Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question to the Minister is, why is the Minister providing little flexibility for my constituents struggling with wage garnishing, judging them solely on their income, and failing to support them when it's clear that they are in serious need of financial assistance? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the income assistance program is very legislated and so what can be provided as far as benefits and supports to residents is found within the legislation, and we have to ensure that we are applying that legislation fairly to all residents of the Northwest Territories. It is a program that is intended to ensure that residents' monthly needs are met. So, for example, that residents have shelter and they have access to heat and they have access to food. And so that is the intention of the program and how it is designed. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral Questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ECE.
Mr. Speaker, government bodies and agencies considered to be under the remit of the Archives Act are identified in related regulations. Can the Minister tell me if there are any punitive measures under consideration when those government bodies and agencies do not provide records within 30 years of creation as required currently by Section 5(1) of the Archives Act? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for homework to review the Archives Act, and luckily it is a few pages long. It's not like some of our other legislation of the territory.
So Section 10 of the Act details the punitive measures that can be pursued should records be unlawfully damaged, mutilated, or withheld, and these measures include summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both. I will say, though, Mr. Speaker, from education, culture and employment, we, of course, choose education first, and so our goal is to educate and promote the preservation and transfer of records and so we have not pursued punitive measures under Section 10 of the Act. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me if any electronic records created and filed in the GNWT's Digital Integrated Information Management System, otherwise known as DIIMS, have been transferred to the custody of the NWT Archives since DIIMS was implemented? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, as a whole of government, we have some homework to do in this case. So when DIIMS was created, it did not include the creation of a mechanism to transfer files from DIIMS to the NWT Archives for review and then permanent preservation. Luckily, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is working quite closely with the Department of Finance on this to ensure it is addressed, and they are working currently on a business case for a digital record connector. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me whether the NWT Archives will, as final repository for any digital records required in the future, be solely responsible for paying for storage of those records in perpetuity? Thank you. Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was recently at a conference where somebody said data is the new oil. So data does not come cheap, Mr. Speaker, and I can confirm for the Member there will certainly be a cost to this, but this cost would not be only worn by education, culture and employment as this would be an all-of-government responsibility. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement regarding the long-term care facility in Inuvik and the planning for it, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can she kind of give us an update on what's now being done to advance this project through the planning stages and where we are, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we, in the fall -- and I believe I briefed the Member -- or sorry, just in December where we were at, and the concern that I had was the operation of where the long-term care changes and having a conversation at the NTHSSA level with operations there were some concerns brought forward, so we had those conversations. And so the expectation was to have that RFP for schematic and design out within -- before February/March. So I am just checking with my department. They haven't followed up with me yet to confirm that date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that. And yes, I do recall having an update, and I was hoping that the packet of the RFP would be out for this and hopefully will be out in the very near future. So does the Minister, then, anticipate that we will have in our next capital planning budget funding in there earmarked to move forward on this project? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that with the schematic and design going out now, for that work to conclude won't be in time for this capital budget consideration but it would be completed for the next capital budget consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, and thank you for that. Is there any anticipation, Mr. Speaker, that in light of my Member's statement I talked about working with -- at one point, the proposal was to work with Indigenous governments potentially owning and leasing this building or a couple of alternatives. Is there still any conversations at the department level of potentially working with Indigenous governments on this, or is this going to be a GNWT project? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time, where we are is -- since I've taken over the file is that this is a GNWT expansion of the current long-term care; however, you know, the way that I work is if there is Indigenous governments who want to have a discussion on services to their membership which, you know, in the Beaufort Delta, all the residents that are in the long-term care there are Indigenous to the region. If not, we may have some from the Sahtu. But that's always a possibility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today, following up on my Member's statement earlier, is to the Minister of Infrastructure.
My first question there, Mr. Speaker, is the Minister undergoing negotiations with the Government of Canada on GNWT's position or requirements within the new airport developer for as a potential long-term tenant? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Sahtu. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course I would like to take all the credit for the negotiations with DND, but I'd have to say that there's a lot of good work being done by our departments and the Department of National Defence on what work is needed, and the work that's been going on has been happening since early 2022. They've been working with DND on what the requirements are, what actual assets they need, and what kind of upgrades are needed to the facility. And that's been ongoing for a while. So whenever they do these projects, they look at what their wants are and also any of the work that's being done is going to contribute to the infrastructure, better the infrastructure, and the use of the facility at the Yellowknife airport. We're continuing to do that work, and we're hoping by March to have a good plan in place of what's actually needed out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that information there. I am glad to hear there's discussions. I see a huge bundle of opportunities for both parties.
My second question there, CATSA being a federal security program, Mr. Speaker, can we expect negotiations to lead to an extra security station out at the airport? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think everybody's aware there's -- you know, we're kind of confined in the spaces at YZF at the airport there, what more can be done for security in that area. I know the department's been working with CATSA on types of services that can be provided to, you know, potentially hopefully speed up security lineups. Also, we've been talking with the federal government on different options for security supports for YZF airport and the North. So ongoing conversations, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member from Sahtu. Final supplementary.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I am glad the Minister is putting that in his negotiation to-do list in the basket of requirements to the new developments.
My last question there, Mr. Speaker, how soon could we expect, or the House expect, the updated YZF business plan to include the future developments of that plan? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So YZF is currently working through the multi-phase of the strategic plan. We've also shared the strategic plan with committee, and we're currently waiting from committee's feedback on that plan, and we'll continue to do the strategic plan and finalize it here in the near future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions were baked into my statement so it shouldn't come as a surprise to the health Minister.
Mr. Speaker, what is the ideal panel size for a care team, and what workforce requirements do we need to meet to achieve it? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the ideal panel size depends on many factors, and that's the complicated part of it. There's no single standard number. Panel size vary widely. So what may happen in the capital might be different in some of our regional centres based on patient complexity, provider type, team makeup, clinical capacity. Any approach also needs to consider cultural safety, social complexity, chronic disease needs, and the realities of remote practice.
So the department is developing a patient attachment guideline that will support an equity-focused, complexity-based approach to panel management. This goal is to ensure patients receive stable, relationship-based care, not just assignment to a provider, and to determine the workforce needed to support safe, sustainable panel sizes across the territory. And that will be coming as part of the framework that's coming in the spring. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that timeline. And I understand that it is perhaps a bit more complex than I've made it to sound, but I appreciate that that work is going on.
Mr. Speaker, what is our target maximum wait time for a resident to be triaged and access a health care provider in their panel based on urgency? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now there is no standard exists for this at all. So what we're trying to do is, within that framework, is to look at that patient attachment guideline to be able to ensure that all patients are attached and once we have these teams built according to the patient's needs and all patients are attached to a team, then we'll be able to better measure those timelines. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, I will have to think about that a bit and come up with some follow-up questions there. But for now, Mr. Speaker, what is our target emergency room wait time for each triage level, and what workforce goals do we need to meet to achieve that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the NWT emergency departments use the Canadian triage and acuity scale which sets out target wait times for emergency departments. Those are public documents that are published online. The authority confirms that the same performance measures are used at the Hay River Health Authority. NTHSSA included an ED, emergency department, wait time indicator for Stanton and Inuvik on our public dashboard. That's on the NTHSSA website. So you'll see that where the Canadian average is and where Stanton and Inuvik sit. Inuvik sits consistently below the Canadian average where Stanton usually hovers around the Canadian standard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
I want to ask the Minister what services are currently available in Tlicho region for residents with special needs, and how many residents are currently receiving care outside their home community due to a lack of local supports. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For that level of detail, I would have to go back to the TCSA for that detail. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what has the department done to identify gaps in supervision and structured care for residents with special needs in the Tlicho region, and what specific steps has it taken to address those gaps? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has completed a territory-wide review of supportive living as we've discussed in this House, and there was input from Behchoko to identify gaps and future needs. Right now, I think what's happening is the supportive living standards have been done. The territorial admission committee for this, as there was no previous -- kind of like the long-term care territorial committee, there was no territorial committee to kind of be able to place -- to assess and to figure out who and where clients could be supported better. The health sustainability unit is also reviewing this and so, you know, we know that there's a lot of challenges within this area; however, I look forward to getting the documents to help us make better decisions after the review of the supportive living. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
