Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I have. I am familiar -- I know Chair Elias from my previous role as education, culture and employment Minister when we were working on the school in his community, and so I made a number of trips up there and have had many conversations with him over the phone and in his house, so we're very familiar with each other. So when he was elected, I reached out to him that night, congratulated him, and I've been giving him a bit of space because I know how much information there is to absorb right at the beginning of that term. But we did reach out, requested a meeting and, yeah, so we've started that relationship. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to know. So when, then, Mr. Speaker, will the Premier be actually sitting down at a meeting with leadership from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we actually had meetings scheduled yesterday but the chair was weathered in, so he could not make it down; however, we were able to meet with director Gillis as well as a senior advisor, and there was -- it was almost like speed dating, where I met with him first and then they met with every other Minister throughout the day. So it was -- they were great meetings. There was a lot of excitement generated, and I can tell that it's going to be a strong and productive relationship. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Yeah, that's great, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for that. So is the Premier able to maybe share some of that information he had and some of the topics that were discussed with director Gillis and Ms. Darling as well? I noticed that Ms. Darling was also in the building yesterday. Maybe there was something around LNG. But can he share that with us, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will start with the LNG piece. And I've been vocal about the moratorium in the Beaufort Delta and -- or in the Arctic Ocean as well as the potential for LNG in the Beaufort Delta, and so I wanted to make sure that the position I was taking wasn't at odds with the new leadership at IRC. And I won't speak for IRC on their position on that, but I wanted to make sure that that conversation was had right off the bat so going forward, I am not saying anything out of turn. We also spoke about the MOU between our two governments. So we have MOUs with a number of different Indigenous governments across the territory, and those guide when we meet, how we communicate, and they facilitate the annual or biannual meetings that we have with Indigenous governments. So we spoke about that and the desire on both our parts to renew that and add some unique elements in there that I think actually might make them very productive meetings, very business-oriented meetings. I can't speak for the rest of the Cabinet, but I am looking forward to getting a debrief on all of those conversations as well. But, you know, the meetings were about half an hour. We could have gone two, three hours each Minister, I think. They were very good meetings. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I am following up with the Minister of Health and Social Services on more questions about licensing and regulation of paramedics.
So some provinces have self-regulating paramedic professional bodies which require the paramedics to purchase their own professional liability insurance when they get their license, but in other jurisdictions, like BC, Ontario, and Quebec, the paramedics are insured through their government employer, not -- it's not attached to the license. So has the Minister or the health authority first received any assurance from any of these provincial regulatory bodies that license and regulate paramedics that those licenses or their insurance are portable, meaning that the regulatory body would still maintain responsibility for a paramedic no matter where they're working? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to perhaps more details in writing about that since there are many different regulatory bodies out there.
Has the Minister or the health authority assured that its private contractors for paramedic services carry full professional liability insurance that covers each of its paramedics? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, NTHSSA does not employ paramedics directly. They have contracts in place, and the contractors are responsible for ensuring that liability insurance is in place for their staff before they work. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I will take that to mean we're not sure whether or not those private contractors carry the full insurance, but.
Finally, the Minister has mentioned that complaints could be made to those regulatory bodies and provinces if something went wrong with the paramedic, but how would an NWT patient know where a paramedic is licensed to be able to file a complaint with some regulatory body somewhere else? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, individuals can make complaints to the Department of Health and Social Services and we would redirect the appropriate jurisdiction, or they can reach out directly to the jurisdiction where the individual is licensed. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of housing. Can the Minister of housing kind of give me an update of what is coming for the Dehcho riding in regards to housing or repairs or renovations? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Dehcho. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that detail right at my hands, but I can provide that information to the MLA for the Dehcho region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister for Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the old days, we used to call the Department of Infrastructure public works, including its transportation forerunner. In those days, they used to spend a lot of time to develop the trades industry through trades apprentices.
Mr. Speaker, my question is really about the framework of how we're working to support the lack of tradespeople on the ground and what role the GNWT plays. So I am going to start with asking the Minister is he aware of how many apprentices do we have within the GNWT system, specifically infrastructure? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have quite a few positions for apprenticeships. I don't know the current status of how many are filled. I can get that information. However, most recently, I have been working with the department on trying to find out exactly where the positions are, are they filled, how many we could get out, posted out there, and if there's an ability that we can work with ECE to enable the SNAP program in those positions in order to get young people into those programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the answer from the Minister. I will take that information if he can provide it. I believe the ratio is one tradesperson and two apprentices. Now, I am not saying we have to hire a thousand apprentices, but my next question is about how we maximize the opportunity about getting people trained and employed and becoming maybe independent contractors in their own right.
So, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister acknowledge and provide some information and enlightenment around that type of ratio. How are we meeting that challenge by hiring as many tradespeople to ensure that we have folks who can do this type of work? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, ideally, we'd love to have that many apprenticeship people working, and, ideally, we'd love everybody who has a ticket to take on an apprenticeship. And that's ideally the goal. But at the end of the day, we just have to find the positions that are available, and if we can fill them, that'd be perfect. So, again, the goal is to find out how many we have open and available and continue to try to work to advocate to get these positions filled by hopefully, you know, young Northerners who decide to stay in the North and looking for work. So if we can catch them in high school and get them into the program, that would be perfect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Catch them in high school, that's the only time I hear the positive phrase catch and release. We catch them, train them, and release them into the public.
Mr. Speaker, my experience around the broader portion of public works, and certainly as the MLA through understanding the system of infrastructure, etcetera, often we have a lot deferred maintenance and work outstanding, and we're not meeting that, SO how are we meeting these objectives to ensure that the GNWT assets are fully protected and maintained, knowing we're struggling to get tradespeople and potentially struggling even getting apprentices doing this work? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have many tradespeople in the Department of Infrastructure that go around and, you know, do a lot of preventative maintenance on a lot of our assets in the GNWT. We have an asset management program that we utilize, and we have staff that -- you know, that are trained to take care of all our assets. So ideally, again, we'd like to have people training under them for many reasons, and hopefully we can get some good numbers back to the Member on positions open and where the staff are working. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am sure you'll be surprised to know I have questions about health care informatics.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of health said in October that our health IT is, quote, outdated and can't do anything more. Is the vendor for that technology still providing security patches? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Her own letter states hospital charts are paper-based. The virtual care action plan calls for -- calls the systems independent islands of data. So how much of the $700 million for the total budget of the authorities allocated to EMR replacements? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the EMR replacement hasn't come forward yet, so we're still in that process of developing the RFP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the public administrator has been in place for 14 months with not much to show for it, unfortunately, Mr. Speaker. Has he been tasked with bringing the NWT into CIHI compliance? And if not, what is the $700 million buying in system accountability? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have 33 communities. We have a state-of-the-art territorial hospital. It is very expensive to run. And we have -- I don't know how many staff that -- off the top of my fingers, but we have the greatest amount of frontline staff next to education, and that is what's cost -- the cost of the budget. The department, as well, holds a lot of the money. And so what the public administrator is not in charge of leading the EMR. The RFP is being between I think the office of the OCIO. And in the department, we have our own staff that are working towards getting that RFP out. When the NTHSSA becomes involved in that part is when we start to do the work of establishing -- what are they called -- the pathways within our system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions now are to the Minister of Finance.
I was listening to the Trailbreaker podcast the other day, and it got me to thinking about when the former finance Minister talked about the fibre link. My question really is about the fact that he'd spent a lot of time talking on that podcast about a missed opportunity and not generating money. So maybe we can set the record straight. Whether he's right or whatnot, we'll find out soon.
Can the Minister of Finance tell us why NorthwesTel is in full control of the fibre link and how much money the GNWT is getting out of this arrangement? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link is a project that is a P3 project. It's not fully operated -- it's actually operated by a consortium, so it's not fully operated by NorthwesTel. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, with the diamond mines closing, no new mines opening, we need every revenue opportunity we can. Can the Minister enlighten this House as to how much revenue that particular initiative is making annually? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not -- this is not a revenue generator. The Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link does provide a point of presence along the way, all the way up to Tuktoyaktuk now, so that certainly government services are available to link in, and then NorthwesTel, under CRTC's direction, was mandated to provide fibre to the home as a result of it. I can't say what the past Minister may or may not have made promises about. I can simply say that the Mackenzie Valley fibre line does provide that point of presence all along Mackenzie Valley to small communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The P3 project, when I was here, talked about generating revenue for Northerners and access for Northerners. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister enlighten the House what happened, why it isn't making money through that P3 initiative as it was originally intended? Thank you.
