Thank you, Minister of ECE and ITI. You did a really good job of getting back to ECE. Thank you. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for your indulgence, certainly appreciate it. And I do understand there's been some funding, albeit not all through the core funding. I think the core funding they receive two times, 25K, for some of the infrastructure and some of the equipment that they purchased and whatnot in there. Other fundings were gotten, I think, through organizations who use that Innovate Centre because it is a membership-based centre, Mr. Speaker, where people can come in and access these fancy pieces of equipment, learn how to use them, maintain them and operate them, and so on.
What this does say, though, I mean -- and I know the VP position of Aurora College was out of Inuvik, is now based in Yellowknife, for various reasons I am sure, but maybe it's time we start looking, Mr. Speaker, as we've talked about in this House before, is having the Minister have a look at maybe putting ADM positions outside of Yellowknife and, in particular, somewhere like Inuvik where there's more than just this happening there as we know and to get some senior positions out of Yellowknife and into the regions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, where -- well, education is a great example where a lot of their staff are actually based regionally but whenever there is job applications for within the department that do go out across the government, I know that we as Cabinet Ministers encourage departments to use the remote work policy so that, really, people can be based across the territory if appropriate. So I can confirm for the Member that that work is done.
As far as Aurora College, as the Member knows, the operations of that really do fall under the president and the chair of the board of governors, so that's not one that I have control over, but the Member certainly has my commitment to continue encouraging regional representation within departments that I am the Minister of. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in my statement, I spoke about the need for every resident in the territory to be attached or assigned to an integrated primary care team to have a relationship with a nurse practitioner or a physician as part of a team who knows the patient, knows their history. And the HSS report released last year called Equitable Access, Co-designing an Integrated Primary and Community Healthcare Framework, identified a goal of fully functional integrated care teams by 2028. So my question for the Minister of HSS, is HSS publicly committing to have every resident in the territory attached to a fully functional integrated primary care team by 2028? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, the department has made this commitment. Fully functional means teams are appropriately staffed so that care is sustainable and relationship based. My goal is to progress towards an improved patient attachment to care teams while ensuring implementation is safe, sustainable, and responsive. The first step is the publication of the North Star primary care and community care framework in May 2026 of this year. Once the framework is public, the department will focus on developing guidelines for patient attachment and setting clearer expectations for team-based care. And this may look different where you live in the territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to hear the Minister make that commitment publicly.
So does the HSS actually have a plan for acquiring the human resources needed to staff all of those integrated care teams? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, right now we are working on the people strategy which is part of that. It's also a key strategy in the primary community health care framework. Integrated care teams include physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, Indigenous health workers, community health representatives, administrative staff, mental wellness and social supports. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So finally, has HSS already identified standards or guidelines to ensure that the number of patients assigned to any one team is safe and manageable for practitioners? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Northwest Territories, there isn't a jurisdiction that's comparable to us, and with the changes to team-based care currently going through the rest of Canada, at this time there isn't one place that's ahead of us so there is no fixed panel size that's appropriate across all communities or care models. So panel sizes must consider patient complexity, the members on the care team, scope of practice, the environment where the care is being provided, and administrative support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in speaking about medical travel, especially around exemption policies, because we can't have a one-size-fits-all policy obviously but oftentimes concerns are supported by doctors, supported by medical personnel and we're told, time and time again, policy says no. So my question is does the Minister of Health and Social Services have the authority to approve exceptions for medical travel policies, yes or no?
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, within my authority I have the ability to approve, but where I use the expertise of the medical advisor and the processes that we have to advise me on the recommendations, and then I make a decision based on that if it ever came to me. But, however, within this process, the majority of the exceptions that come to my office are not within the medical travel policy. They are usually when it comes to air ambulance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I am going to take that as a yes. But what is the point of an exception policy if the Minister isn't making exceptions to the policy? What is the point of this whole process if the answer's always going to be no, Mr. Speaker? Because constituents who go to the Minister expect help; they don't expect to be told no. That's why they're asking for an exception to the policies in the first place, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister, you know, my role is to ensure that when these concerns are coming up that I am able to bring forward, through our processes, through our business planning process, the evidence and the data when spending and when asking this House to spend public dollars and that is the process that I have to go through. When it comes to exceptions, right now the policy we have is for medical travel for scheduled appointments. There is no escort policy for medivacs or ground ambulance or air ambulance, and that is why within the medical travel modernization process, that is where we are going to be working on once we figure out the whole processes where people are travelling. We're trying to ensure that we're finding the money that's being spent on travel that probably could be saved and we can use that funding. Otherwise, you know, we would have to look internally and start to look at money that's within the NTHSSA and reallocate that from things that are also important to residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am all for efficiencies within the medical travel system, and there are a lot of baseline approval processes that don't have anything to do with medical travel exceptions that are costly, bloated, and inefficient. What we're talking about is people who need help when the system has failed them; they're falling through the cracks. Will the Minister do the right thing and approve the exceptions that are brought forward by our offices, supported by doctors' evidence, supported by the medical system; do the right thing and help these people because they need it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the patient needs access to healthcare, our system does get them to wherever the nearest service place is. It's when there's an exception process for an escort. That is usually the process that we use, and we have to use our policies as I mentioned. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I know of one policy that's been reviewed or could be referred to as an ongoing living document, it would be the medical travel modernization process. I can go back to memory of 2004 I was talking about it.
Mr. Speaker, my questions should -- if they're not aware yet who I am asking, I am asking the health Minister.
Mr. Speaker, my Member's statement today I talked about asking for an exit interview; in other words, people who go through the medical travel process, acknowledging formally right now most will probably not be a problem and they'll say it was great. That said, Mr. Speaker, people feel like they're being treated as bots. There's an insensitivity to the process. Would the Minister consider the option of making some after-process connections to find out how people's experience was through the medical travel experience. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those processes are already in place, and I -- you know, I am not sitting here saying that there's no problems within the system. There is, and I've acknowledged it, and we are going through the process to look at escorts for air ambulance. We are gathering the data. You know, those processes then go through our business plan process. So within the Office of Client Experience, they have a very nice report that they have, you know, taken a lot of the data and the complaints and, well, my office has documented any exception requests that have gotten through the department. We keep those requests. Every MLA concern brought forward to my office. We know what the issues are. It's the process that we have to get to through getting a policy written and then funding attached to it. That's where we're in this medical modernization. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answer from the Minister. I mean, she says it's a very nice report. I guarantee you I bet it has a nice cover, etcetera. Mr. Speaker, the problem with this is the disconnect of the actual -- the report into action.
Mr. Speaker, is there a way to implement some of these results or recommendations earlier? Because if we all wait for medical travel to be repaired or fixed or modernized or whatever semantics we want to use, Mr. Speaker, the end of times are probably closer than this report being covered and then finally implemented. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if this one file is the one that we've been most focused on, we've been moving it forward. You know, we have the patient journey, the Deh Cho patient journey mapping. We've got another medical travel piece going in to another couple more communities to be tracking to. Every community that travels is a little bit different, and so trying to come up with the process to one size fits all -- we just released the report on how much medical travel people are travelling, and it shows the costs of making sure that everybody -- and the amount of escorts that have happened and the cost of those escorts travelling, and so it's really important and it's been a direct -- like, on my office, on my staff, on the NTHSSA, right now we are -- you know, with this budget, we've got case managers in the budget as mentioned there to be -- you know, to help with that. So there's more pieces that are still continuing through the life of this government that are going to happen. However, it's going through -- got to go through the business plans to get the money to do it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question to the Minister of health is about a health envoy. Now, I am not sure we need a senior health envoy. I don't know if we can afford a senior health envoy. But, Mr. Speaker, many people will tell me that their service response or service standards aren't being met, which is they go out, there's disconnect on timing, people delayed getting back to them, whether it's phone calls or emails, and the fact is they feel stranded and alone and there is the panic and frustration and hence that's why we're talking about it today, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in short, is the Minister able to create some type of navigator system specifically for medical travel while members are -- where our community, our people, our friends, our family, are out there getting services, because they do feel the disconnect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
(audio)
Please.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as per the service standards, the most recent conversation that I've had with NTHSSA and the department, within the direction that I've given them, is to be able to come back with a timeline, I hope before March, as to implementing service standards so that we can brief committee so that we can, you know, go out to the public. Because I too have raised that issue. I have constituents that continue to receive medical travel the day before and so this is not -- and I've said it in this House that it's not acceptable. We can't expect our sick residents to be worrying about whether they have their travel. And so within this last month, you know, I've directed that I have this in place before the end of this year so that we can make sure that at least that area -- and people know when they're getting -- needing to travel, they're having their travel prior to a few days before, not the day of. So however with the -- I can take back as to how we can maybe do a -- you know, we know what the issues are. It's not that we don't know what the issues are. It's just the process of government through our business plans, and it's not always the fastest. So I will take that comment back to my department. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Colleagues, I need to remind you to slow down when we're speaking for our translators.
Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will endeavour to be slow.
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say thank you before my questions that I am grateful that the Premier's staff has reached out to YWCA-NWT and begin to address some of their concerns, but I still have some additional ones to discuss today, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell me if due to EIA's function of both coordinating the policy of A Way Home and the NGO sector support initiative and as the department that houses the gender equity unit, if he will consider directing EIA to coordinate and lead a policy approach in partnership with NGOs that run family violence shelters across the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this is an issue that cuts across a number of different departments. Housing NWT is actually responsible for the coordination of the homelessness strategy although EIA does continue to play a role in there, and health and social services, as the establishment policy of that department, gives it authority over family violence and family violence shelters and the funding. So it goes beyond just EIA, and I wouldn't want to make a commitment and commit the Minister of the Status of Women and the Minister of health to something without having a conversation first. So now that this has been raised with me, I am happy to go have a conversation with them and look at -- have the discussion about this going forward. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Premier for that. I am glad the conversation can at least start.
Mr. Speaker, will the Premier reply to the YWCA-NWT regarding their financial ask of $340,000 for the 2026-2027 fiscal year and to direct EIA staff to assist them in finding appropriate ongoing funding for the safe homes in both Fort Simpson and Fort Good Hope. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as the Member mentioned, staff have reached out to have conversations with the YWCA about ongoing funding. I recognize the important work that NGOs do, and they do it at a fraction of the cost that the Government of the Northwest Territories can do it. So we always want to make sure that we are supporting them to the extent we can.
The program that has sunsetting funding is a federal program and so, you know, we see this quite often in the territory where the federal government will see an opportunity to fund something that's their flavour of the day I guess, and they'll put a time limit on it, and then they'll fund it, and then the new government comes in and that funding ends, and then we're in had the situation we find ourselves in now where we have these homes established, we have people working at them, but there's no funding, and so of course people look to the territorial government.
I will respond to the letter to the YWCA. I expected to be able to respond sometime this week, maybe even today. I won't guarantee today, but sometime this week I can assure the Member that I will get a response. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell me if he sees value in and whether he would consider a round table or working group of NGO, community, and Indigenous government partners on how to effectively coordinate family violence shelters in safe homes across the NWT aligning with the MMIWG Call for Justice 4.7. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And EIA does work with NGOs. We have a very, very small unit, extraordinarily small unit with only a couple people in there so it's difficult to overcommit ourselves. Right now we are focusing on service integration with a specific focus on homelessness and people who are at risk of become homeless. And so that unit doesn't have a lot of additional horsepower to take on other roles. That being said, I am happy to speak with the other two Ministers who are involved in this and have a conversation because I do see the value in having some sort of coordination. When you have a number of different organizations that don't have a coordinating body or necessarily working together, there's obviously things that could be missed there, and so I do see the value it in. So I will have the conversation with my colleagues on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I will speak slowly. Mr. Speaker, during the negotiation for Treaty 8, the Commissioner promised the First Nation signatories that supplies of medicine will be part -- will be put in charge of persons selected by the government, in this case the GNWT, and will be distributed for free to those Indians who might require them and that the physicians attached to the Commission should the attendance to all Indians who might find them in need of treatment as they pass through the country.
Mr. Speaker, NIHB program is also funded by the Crown which also is bound legally for Crown accommodations as well for the Indians that made treaties with.
Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of health. How is the Minister ensuring that negotiation obtaining new NIHB policies and adequate funding for the NWT are conducted with full transparency and meaningful involvement based on treaty with Indigenous governments and communities and not in isolation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT and Indigenous Service Canada and Indigenous groups all come together, they have a trilateral, they raise their concerns. At these meetings, I believe they are -- I can't recall if they're annual or biannual meetings. So they do address the concerns region by region specific. And at those meetings, then Indigenous Service Canada will take away, you know, what they're responsible for, GNWT takes away what they're responsible for, from those meetings. We also work with the Council of Leaders. And when it comes to the NIHB agreement, there has been very clear messaging from the Council of Leaders, the Indigenous leaders that sit at that table, is that the services that are currently being provided in the Northwest Territories right now, their first and foremost is to ensure that Indigenous Service Canada is coming to the table and funding the Northwest Territories who is administering that policy. There has been a few Indigenous governments that had wanted to draw this down and do it themselves until they -- you know, they were -- they realized that we were being underfunded by at least $25 to $30 million a year that we aren't being able to get that funding. So it is important that I continue to work with the partners that I have been working with and then we direct the team to go and make sure that whatever's being negotiated is brought back and making sure that those leaders know that this is what we were going to consider once the agreement is finalized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
