Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I honour the treaties. And as an Indigenous health Minister, I am working extremely hard to fix this policy as it's different in every community. I went to this MLA's communities and spoke with them. You know, I asked them to address things that, you know, that they feel that -- however, when it comes to -- you know, when people are leaving the territory on their own, if this government has to pay for every single time somebody left this territory and had a medical emergency for their families to travel and stay with them, my whole budget would be based on paying for that. We have to stay within the process and the policies that we have. I understand the hardship that patients have to go through when they have to travel. That is why we're working so hard to try and bring care closer to home. You know, we're having virtual care so people don't have to travel so much, Mr. Speaker. So, you know, when I sit here and I -- you know, and I hear that I am not honouring the treaties as a health Minister, as an Indigenous, you know, I take that and, you know, I feel that this is not -- this is not what we're doing here as consensus government. We're all working together. They know I have processes that I have to go through to allocate millions and millions of dollars. So I will continue to advocate for the things that our northern residents need on getting, you know, an expanded escort policy developed before my term is done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to hear that she is honouring the treaties. But, Mr. Speaker, I don't see it.
Mr. Speaker, I am deeply concerned that in the 19th we had a Minister that stood up in the House, here, and talked about the forestry fires we had back in the day, made a policy on a Friday, implemented on a Monday. I don't know what's wrong here, Mr. Speaker. We need to have a policy created. Thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services. The question was will you do the policy. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned to the Member when they asked the question last week, there is no pot of money that I can create to make a policy tomorrow. If I was to do that, I would have to bring it through, you know, and I would have to reallocate funds within my budget that would be way more than the transfers that we have because the cost of doing these types of things is in the millions. When we look -- like I said, I tabled -- you know, it's been public, the medical travel costs for 2024-2025. Alone for escorts it was almost $8 million or more. And that's within just the scheduled appointments. And so at this point, I am going to stick to the policies that we have so that way when I am going to spend taxpayers dollars that I go through the proper processes to get the approvals to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of ITI, I think we moved arts money to. Perfect, ITI minister.
Mr. Speaker, the NWT arts strategy runs from 2021 to 2031, I believe, and I was searching around online and I found an action plan progress tracker. Mr. Speaker, when was the last time this tracker was updated? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Member for Great Slave for pointing out to me that I've got a little bit of extra homework to do on this transfer because this action tracker currently lives over in ECE and needs to be transferred over to ITI. So I will see that that gets done. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I am heartened to hear that this past weekend an artist reached out to me and said, you know, the new financial structure is working, it's clearer, it's understandable. But I am curious, Mr. Speaker, what more has her department been hearing about arts funding, and has this new structure been working for the majority of NWT artists? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have -- we've maintained the program as it was over in ECE because it had recently gone through some shifts we're responding to artists, and we continue to treat it as a living program. And so we are just at the tail end of continuing to do some of that work in order to make sure that we're being responsive to artists in the territory, that we're being responsive to business owners, and we continue to make sure that the programs are also listening to what people are looking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I am just wondering if the Minister can provide a listing of all of the large and medium project funding to Members that have been applied for and succeeded since the funding structure changed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is normally information that would come out publicly in our grants and contributions reporting, and so anything that is fair game for the public, I am more than happy to table here in the House as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are again to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, on the weekend I was reminded by a Member of our community -- happens to be a senior -- and they were saying to me that how they wish they could book their health appointments online. They mentioned the last time they were uncomfortable standing up, getting there early and having to stand and wait at the door to squeeze in, and when they try to call, the fact is no one answers until after 8 o'clock and hence all the appointments are gone by then, Mr. Speaker, which they said begs the question why even have a phone number.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister give this House an update when this government will proceed with an online medical appointment booking system. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have brought this back to NTHSSA and they have not brought back the -- a timeline but however we have had many conversations on what -- versus buying a program that's going to need to meet our OCIO standards for health information versus -- and that's not going to connect into our booking -- our EMR -- or EHR right now. So I will follow up with where we're at and if there is further discussions or options on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not a software engineer, but this appears, from my understanding and research, is it's simply just a software program issue, not a medical Act issue. Maybe it's an attitude issue. Maybe people don't want to do it this way. I don't know, Mr. Speaker. The question is really built around can the Minister make a decision in the House that this will be implemented before the end of this calendar year 2026 to give the public service something to work towards to. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know in this House, any time GNWT wants to implement some kind of a computer technology, it's not as easy as just the Minister saying it on the floor of this House. It's going to take analysis. It's going to see if it meets our standards of keeping health information, you know. So if there is an easier route, then I will definitely commit to being able to seeing if we can have -- you know, that through the next business plan rounds to implement; however, at this point I can't commit to ensuring that it's there. I will commit to seeing that if there's an easier route to bring that through our business planning process. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know I am not the only person who's asked this question. I know my colleague from Range Lake has asked this question about where this software is. Did the Minister just say in some way -- and I will allow her to clarify -- is the public service saying no? Are they refusing to do it? Are they refusing to take directions? Can the Minister at the very least commit in this House that she'll have this so-called analysis produced before the end of the second quarter of this current year. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I have tasked NTHSSA to do is to do the patient journey through the primary care clinics in Yellowknife as this is where this issue has come up on and on again. And as part of that process, they will begin this -- I believe the patient journey, they're putting their metrics together, and they'll start this on April 1st. The booking -- with that system, just like with the Deh Cho journey, many recommendations came out of that. And using that journey, then we were able to come up with some recommendations on where to implement different dollars, program changes, and things like that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of health. Ma'am,
Stop recording.
Ma'am, in the gallery; you can't take pictures.
(audio).
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pursuant to rule 7.2(7)(2), I've received follow-up information or the following oral questions from the first session of the 20th Legislative Assembly, 838 and 856. These follow-ups will be printed in full in today's Hansard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to submit Written Question 30-20, Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority Action Plan.
During the December 4, 2025, public briefing to the Standing Committee on Social Development by the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority and the healthcare system sustainability unit, the public administrator stated that the NTHSSA has completed 30-, 60- and 90-day action plans. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services:
Can the Minister provide the NTHSSA's 30-, 60- and 90-day action plans, along with a detailed accounting of which items have been completed?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2025-2026; Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization), No. 3, 2025-2026; and, 2024-2025 Public Accounts, Sections 1, 2, 3, and 4. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Tabling of documents. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a letter dated January 29th, 2026, from YWCA-NWT to Cabinet Members requesting funds to operate safe homes in Fort Simpson and Fort Good Hope. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Tabling of documents.
Thank you. I will now call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? I am going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 448-20(1), 2026-2027 Main Estimates, the Department of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Okay. We'll take our short break. Thank you.
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Okay, can I get some order. Thank you.
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 in witnesses into the House?
