Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? Motion passed.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026, I will present Bill 40, An Act to Amend the Vital Statistics Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Notices of motion for the first reading of bills. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026, I will present Bill 41, An Act to Amend the Real Estate Agents Licensing Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Members, I will proceed in calling the committee to order. I now call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wishes of committee? To the Member Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 448-20(1), 2026-2027 Main Estimates, Department of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member from Boot Lake. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will proceed with the first item on the Department of Health and Social Services today. And if we can move -- first of all, committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 448-20(1), 2026-2027 Main Estimates. We will now consider the Department of Health and Social Services. Does the Minister of Health and Social Services wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Committee agree?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.
Would the Minister please introduce her witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have the deputy minister Mr. Alan Doody. And to my right, I have assistant deputy minister Jeannie Mathison.
Thank you, Minister. The committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled documents?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, we will defer the department summary and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with administration and support services starting on page 197. So let's proceed to page 197, with information items on pages 199 and 200. Are there any questions?
Okay, thank you. Member of Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am always interested in the electronic medical record project. I have some questions about that today. Can the Minister share what the timeline for implementation of the new electronic record system looks like, broadly speaking, as in when can -- where are we now and when can residents expect to have a new system in place. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll turn that over to deputy minister Mr. Doody.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you very much for the question. So we are currently completed the requirements portion of the project development, and we'll have to go to RFP sometime here shortly in the next coming months. And once we're through the RFP process, we'll be able to communicate a more finite timeline for the implementation of a new system.
Thank you, deputy minister. Back to the Member, Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So what I am hearing, then, is that there is no definitive timeline for the RFP. It's kind of coming up but we're not certain; is that correct, Mr. Chair? Thank you.
Thank you to the Member, Great Slave. Minister.
Yes, that's correct. I believe the last update that we had was that it would be, I think within this next couple of months that it would be ready to go out for RFP. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so the scope of this project, I believe, is quite extensive and daunting, and I would assume that there are few suppliers who could possibly meet the entire contents of that RFP. Does the Department or the Minister have a contemplation of how long it may take to find a successful applicant? Are there companies that they've identified that probably have the capabilities to do this work? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member. The deputy minister, please reply.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you very much for the question. So across the country there's been several jurisdictions in Canada who recently have upgraded their EMR system. There's approximately three to four actual players that operate in that space, so we would assume that they will be one of the companies that would bid on our project. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, deputy minister. To the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you. And at this time I realize that we can't speak to the total dollar amount of the RFP, that sort of precludes contracting, procurement, etcetera. But how much is the total cost of the planning work done thus far and the estimated general costs anticipated for this new system? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As that's part of capital, I don't have that level of detail right now, but we can get that information back to the Member.
Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I know part of the scoping of this project, too, is interoperability with the Alberta system. Has that pre-feasibility work been completed now that we're almost at the RFP stage? Is it realistic to assume that we will have interoperability with Alberta or other jurisdictions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, right now, as across Canada, there is a working group, I believe, that is working together with Health Canada to -- I believe it's called Connect Care, and there's some legislation or work that -- I can turn it over to the deputy minister. He may have more details on that. But it's more to ensure that all of the jurisdictions in Canada are being able to connect with each other so through that process -- so I can turn it over to the deputy minister. He might have a few more details on that.
Thank you, Minister. To the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the question. There is a national group working through Canada Infoway with PTs all participating right now on looking at technical standards to be able to share data across jurisdictions, and also CIHI are also engaged from the data side of that as well. So this is one of the items that's being worked at at the provincial/territorial level across the country.
Thank you, deputy minister. To the Member, Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to change my question topic. I am curious, when it comes to human resources, which is under this activity, will the department be working on a way to -- and it sort of dovetails with information services. Will the department be working on any way to publicly demonstrate, either online or through communications, where they can show the vacancies and retention rates in specific healthcare fields in the territory? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.
