. Speaker, senior staff, community governments, fire chiefs, Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, structural firefighters, and from all accounts it was a very successful endeavour. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that reply. In conjunction, I'm hoping that the Minister is also in communication with the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
My second question is how is the Department of ECC implementing the recommendations from the external 2023 wildfire response review? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the MNP report that came out last year, you know, had a number of recommendations for the department, and we've agreed in principle with all of the recommendations that were put forward and we've already started planning or implementing many of them. You know, our crews and aircraft were brought on earlier to complete training. That was one of the recommendations. We've gone through and started to -- to the Member's point, you know, a collaborative effort with MACA and the rest of the GNWT to built capacity within the incident command system. We've recently implemented a qualification and certification standard across the territory. We have installed backup communications in most locations. We brought on a safety officer to help deal with health as well as mental health concerns after our staff and our members. And we've been successful in obtaining significant federal funding that will assist in implementing a wide range of wildfire prevention and mitigation and response actions. And we will continue to work with all other departments and agencies, local communities, Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, and the people of the NWT to ensure that our communities are fire resilient in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that response there. If I can make a suggestion: The safety officer could be -- he or she's duties expanded for community audits.
My last question there, Mr. Speaker, is how does the Department of Environment and Natural Resources protect communities from wildfires? I understand there's a FireSmart program, for example. Those types of protection proactive measures. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the department has done a fabulous job of committing to, you know, improving our wildfire preparedness across the NWT.
We've increased human and financial investment. We have the community wildfire resilience contribution program that was launched this year and is offering just under $2 million of additional investment in FireSmart implementation for communities and organizations across the territory. We're actively working with communities to provide preparedness and mitigation training.
Additionally, we've been working closely with the NWT Association of Communities to fulfill vegetation management projects within communities, community wildfire protection plans. And we assisted in having them leverage $20 million in 2022 that will support these activities through 2030.
ECC has provided recommendations and advice to communities, individuals, and other organizations on hazard assessment and risk mitigation, which can certainly assist with the emergency planning. And we've worked in 29 forested communities in the NWT to update their community wildfire protections plans, provide advice in areas to help them reduce the risk from wildfires. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. So the Minister has been holding town hall sessions with staff for the past few months and in the joint press release with the Minister of Finance on May 5th, the Minister stated that she's heard that more support is needed for frontline workers. She acknowledged that one of the consistent priorities she's heard is the need for greater leadership responsiveness and workplace culture improvements, along with the need to enhance workplace safety.
So, can the Minister give any examples of what is being done to ensure greater leadership responsiveness and improved workplace culture that would actually be seen and felt by frontline workers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those town halls are internal meetings with staff. Those are considered staff meetings. We did highlight in the -- so that way that they could freely speak to leadership. We have highlighted in the letter, and we have shared with committee, you know, the highlights of these and we will continue to work with staff through the public administrator as this is the operation of this arm. And right now, some of the things that he's doing is -- you know, as soon as he got off the ground, he and the CEO have travelled into the Deh Cho and they are looking at mapping through the Deh Cho the client experience. They also have had multiple, multiple meetings, and they continue to have multiple meetings with the NWT MA and with the CEO with the public administrator, and those meetings have -- you know, the PA has stated publicly that he's committed to continuing that work with the physicians. Right now, they have spent the last couple of days looking and meeting with regional wellness councils, the public, the community, the staff in Fort Smith, and I think we're -- they're planning -- their next region is the Sahtu and they will be -- you know, they'll be meeting in Sahtu to meet with the regional wellness council, the public, with staff. And then, you know, they'll -- they're continuing on that mapping journey of the client experience and so that way, not only are they doing that in their regions and the communities, but they are continuingly working with what's going on with the regional -- you know, Yellowknife region. You know, we've heard many of the things that have happened, and they continue to work with the staff at Stanton.
So the implementation of new things, most of the new implementation dollars for staffing in the last year have all gone into Stanton. All of the new initiatives that are going on that have been rolling out have been improving the services and funding the services in the capital to ensure that, you know, that there are funded services that we need to ensure that the capital is stable so that way we can continue to work, you know, in the regions and in the small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And certainly, I'm not looking for, you know, confidential information but in the Minister's press release, she did state that she had heard from frontline workers about the need to enhance workplace safety as another example. So can the Minister explain what actions are underway to try to address any common workplace safety challenges that she's hearing about? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we did the town halls throughout the territory, one of the themes was safety. You know, the safety of the frontline staff in all of our regions, our small communities, you know, they're -- in the health centres, you know, they go and the nurses have to go in. Sometimes they're there; they have to call in an extra staff member to be with them at night. We've heard from Hay River the concerns from the Hay River region. We've heard from the Tlicho. We've heard from the Stanton. And I would like to let the Members know -- and I can follow up with further -- but Stanton is actually getting recognized for some of the work that they've been doing on safety within the hospital there. That's working with the COO and with the staff and the improvements. We've had -- I had a lot of emails from constituents on safety, you know, and I've even had an email most recently that said they actually checked -- they went and they made sure that they checked that all of the things that I said that were happening at Stanton are happening, and then they responded and said thank you, because that's the feedback that they got.
So there is a lot of work going on throughout the territory but there's still -- there was still concerns raised, and I think we're taking a territorial approach to work with each and every individual. And I know, like within Hay River, one of the areas there is they have their own work plan on -- and they've even had -- they have recommendations, and they're looking forward to moving those recommendations forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Minister mentioned just now that Stanton is being recognized for some of the work that it's doing on workplace safety. So I'm not aware of that. I wonder if the Minister could explain what is the recognition that's happening, what are the improvements or steps forward that's being done at Stanton, if it's something that can be publicly sort of recognized; can you explain more so we understand more about it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will get the full details of that, and I will be glad to share that with the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, on court day in small communities, the one that I've seen -- and I'm sure it's the same in other communities as well -- you know, we see a lot of young people, and it's mostly young boys, they are lining up to see legal counsel to seek legal advice. And this is on court day, okay? So it's not just happening in my region; it's happening in all the small communities. And it's a very busy day at that time. So with that in mind, Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister how many designated outreach lawyers does legal aid currently employ? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the outreach office currently has one lawyer and one court worker on staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That's good; that's good to know. We do need more than that; we know that, so.
Do outreach lawyers travel to small communities, or is advice provided over the phone? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Legal Aid Commission also has other lawyers that provide legal services and advice for folks that, you know, don't have resources or that need support. So this is also part of the outreach and with the intent, you know, is in January of 2025, we made some changes to the schedule to allow the lawyers that are travelling to communities to be available in those communities for longer periods of time, and also went in the direction of trying to make sure that, when possible, we were getting consistent representation, so the same lawyer was going back to the same community whenever possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. That's not what I heard from others, so it's good. But does legal aid track the effectiveness of the outreach program by noting how many inquiries lead to files being opened or matters being resolved for residents? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that specific information available with me today. But happy to report that the 2023-2024 annual audit of the Legal Aid Commission will be tabled later in this session, and it will have, you know, a lot of the information that the Member's interested in and will provide further details on the work at the Legal Aid Commission. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the House is aware, I spoke to workforce development and, specifically, coordination earlier today. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister or department of ITI considered the growing need for workforce coordination and what the government could do to address this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Speaker. So absolutely, and luckily I hold both the hats of ITI and Education, Culture and Employment, and so this really is one that I've been able to kind of straddle with both of those hats on, and, to be honest, more so the Education, Culture and Employment.
One of the concerns that I do share with the Member is we do have multiple different projects on the go, and sometimes a project doesn't span one employer necessarily or one opportunity and so how can we bring those together. And there are conversations on the go in regards to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And what I'm looking for is maybe some more detail about those conversations. So would the Minister specifically consider establishing a division or agency within one of those departments specifically tasked with this role as a part of our work to address workforce development? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
