Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we've worked through, we've committed to a three-phase process on the Waters Act itself. We're currently working through phase one. A tremendous amount of work has been completed in phase one, and we are very -- unfortunately, I cannot give a specific date, but we are very, very close to moving through the first part of our process in phase one and hope to have those available very shortly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not going to pester the Minister for a specific date, because he certainly just said he can't provide one, but I hope very soon -- I am going to interpret that a certain way. So I am excited to hear that.
Mr. Speaker, what will be the next steps for this process once it comes out of what he describes as phase one? And I am confused because I know there's a couple of different processes going on with the Waters Act, and one of the phases is a much wider set of amendments to the Waters Act. But I think he's talking about the specific phases within the process of making the targeted amendments. And I could be wrong there, but just curious what the next step is for the targeted amendments, to be clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so as the target amendments have gone through the working group process, there were a couple of items that were still unresolved that the working group was attempting to complete and as soon as those are complete, that process will be complete as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you. I am glad to be drilling down to specifics, Mr. Speaker. So once that process is complete, what's the next step; what happens? What can the Assembly expect to see? Are the amendments going to come forward for the Assembly to approve? That's what I am looking to understand. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the specific process of the next step, I don't have that information currently with me today, but I will be happy to relay that to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On March 3rd, I had questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services, and she didn't answer the question, but she didn't also offer, at the very least, a chance to follow up in writing.
Mr. Speaker, specifically, I was asking about doctors, GP doctors, and the referrals, as well as a bunch of other things. But, ultimately, I am asking about capacity levels. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services speak to the capacity levels of the general practitioner doctors here in the Yellowknife area over the past 12 months? In other words, what's the vacancy and how many locums are we using. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated, I don't have that type of information in the House here. So I know that I responded in writing to a written question with the most recent updates. I'd have to go back to the department and find out what those current numbers are. As I mentioned in responding to this question the other day is that those rates fluctuate weekly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can appreciate the fact that the Minister may not have them on her fingertips but you would think that this is such a high priority we'd have the numbers in real time regularly at her fingertips. That said, can the Minister -- would the Minister be willing to provide me them directly? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services and the NTHSSA and the TCSA and the Hay River health and social services, there's probably 2,000 employees, and if I ask my department to give me the stats every single day, every single sitting, you know -- so what we do is I have monthly stats. And I did provide those monthly stats in written statements. What I can do is I can go back to the department, and I can send an email to the Member with what the current or what was in the written questions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ITI.
Mr. Speaker, I read in the news earlier today that Alternatives North has been raising concerns with review of the MRA regs and how that process is going, feeling that certain organizations are getting preferential treatment. I am just curious, can the Minister help us better understand how the engagement process has been rolling out for the MRA regs, why the department's meeting with certain organizations perhaps more than others, and just help us understand the process better and the concerns that were raised. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we have a technical working group within the Intergovernmental Council that is working on the regulations for the Mineral Resources Act regulations. At this table, the GNWT is one party, and as you can imagine the Mineral Resources Act regulations are quite extensive. My understanding is they are currently over 250 pages. And we, in the Northwest Territories, have traditionally had diamond mines, Mr. Speaker, and so as we transition into the next chapter and next generation of mines in the Northwest Territories, it's really important to understand how that changes the needs of the regulations and how they interact with industry. And so, Mr. Speaker, what has happened is that through the Chamber of Mines, there has been some conversations between a couple of members of the technical working group who have had the opportunity to ask questions of industry and industry to ask -- or to provide answers so that the intersection of policy and how it really interacts with industry on the ground can be better understood while still preserving the intent and rights of Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I certainly think that there's merit in engaging specific stakeholders when developing regulations like this, particularly complex ones; however, I think what Alternatives North is pointing out is -- just questioning whether there's a level playing field for all stakeholders who are being engaged. So I'd like the Minister to comment on that. Will Alternatives North be given similar opportunities to engage with the technical working group to share their thoughts and concerns on the MRA rights?
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the policy intentions documents were distributed at the end of last year, and so everybody had an equal playing field as far as being able to provide feedback within the policy intentions documents. The conversations, really, that have happened one on one are about well, what about this part, and what about that part, and how does that work for industry and, you know, what does this mean at the end of the day, how does this impact investments or attracting investments, or how -- you know, based on timing, how much interaction there's going to have to be between Indigenous governments and industry in order to kind of reset agreements and stuff like that. And so making sure, for example, that everyone -- that one another understands each other's mode of doing business has been really important to the process. This is no different, Mr. Speaker, than the conversations that I have, for example, with the daycare sector in regards to the daycare regulations. That's a one-on-one conversation. I am not talking with, you know, families in the same way I talk to daycares or, for example, education bodies in regards to the Education Act regulations as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, finally, I know Alternatives North sent several letters to the Minister's office on this engagement process, raising several questions, raising concerns. Will the Minister be responding to either or both of those letters? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I respond to all the letters that come my way. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, keeping in line with my Member's statement today and many Members' statements today on International Women's Day, I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the Status of Women, I guess a status update, on there is a proposed MMIWG advisory committee in the work that the GNWT is doing in responding to the calls to justice. I would like to know what's going on with that committee and if it has been formed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories, we created -- in partnership with NGOs and Indigenous governments, we created a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls advisory committee in direct response to the Calls for Justice to ensure Indigenous governments, women's organizations, and 2SLGBQ2IA+ organizations have an ongoing and formal role advising government on implementation. Members are appointed directly by Indigenous governments, ensuring legitimacy and community-driven leadership in shaping our collective response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. I am glad the committee has been established. The updates -- the last public updates we saw, it wasn't clear. So I am curious, is the Minister able to share terms of reference for that said committee? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course I am able to share the roles and responsibilities of the advisory committee, including providing advice and guidance to the implementation of the action plan to support the work towards addressing the effects of colonization, as well as racial and gender discrimination at all levels of government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for the Status of Women. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, no, thank you to the Minister for that. And I am hoping if there are formal terms of reference that she could share those with the committee.
Mr. Speaker, also, is it possible for the Minister to share what the committee has accomplished thus far in terms of their review of the GNWT's response to the MMIWG Calls to Justice? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course I am able to share that with the Member. And I think it's really important that this advisory committee get up and running with its terms of reference. And finalizing the terms of reference was really important. The first step was really crucial and critical to this committee to get formalized. And they've had four meetings to date as an advisory committee, and I can share those results with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for the Status of Women. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for the opportunity for allowing me to ask a couple of additional questions here to get the message out. As you can understand there, Mr. Speaker, the departure of Imperial has drastically impacted our community well-being and economy.
My question is to the strategic infrastructure Minister. Can the Minister share some of the progress that is underway for the bridge replacements, specifically to the Oscar Creek Bridge relocation and the Smith Creek. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, happy to speak to these. Folks may have seen there is now a live RFP out, a procurement event out for Smith Creek. It's specifically for the design element of that bridge, not necessarily for construction. I would anticipate this may well find itself going through a different path in terms of the procurement for construction. But the RFP is out to get this bridge designed, get that moving. It is long known to be the gateway to the MVH and needs to be replaced; we know that, Let's get that done. Meanwhile, Mr. Speaker, on Oscar Creek Bridge, happy to say as well that there's, again procurement processes already in progress, and looking forward hopefully to a decision on that fairly soon so that those two projects, which are just outside of the current EIA, are able to advance as quickly as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that update. Certainly, that's welcoming news there to the unemployed, or to be unemployed.
My last question there, Mr. Speaker, is on the Mackenzie Valley Highway progress and procurement. Can the Minister of strategic infrastructure share some of the timelines on that project. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the timelines continue to change, but they continue to change because we continue to find ways to shave some time off and to condense some of these timelines. We're feeling that pressure, not only from the residents throughout the Northwest Territories, but, really, some expectation on the part of what we're expected to be delivering from a national projects type of event. So we are with that, Mr. Speaker, aiming to be out in a procurement event next year. So that will require us now to be making some decisions about what kind of procurement this will be. We have that information now. We've just recently done an evaluation of what it might look like to procure a major project like this. We have that in hand. We can make those decisions. And as I say, this -- our target now is to have this in a procurement state ready for next calendar year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for that fourth opportunity. I will take the advantage of saying it's three.
My question to the strategic infrastructure Minister is, is there scheduling for this anticipation coming that we can expect and share with our chamber members and business community in the Sahtu? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely. The team was with the Member for the Sahtu in the region only a couple of weeks ago, but it has certainly been my experience that talking about this more and getting more information out is important. It's been talked about a long time, and so to be putting more concrete timelines on it is something new that people will, frankly, not be familiar with. So I am more than happy to make sure that -- to circulate this to all Members. We really do need all of the Indigenous governments on whose lands this is going to traverse, the community governments, hopefully to all be pulling in the same direction so that when the time comes, in my mind when we get referred in and find ourselves as a major project, that we can all stand up and say that we're ready. So I will circulate this to all Members, Mr. Speaker, put it out on social media so that there's clarity on all timelines that were coming. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy, and Supply Chains. Oral questions. Member from the Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday -- I believe it was yesterday; every day feels like a Monday around here some days.
Mr. Speaker, yeah, I believe yesterday I was asking questions about the dental review officer and the fact that I even stumbled across a point in one of the information that we have an annual contract in the range of $25,000 with him. So there is a direct relationship with the GNWT. I'd submitted a bunch of questions on, I believe, February 11th, and I am still waiting for those answers. Can the Minister update the House, and particularly obviously me -- because we have a lot of people hinging on these answers in the background in the dental industry wanting some true transparency -- can the Minister tell me when she'll be responding to my questions? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the department staff get back to me, then I will be able to respond. I know that my office did let the Member know that they're going to -- we responded to the initial questions and then came back with a whole another list of questions, so those went back. And so as soon as my office receives them, then we will send them on to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, there is some truism to the statement just made. What I will say is I sent the email on the 11th. She -- there was a follow-up on the 12th saying -- I am reasonable -- yeah, you need a little more time. Mr. Speaker, all of these questions are simple questions. This isn't my question but they're simply asking about their appointment start dates, their mandate letter, etcetera. Most of this is very easy information.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister -- this is the question: Can the Minister articulate before the House the reasoning of this delay; are they waiting for session to end or is there some type of blockage that we need to clarify? Thank you.
