Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a real privilege to have a former Premier in the chamber today, and it's a real privilege to represent that former Premier as my constituent in Range Lake. So thank you, Caroline Cochrane, for being here today with your partner Rory. It's always great to have eyes in this the gallery, and you are definitely a VIP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some Tree of Peace adult ed students I'd like to recognize, three of them in particular. We have first Jasmine Powder. Secondly, I have Anastazie Goulet. And the third, and certainly not least, Margo Remnant. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize former Premier of the Northwest Territories, Caroline Cochrane. We had the opportunity to work together during the 18th Assembly. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's hard to see from my seat but you recognized them earlier, and I'm not sure if they're still there. But Frame Lake constituents, Jeremy Bird and Angela Gzowski were in this the House earlier. And I'd also like to recognize the Premier who I had the pleasure of working with in her capacity as education Minister and a Premier when I was working as a city councillor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to recognize the former Premier of the NWT from the 19th Assembly, Caroline Cochrane. And, also, I'd like to welcome Shalene Woodward and Anatasia Goulet. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to also recognize former Premier Cochrane. I had the pleasure to be in the 19th Assembly and have her at the helm of this Assembly with all of the things that we did, and as well as her partner. The last time I saw him, we were jumping on a plane, and we won't say when. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Twin Lakes. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.
If we've missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to your chamber. I hope you enjoy the proceedings. It's always nice to see people in the gallery, and I'd, again, like to thank you very much for allowing us the opportunity to represent the people of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Premier in follow-up to my Member's statement, Mr. Speaker, and for the record, we all know that the full costs of the -- his envoy, his friend there, is $440,000. So my question specifically is how many political appointments does the -- sorry, how many politically-appointed GNWT staff are paid more than the Prime Minister of Canada? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know what the salary of the Prime Minister of Canada is. Thank you.
Well, Mr. Speaker, I'll ask the same question. The Prime Minister of Canada's paid about $300,000. I believe the base pay of all MPs is about $200,000, and he receives a hundred thousand additional on top. That's how you get to 300,000. So now that we've set the table, Mr. Speaker, the question still stands, how many politically-appointed GNWT staff are paid more than the Prime Minister of Canada? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I'd say probably one. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that -- we all know who this envoy is, but we don't know where the envoy is. He has no office, not on the GNWT website. Nobody knows anything about how to track him down but he's worth $440,000, the top paid -- top paid --
-- ask the question. Thank you.
How many politically-appointed GNWT staff are able to work remotely from outside the NWT who are paid more than the Prime Minister of Canada?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the envoy to Ottawa works in the Northwest Territories and works in Ottawa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the public administrator for NTHSSA's work plan, it tasks him to, quote, "work with NTHSSA and DHSS to find ways to increase and reduce expenditures within the health and social services system, including supporting the establishment of income assessment and fee collection structures as applicable."
I've had two people reach out to me today, constituents, who are concerned what this actually means. So can the Minister clarify, are we looking to recoup the costs of the health system on the back of patients and people who need health care in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the services that we provide in the Northwest Territories, what that statement means is that we look across jurisdictions and we compare for non-insured services what they are charging residents for, how are they charging residents for, and is that something that, you know, to be able to pay for our extended health benefits and other programs that aren't covered by the federal government, how can we find funding. It doesn't mean that we are -- made those decisions. It's looking at ways to be able to continue to provide non-insured services to the residents of the Northwest Territories without any costs as a lot of them are now. So we'll continue to do those reviews, and those decisions would definitely be decisions that we bring back to this -- or to the Members and having those discussions if there were any changes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, many of these non-insured services are critical services. I believe the urology department at Stanton is non-funded. So what services are we -- well, let's just get into that.
What services might we lose or might cost people to use after this review is done? Could the Minister give people a heads up, because if they're getting free care right now and they turn around and start charging them, we're going to hear about it in this chamber. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if a patient is referred to neurology -- and I know that the Member is just using that as an example -- that would be an insured service. I could go on and talk about all of the different insured services, but if Members wanted to understand what non-insured services are, those are the services that we provide through extended health benefits. So many of the services that are provided through that. But, however, there are other services that we do provide free of charge so outpatient rehab services, things like that. In many jurisdictions, insurances cover those. We provide those free. They're not even added to our extended health benefits list. So those are types of things. If you're inpatient and you're getting rehab services, then those are part of the insured services. If there is more information, you know, I'd be more than willing to provide standing committee on this kind of information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you to the Minister for clarifying some of these points. The problem is when the work plan says as applicable, that's a very big window, and I think when people read that without that clarification. So will the Minister agree to update this work plan to make it clear that insured services will not be a fee-for-service in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Yes, I will direct the PA to update what needs to be updated in that area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Premier agree that rebuilding trust needs to be a key goal of the government response to the after-action review on the wildfire season in 2023? And, Mr. Speaker, what does he feel is needed to achieve that goal? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we're not supposed to discuss opinions in this House, but I'll indulge the Member. Yes, obviously, we needed to improve trust of government in emergency situations. I think that is, you know, one of the primary lessons that we've learned from this last series of evacuations that we had. The work to do that has already begun. It began at the beginning of this government.
When I drove out of Hay River, there was no one there to close the highway because people didn't understand what their roles were. And no fault of their own. But we weren't organized enough as a government to ensure that people knew where to people, when to be there, and what to do. And so as a result, we had vehicles driving out of the community into the middle of an active forest fire. So that is one of the very first things that I really focused on, ensuring that there were business continuity plans across government, that everyone's role was defined, so that they knew what they were going to do. So doing things like that and letting the public know that we've done those types of things, we've seen the issues that happened, and we are taking steps to correct them, I think that's important. And as we provide a response to the after-action review, the public will see the action that we've taken and understand that we've taken this seriously. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I note that the report contains some short-term recommendations but also some very long-term recommendations as far as four years into the future. Mr. Speaker, how will the government ensure these recommendations are followed up on and not forgotten? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, of course, we are going to be providing a response, and this is wading into the Minister of MACA's territory, so I don't want to get too ahead of things. But the long-term work begins now. And so a lot of that long-term work - the planning, the relationships - that's already begun. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the Premier started to touch on the answer to this question already, but he noted that the GNWT has already taken some action. Can the Premier detail for the House what has been done to date in response to this report or to the 2023 wildfires and lessons learned? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So noting that there will be a full review -- or sorry, a report back on the recommendations, I can note a few things.
So one of the -- obviously, one of the very first things was the realization that fire seasons start earlier than ever and so because of that, the GNWT has been bringing on fire crews, aircraft, seasonal wildfire personnel, earlier than they were before, and there's been significant investments made in mitigation and prevention efforts.
We've been working with Indigenous governments. We heard in the last -- during the 2023 evacuations that Indigenous governments, not just the community governments that might be run by the band but even regional Indigenous governments, wanted more of a role in emergency management. And so we've struck a working group with the Council of Leaders to look at how we can amend the Emergency Management Act. And we've done the same thing with the NWTAC and with LGANT to ensure that communities are engaged in that work.
We are further supporting communities by delivering community emergency planning workshops and desktop exercises to better understand, so communities can better understand emergency management and how it would play out in the real world. We are working with them to update their community emergency plans, and we are increasing preparedness through practice, Mr. Speaker.
We're working on staffing, so building the GNWT's surge capacity by providing incident command system training, and the Minister of MACA spoke about that earlier this week.
We're also taking steps to ensure there's more coordination, so establishing emergency management training and development advisor position to help coordinate and track emergency management training requirements, as well as an emergency preparedness planner position, and staffing up -- and I believe they're all fully staffed now -- the regional emergency management coordinators. So those are some of the activities that I can speak to at this moment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my questions here related to the Colville Lake school to the Minister of ECE, my first question to the Minister is are the three modular units completed, certified, and ready for transportation? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to start off by saying I share the Member's frustration and the community's frustration on this one very much. Mr. Speaker, we were anticipating shipping of these units this previous winter road season. We had worked diligently with the Department of Infrastructure and the company to get this done and were then advised in February of 2025 that the contractor's transportation company would no longer be able to deliver the units during that winter road season, the one that we have just, just passed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that information here. My next question there to the same Minister is the procurement closed aside from the final shipping costs? Thank you.
