Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to use this short opportunity to ask a question of the Minister of health. We had a brief conversation over lunch hour with respect to medical travel, and it got me to thinking during that time, an hour or so ago, what is the Minister doing to open up for public dialogue and suggestions on repairing problems and challenges with medical travel? Could she open up a form or discussion board or something that they can receive direct input on stories, individuals. So that question is for the Minister of health.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. Some of the things that we're working on with -- yes, okay, because I was, like, lost. I thought we were moving on, and I didn't know you guys went back.
Thank you. Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Back to the question. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm always happy to repeat the best question ever.
Mr. Speaker, I said I had a brief conversation with the Minister over lunch hour regarding medical travel, and it got me to thinking during that time a couple hours ago which is, is there a way the department can set up some type of form or way to receive information on challenges individuals have been receiving through -- or going through medical travel in a way that we can help repair or fill some gaps on the system sort of like a -- I don't know how you do it, a flow system in but it's not meant to be a dialogue. Anyway, the point being is then we need to hear direct stories from people about ways of their -- challenges they're facing and ways maybe we can help deal with some of those challenges. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have the Office of Client Experience as the NTHSSA is the administrator that does the medical travel, and so I've had these conversations with the CEO and the public administrator and they really encourage people, when they're having issues, to make sure that they're raising them with the Office of Client Experience as well. Anything that comes through my office is tracked, and we do have a long list of the things that -- and those are the things that we are working on. However, that would be my first area that I would suggest, because all of the Office of Client Experience complaints and process. And I can see if there's a way that we can kind of streamline a medical travel route through that if that works, and I can get back to the Member on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ever so briefly, I was on the City of Yellowknife website about snow removal, and they had a bunch of Q and A simple questions as why you don't do -- or why this isn't being done and you click it, and it explained why this wasn't being done. Mr. Speaker, there could be a great chance for medical travel to help communicate some of the things. As I'm highlighting, I'm only going to briefly highlight one example, plane alignments with schedules. So in other words, that question could be is why aren't they aligned or better, you could have we're working on this, this is the progress, those type of things. That way people feel their government's listening. So, Mr. Speaker, is something like that feasible, or could you recognize the opportunity there within? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now online we do have the where we are with the medical travel. There's a portal online -- I can share it with the Members again -- on the progress that we're working on. But what I can do is also highlight that there is going to be a new manual, whether it's -- and if we can break some things down to our most common FAQs, that, you know, that could or -- and a general email box that people could probably send in some things. I can bring those back to my department to see how that can be done. I do believe that some of the work that will be coming out -- and I shared this with the Member -- is, you know, is we've all heard is the service standards. And so that has been a directive that I have given to the department to have a response and an implementation plan on how they're going to do service standards within, making sure patients have their travel at a certain time before so that they can actually -- if they don't have an escort or something like that, they have a period of time that they can -- they actually have time when they're not getting on the plane to figure out why they don't have an escort. So there are different things but I'll take those back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can keep this one quite short: We need a platform so people with see the questions are being heard. Because not everything needs to be an Assembly question and problems solved here. Everything could -- you know, so people need to know these questions are being worked on, and that's the platform I'm suggesting. Does the Minister, again, see the opportunity here to in a more transparent way communicate the struggles the department sees, hears, and is working towards solutions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will take that back to my department, and I can -- I see it as a good idea. I see it as I know that we do have a lot of -- you know, communication is one of the things that I'm always trying to see how we could do better. And so I will take that back and see what we can, and I can even let the Member know where we'll go with that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, fine option programs are crucial components of the justice system that allow different ways of people who run afoul of the law to repay their debts to society in a way that doesn't involve jail time or setting them up for failure. In recent travels on the Trespass Act, I became aware that there are some concerns in communities around the accessibility of these programs. So can the Minister of Justice tell me are fine option programs and community justice committees, or their equivalent, available in all NWT communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fine option/community justice programs are available. And I can't stand up here and say that it's everybody community. I believe it's a large number of the communities and certainly something that we've been working very closely with local Indigenous governments to help to administer those programs within those communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we need community justice committees for these programs. So can the Minister just clarify if there are community justice committees in all NWT communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that option is available to all communities in the Northwest Territories. Right now, I'm happy to come back and provide the information to the Member if every community has taken up the opportunity to participate in that program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. I welcome that information, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is about access to justice and ensuring there's a level playing field for everybody, especially people we are trying to rehabilitate and return as productive members of society.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that there are other ways to do this. There are ways to make this process an online portal where everyone in the Northwest Territories could access it. Is the Minister willing to look at expanding this, having a one-stop shop, modernizing the approach, because apparently there's ways to do it and do it for free. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, happy to take that away and have some conversations with the staff at the Department of Justice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It seems to be justice today, or at least Minister Macdonald day in some form or fashion.
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice, and it's with respect to the community -- one of your communities, the community of Fort Liard. Mr. Speaker, they've run a community policing program for many years and often we've referred to it as the gold standard, could we do more of these types of things, you know, how important it is, and how key it is to have community people working with community people. Mr. Speaker, the question is, has there ever been any evaluation on that program? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate this question coming to the floor very much. It just so happens we recently went through a priorities exercise, and one of my three priorities was to look at this program that was run very successfully in Fort Liard, have a complete evaluation done and be able to table that document here in the House to see how we can use that to support our ask with the federal government for more funding in other communities to support the rest of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That sounds promising. So just to clarify the record, who is doing that evaluation, what expertise do they have, and when can we expect it to be done? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of developing the terms of reference for that evaluation, and that work will be completed in the next few months, and that document will go out to the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I respect the opportunity that we should always have a balance on these particular evaluations so, in other words, balanced perspectives. So would the Minister ensure that not only social -- the social agency side would be part of the communication of setting up the criteria of the evaluation, he would also invite the RCMP to provide their expertise on the essence of the evaluation so we get a nice 360 point of view of how it's working for various elements of the community for the community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that's a very good suggestion. I believe that we want to have a very thorough evaluation. This is certainly going to be a guiding document that will help us to inform our conversations with the federal government. We don't fit right now currently within the program to access additional funding. We want to ensure that we can show the success of this program from all aspects within the community and use that as our guiding document to move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I have a return to written question asked by the Member for Yellowknife North on October 23rd, 2025, regarding changes to child and youth counselling services.
The Member asked the Minister to provide the number of children and youth, broken down by community or region, who have been accessing child and youth counselling services over each of the past two years.
Child and youth counsellors reported 4,677 client encounters in 2023-2024 and 2,485 encounters in 2024-2025. Regional client encounters for 2023-2024 were recorded as follows: Beaufort Delta had 1,198; Dehcho had 322; Fort Smith had 322; Hay River had 222; Sahtu had 170; Tlicho had 731; and Yellowknife had 1,712. Regional client encounters for 2024-2025 were recorded as follows: Beaufort Delta had 462; Dehcho had 0; Fort Smith had 112; Hay River had 34; Sahtu had 72; Tlicho had 573; and Yellowknife had 1,232.
A significant decrease of approximately 46.87%, in Child and Youth Counsellor contacts with children and youth was observed beginning in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. There are several factors contributing to the reduction of contacts with children and youth.
In 2024, Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment redesigned mental health services for children, youth, and families redistributing funding across both the education and health systems to ensure a full range of supports were available, from prevention and early intervention to clinical support.
As part of this redesign clinical support continues to be provided by the Health and Social Services system through the Community Counselling Program, while prevention and early intervention activities are provided through a school based mental health and wellness program. As a result of these changes the number of child and youth counsellors in the health and social services system has been reduced and child and youth counsellors are no longer placed in schools but rather into community settings.
Younger children are unable to leave school without parental support, to attend a counselling session in a Child and Youth Counsellors office; older or mature minor students are still responsible to abide by school attendance policies. The opportunity for confidential, on-site clinical connections has been significantly reduced. The Child and Youth Counsellor program shifted to a primarily referral-based model, thereby reducing informal accessibility and ease of access for children/youth to simply “drop in” to the office and engage more spontaneously.
The numbers in this response reflect only services provided through the health and social services system. Child and Youth Counsellor staff have had to re-build relationships with schools and communities, from the previous model of being in schools, to now serving schools part-time, and/or doing outreach to community settings. The Member asked if the Minister could provide the number of children and youth, broken down by community or region, who previously accessed child and youth counselling services over each of the prior two years before the changes were made in October 2023.
Child and youth counsellors reported 4,486 client encounters in 2021-2022. Regional client encounters were recorded as follows: Beaufort Delta had 819; Dehcho had 267; Fort Smith had 121; Hay River had 0; Sahtu had 258; Tlicho had 474; and Yellowknife had 2,547. Data for Hay River was not available as the program was in a stage of early implementation in 2021-2022.
Child and youth counsellors reported 4,917 client encounters in 2022-2023. Regional client encounters were recorded as follows: Beaufort Delta had 1,018; Dehcho had 271; Fort Smith had 143; Hay River had 258; Sahtu had 255; Tlicho had 750; and Yellowknife had 2,222. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Additional Information for Follow-up to Oral Question 822-20(1): No-Show Appointment Rates in Healthcare Clinics; and, Additional Information for Follow-up Oral Question 899-20(1): Northwest Territories Cancer Statistics. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Tabling of documents. Mr. Premier.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Additional Information for Return to Written Question 25-20(1): Senior Envoy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Tabling of documents. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table two documents: One is a Jurisdictional Scan of Public Radon Testing and Mitigation Supports in Canada; and additionally, a Jurisdictional Scan of Publicly-funded Fertility Programs in Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Tabling of documents.
