Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried. Committee Report 35-20(1), Standing Committee on Public Accounts Report on the Review of the Auditor general's 2025 Audit of Protected and Conserved Areas in the Northwest Territories, has been received and will be moved into the Committee of the Whole for further consideration.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will be asking questions of my favourite health Minister today, and it's with respect to wait times.
Mr. Speaker, I was looking at the health and social services dashboard on wait times. Thank you very much for having that very important piece of information. But I don't find that it actually tracks specifics when you tie months to actual wait times. It says wait times by month is not the same in the sense of tracking them in the context of getting results. So in other words, it says we have people on priority, but it doesn't actually say who we actually serve. Does the department actually do an analysis as to how many referrals it has in the context of how many we actually see? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that level of detail.
Yes, thank you very much. I mean, the website is helpful. It's a little on the confusing side where it says referral count and then wait times, but I am not actually seeing where it transposes.
Mr. Speaker, is there any cost analysis ever done by the Department of Health and Social Services that looks into is it cheaper to bring specialists to the Northwest Territories rather than sending them to south using the medical travel process and therein lies the question. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the health authority's preference is to bring specialists to the Northwest Territories; however, all the specialists are not always available to travel to the Northwest Territories as they service Alberta residents at the same time. So within access to care, we provide them with the travel to Alberta for that care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer. Yes, there's some specialists that come here. The eye guy, I don't know what his name is, but he sees hundreds of people all at once. Excellent use of resources.
Mr. Speaker, is the Minister able to share what analysis they do on these types of appointments and strategies with me and my colleagues, including the public, because I can't find any analysis or strategy on the website on how we try to find the best way to do this business. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the years there's been many different ways to try and analyze this and right now, what this government has done is we have highlighted the medical travel piece, which also includes out-of-territory physician services, which is being analyzed right now by the health sustainability unit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services following up on my Member's statement.
So my understanding was that the public administrator was to be appointed for a one-year term with possibility of extension. As I noted in my Member's statement, the public administrator has so far failed to deliver most of the deliverables laid out in the work plan. So my first question for the Minister, is there a defined end date for the term of the public administrator or is the contract to be extended as long as there continues to be unfinished work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in December, myself, the public administrator, the deputy minister, we briefed committee on the public -- the Minister's work plan. There, however -- so there are many areas that the public administrator has been directed to work on. There are some things that are -- some deliverables that have had extended timelines due to certain aspects, but I don't agree with the comment that there are many -- there are many of the things that are in progress. There are a lot that have been completed. There is still some work that, you know, is delayed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn't really hear an answer to the first question. But following up on the Minister's comments, are there firm deadlines in place to ensure that those deliverables that are overdue will be received in time to make meaningful change during the life of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, there are timelines. And like any other year we have, we ended up having delays. You know, there was the Dehcho journey that was part of this mapping of -- you know, with medical travel. That was one piece that was delayed. There are many different parts that are going on. And the Member's statement was people strategy. Well, when we went out and we heard from the -- myself, the public administrator, the deputy administrator, and the CEO went out and heard from staff, there was a lot more outside of the health and social services NTHSSA area so we had to go out and work with other departments to see how we could work together to try and fit in some of the requests that were being made by staff for this retention strategy. So there are other things that we are continuing to work on.
And the timeline for the public administrator is -- his contract is up in December, and we are on track with where we are with the plan for governance. And once we have made that decision, then we'll transition to that before the year is over. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for providing clarity on the first couple of questions.
So can the Minister speak to what barriers have been removed or what issues have now been resolved that would give this House more assurance that the deliverables can actually be completed by December of this year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the main part of -- you know, and other Members have stressed this, was we -- the main part was for the public administrator to ensure that what messaging was coming from this government through our priorities was being actioned within the NTHSSA. And with that direct line, we've now been able to focus on areas where we -- and I've said in this House, we have been focusing on not just on small communities, on the high priority, the areas that are most important to the residents, which is that first contact. And within that, the priorities -- the other piece was is to ensure that the, you know, NTHSSA's budget is -- budget is appropriate size for the services that we require them and we are expecting them to do. And that work has been going on. And within the mandate -- within the public administrator's mandate, he's got until this next year to have that budget so that way the next budget that's put forward is more in line with a balanced budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, my question is what is the provision of speech-language therapy and social and emotional support being left to the schools instead of being administered by the Minister of Health and Social Services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the mental health and speech-language, both -- for years, both the education and I think when -- and within health have had separate budgets, so the K to 12 I can't speak to that. That can go to the Minister. But where the health authority lies is when those children have needs for speech and those can -- those referrals are made to the speech pathology through a referral process. And they can be self-referral from families, from physicians, from the schools. And we provide those services; however, you know, right now we're challenged with a lot of vacancies. With mental health, I know with the CYCs, we have -- we initiated this program, I believe, 2018-2019. All of the mental health work was done under health and social services but after a two-year or three-year review, I believe there was a large push from education bodies to want to be more involved and have more of that within their authority and so that's why the change was made at the beginning -- to make the change at the beginning of this government, to split that so that part of the work was done in education and the clinical expertise would stay in health. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question is why is the Minister forcing schools to use their budgets for children's assessments and essential learning equipment when the schools aren't equipped to deliver these services and don't have the funding and trying to tap into the surplus dollars doesn't work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would have to get more information as to what the Member is referring to as I wouldn't be able to respond to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Much of the cuts to Jordan's Principle education funding supported services that are the responsibility of the Minister of health. Will she take the pressure off ECE and provide parents with timely access to assessments and to support their children with complex needs and requirements instead of forcing schools to fill that role? Mr. Speaker, education and health and social services are treaty rights. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I would like to say on that is that, you know, in this House, you know, we've heard time and time again how it's impacted within education; however, a lot of these supports are -- you know, I think -- we know we don't have enough positions or whatever in ECE -- in the schools. You know, we're bound by what our budget is. We're bound to be able to provide the services, and we try to reallocate as much to the programs as we can. Within health and social services, it's the same area. Jordan's Principle has been supporting health and social services as well because education and health is both. And this is why myself and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, as well as everybody from Cabinet, has been meeting and bringing this issue up, how it's impacting the Indigenous students especially in the Northwest Territories, and even more so in the smallest communities. When you look across Canada, you know, the smallest communities, the Indigenous communities are reserves, and that's the decision that they made before the new Minister came in, that they would only fund reserves. We've tried to educate them on the Northwest Territories that our small communities make up -- are mostly Indigenous kids so we need to be able to have this funding as well in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ITI.
In 2021, the GNWT participated with many stakeholders, including Indigenous governments, on the Re-Imagining Closure project around mine closure and where ideas of common ground could be found about repurposing assets, among other ideas. Can the Minister tell me the status of conversations between the GNWT and other stakeholders and diamond mines as they close around asset repurposing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories continues to support our diamond mines in conversations with potential stakeholders for assets. The diamond mines also are pursuing potential new uses of their assets themselves as well. That's everything from working with -- or sorry, ensuring that Indigenous governments understand what potential opportunities there are right down to their staff. So, for example, they have things like boats that are on site and ensuring that they are working kind of through their own stakeholder priority list as they near closure, has been a priority of theirs, and where we can we have supported those conversations as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for that. And I know the Minister is aware I have a passionate constituent who asks a lot of questions about this, so thank you.
Can the Minister tell me if as outlined in those conversations in the 2021 report on Re-Imagining Closure if an Arctic research and development centre continues to be a part of this conversation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, as you know there is a tremendous amount of assets. These are billion-dollar diamond mines that we have operating in the Northwest Territories that have a significant amount of infrastructure that could potentially be repurposed in a multitude of ways, whether that is a research centre, a logistics hub, or potentially processing of different types of minerals, depending on what type of adjustments can be made to processing plants. These are conversations that we continue to have. We as a government certainly don't have the pockets deep enough to continue to support this level of infrastructure without kind of a known use for it, but we continue to provide different ideas to, for example our federal partners as well, as we explore different opportunities within the Northwest Territories whether that is through critical minerals, through opportunities that exist with Arctic security as well. So we continue to make sure that all of our partners are aware of the level of infrastructure that does exist in the Northwest Territories and the potential opportunities that they present. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that. I know she has a lot of opportunities to speak to various partners, including federal partners, on topics such as these, including the assets of the mines as they reach their closure.
Mr. Speaker, can she tell me if -- especially in Arctic security, Mr. Speaker, can she tell me if there is interest of the Department of National Defence to utilize some of these airfields and airstrips in their future planning? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, it's not just us that's talking to our counterparts within the federal government. The mines themselves, I know of one in particular that is also doing their part to ensure that these opportunities are known to the federal government, and where and when we can, we support these conversations as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, child care providers have been reaching out to MLAs recently and they feel that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is forcing them to collect sensitive personal information, including ethnicity and sex assigned at birth, and they feel that they are under threat of losing funding if they refuse. Forcing families to disclose this information as a condition of service to access or funding constitutes indirect or adverse effect discrimination, non-voluntary statistical reporting. Providers now feel caught between compliance and protecting families' privacy, putting them at legal and ethical risk. So I'd like to ask the Minister responsible how does ECE justify mandatory collection of ethnicity and sex assigned at birth despite clear human rights protections? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Range Lake. Minister of ECE.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the demographic information that is found within the regulations for education, culture and employment's early learning and child care regulations is not new information that's being collected. I think it's worth stating here, Mr. Speaker, that this information, while listed in the regulations and while asked of early learning and child care providers to collect it, is not then collected by ECE and it is not mandatory that they collect it and then receive funding for it. No one is not receiving funding. So funding is still flowing. It is also an option for child care providers to simply note on their forms that a parent declined to provide this information, and that is respected as well by the department. But it is very important that parents and child care providers know that funding is not being withheld for not providing that information, and ECE does not maintain that information within the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, that's good news, but that's not what's being communicated clearly because that's why we're getting complaints. So can the Minister explain why this happened? Why was individual-level non-anonymized data collection suggested to providers instead of typical aggregated, anonymized statistical reporting as we see in federal programs? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, this information is found in the regulations in anticipation of information requests for reporting to the federal government. But without clear indication from the federal government as to how they intend to use that information and how that information can be ensured that it is respecting the privacy of Northerners, ECE is not collecting it from child care providers and is not providing it, obviously, to the federal government either. So while we are asking that ELCC providers, so daycare providers, collect that information and have it on file for families, if families decline to provide that information that is something that can be placed on a form. Like I said, that information is not collected and maintained by ECE and is certainly, obviously, not handed over to the federal government either. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you to the Minister for making that clear. Will the Minister endeavour to communicate with all early childhood providers and let them know -- clarify this position so there's no more confusion, they're not under this misapprehension that they're going to lose funding if they don't do this, and that they can clearly indicate that parents decline. Can the Minister commit to sending out letters or using the departmental resources to get that clarification out so there is no more confusion in the territory. Thank you.
