Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to MACA, Minister of MACA. Can the Minister inform this House as to how many of our schools within the NWT have backup generators to serve as muster points within our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I think that question may go to ECE. I think that's -- if we're talking about schools and backup generators, so Minister of ECE.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd have to go and look and see which schools are designated as muster points and which one of those have backup generators. But I can confirm that two of the schools the Member was discussing in his Member's statement do not have backup generators. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister look at equipping the schools that are not equipped with backup generators to have them installed within the schools? With the recent power outage in Fort McPherson, it shut the whole community down, even the schools and recent years before the school burnt down, we were able to attend the school because they had a backup generator but the new school doesn't. So will the Minister look at equipping schools within the NWT with backup generators in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can look at the capital standards to see if new school builds that are designated as muster points in the community for emergency purposes do have the requirement that they have backup generators. And then I can also commit to getting a comprehensive list of the status of existing school infrastructure for the Member as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister. They have these sea cans now that can be adjusted to fit these buildings. Will the Minister look at consulting with the two communities in my riding to look at the process of obtaining backup generators for these schools in the immediate future so they could be utilized as muster points? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, any kind of investment of that size would have to go through our capital planning process, and so I can certainly look into what the cost would be and make sure that the Member is aware and commit to bringing that back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my first set of questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
So since the child and youth counsellors from HSS were shifted out of schools just over two years ago, ECE has given funds directly to the schools and education authorities for in-school mental health and wellness programs; however, many parents are still not clear what specific programs or activities are now available for their children. I understand the Minister has given considerable leeway to the schools to decide how the mental health and wellness funding is spent. Can she commit, though, to ensuring that the schools publish information and inform parents as to what programs and activities are now being offered in terms of mental health? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, just to acknowledge the Member is correct. So while health and social services provides services that are clinically based, education, culture and employment acquired funding to focus more on the prevention side. And I can confirm for the Member, yes, I agree with the Member, there needs to be a transparency and public awareness component to this. And as it exists right now education bodies are expected to report annually on the school-based mental health and wellness programming through their planning and accountability frameworks. This information is tabled annually, which is used to inform the public, but also to inform policy changes going forward to inform funding requirements, etcetera. And I can also commit to the Member that I can bring this forward as well as far as making this information potentially more digestible for parents from an education -- by education body // case. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'd appreciate if the Minister could also direct us to where those annual reports are found. I'm wondering does ECE have any requirements in terms of what the school-based programs must include in terms of parameters? For example, does it need to include some service to be able to respond to a mental health crisis by a student or options for one-on-one support in addition to group activities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, there are guidelines for this program and also policy direction on how education bodies provide access to mental wellness services, and that's divided up by a whole-school approach, classroom-based approach, small group, and also one on one. It's important to note that it is not expected by the school-based mental health and wellness program from the education side that educators also be clinicians or that the peer support workers be clinicians. And so what they've identified is through a tiered-approach to supporting students at the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, so that there is both a proactive and prevention focus on the mental health supports that schools are providing. And it's incredibly important that this program can be flexible to the needs of the school itself because our educators are best placed to understand the needs of the students, what they're going through. Our kids are talking to one another. They're talking to the adults in the school. And that is how educators are able to be responsive to what students need. That doesn't replace, though, the clinician approach from health and social services. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So just finally can the Minister tell us how she's monitoring the success of these programs to make sure it's accomplishing what it's meant to accomplish? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I meet twice a year with our education body leaders, and we do that in the spring and then again in the fall. That meeting is happening in mid November. And that's an opportunity to have really candid frank conversations with all the leaders, superintendents, and chairs, about how the program is going, and I'm very clear at every single meeting that I expect and ask for updates on everybody's programs and how it's rolling out because the mental health of our students is incredibly important.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, we also have our education accountability framework. This includes annual operating plans, budgets, performance measures, and monthly data submissions from education bodies.
We also have our early development instrument and middle years development instrument, and this is success monitoring over time.
And then we also have that data that I spoke to earlier with the Member that informs policy development, funding decisions, and service improvements. But that, again, is over time. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask questions to the Minister of ECC about encampments.
Mr. Speaker, the GNWT has designated Commissioner's land as a place to go, so in other words they're actually sanctioning encampments on Commissioner's land. And by directing them in that particular area, there must be some responsibility that is taken. So knowing for a fact there are propane tanks, jerry cans stored properly -- improperly to be clear, open fires, and there's waste that's spilling on to private property that the private property owners have to be now responsible for, what are the inspectors of ECC doing to, say, mitigate or address these types of problems? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of ECC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our staff from environment and climate change and the lands division have been visiting sites throughout the city over the last number of months, and also have responded to some requests from citizens and some of those that came through other Members of this House, you know, on garbage and different things like that that have been out and around the city and some of these areas and have engaged with local NGOs to do some work in cleaning different areas as well as our staff have also gone out and participated in some of that activity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If someone went out on the Ingraham Trail and built a permanent structure, and one example I'll give is the tree house tower of some sort, out of building material and other types of things -- who knows what it's made out of; it doesn't look safe -- the Department of ECC would be instructing that that had to be cleaned up, torn down, etcetera. So why are these structures being allowed on Commissioner's land because they're downtown Yellowknife but if it was on the Ingraham Trail, they'd be posting an order to clean up? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, unauthorized occupancy is certainly an area of concern. Within the Commissioner's land and public land, the ability for any resident of the Northwest Territories to occupy that land in a tent, you know, for in a camping situation, is within the allowable activities. Of course, they are responsible for following all of the associated rules and things that apply to that.
As far as the unauthorized structures, that is not allowed obviously. And as our officers go around and we attempt to engage with the individuals that we may or may not know who's created that structure and have that conversation to try and resolve that situation. And then there's a step process that would escalate it up to the posting and often to the court system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, I raise it again because it's so important. If there are propane tanks there, open fires, jerry cans, all within reach, Mr. Speaker, and garbage spewing everywhere and, in my opinion, some difficult living conditions, can the Minister provide this House, if not verbally today, some statistics and data on how often these sites are all individually inspected and what have been the results from each individual inspection with some dates? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, obviously, that is not information that I would have with me here today but I'm certainly willing to -- I will commit to go back to the department and see what we keep in statistics, in data, around those specific items that the Member has raised and be happy to get back to the Member with a response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we last sat, the drinking water situation at Yellowknife schools was just starting to break. The priority then was getting information out to the public about the safety of children and staff, and then we saw the entire situation play out over the summer.
Mr. Speaker, why did it take until August for drinking water measures to be taken at NJ McPherson when measures were taken at two other schools in May? And that's a question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, as we know, there was 42 out of 44 schools that were tested originally. The original test that came back for NJ McPherson school was right on the cusp, and so the GNWT retested that school and it was found to be significantly lower than required MAC level. And then out of an abundance of caution, following the testing protocol that was established, it was identified that the GNWT would retest NJ McPherson School based on the original test result that was received. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's a relief, then, that the new protocol does seem to be working, and it's being done properly. Are there any other schools that were initially tested that now need to be retested based on the new protocol? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, from the original test numbers, it was isolated to those three schools that had the high numbers. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister commissioned independent study to look into why this happened. What actions has she directed the department to take to ensure there's accountability over decisions that are being made? We've had health protocols in place. We've been a -- this government's been through COVID. So are we going to ensure that the chief public health officer is consulted going forward any time there's a situation like this again so we can ensure the safety of our kids? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member as well as the public that I take this very seriously. As a government and as a Cabinet, there's been changes that have been made government wide from this lessons learned but also specifically for water testing of our schools.
Specific for water testing of our schools, we worked with the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer to establish a testing protocol territory wide for all schools in the Northwest Territories.
In addition to how we move forward as a government, we have also implemented project charters so that we understand as a government how projects are going to unfold and how we're going to work together as we do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my statement to the -- my questions are directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thinking and looking outside the box there, my first question to the Minister would be is the Minister willing to support and have discussions on forming a delegation to have a strategy session in Norman Wells? She may have ideas. We may even have ideas on the list of delegation. Would the Minister support that delegation selection?
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to make an assumption that we're talking about NORTRAN based on the Member's Member statement for today. I'm certainly very happy to sit down with the Member and discuss NORTRAN specifically, for sure. Education, culture and employment definitely has a different workforce development programs and labour market programs that individuals, employers, and organizations and communities can apply for and would also be happy to specifically also work with education, culture and employment along with the Member to be able to have a conversation about what NORTRAN ultimately is, what programs could be applied for in order to fund parts of it, and go from there. Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that reply. Yes, my questions are a follow-up to NORTRAN. I see a lot of value in divesting into NORTRAN.
Would the Minister look at funding commitments to offset the travel costs of this delegation that could be minimized by utilizing the winter road season. Mahsi.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to sit down with the Member. I'm very happy to meet over Teams, but travelling with a large contingency of people is not something that education, culture and employment has funds for. We try to do as much as we can virtually so that we can ensure that funding for programs go into communities, go into schools, and go to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister here. My last question is ultimately our goal is to seek O and M support, NORTRAN. Would the Minister assist in coordinating the developments of this action plan to seek federal engagements for redirecting some of the royalties back into the O and M of NORTRAN. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the royalties I believe the Member is referring to are held by the federal government. I believe he's referring to those specific ones. Certainly, I'm always happy to do what I can within my role as Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Also happy to work with the department to review the initiative and point out different ideas of how we can all work together. I'm also happy to connect the Member with private institutions here in the Northwest Territories who have gone through the accreditation process of some of their programming and certainly happy to also connect the Member with the chair of Aurora College's board of governors who certainly has an interest in the trades and trade development across the Northwest Territories. So happy to work together with the Member to make some good partnership connections and also connections to both workforce development programs that can be applied for and even SEED programs that have been used for business plan development as well. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
