Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I keep having to sign into my computer with the insanely long password that TSC makes me have. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am rising today to express my wholehearted support for this motion. You know, I just want to say that we debate a lot of motions on the floor of this House. This one, for me, is different, and I do want to emphasize that to my Cabinet colleagues. It's different for me in that this is one that I would and was considering bringing forward myself. I think it's irrelevant who brings it forward. The point is that it's on the floor. Here we are debating it. I support it.

Mr. Speaker, this is an issue which my colleague noted has been raised by many Members of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And not to belabour the point, but I guess what I am just wondering here is -- you know, I will focus on the MMP report because it's probably the one I am most familiar with at this point. But, you know, there was some key recommendations in there that it's just really are we going to do this, or are we not, and if we're going to do this, this is how we're going to do it. It was pretty clear. The report is publicly available. Anyone can have a look at it. So I guess what I wonder is how much analysis do we really need to do? Is the analysis not already done? And why...

Okay, thank you. Certainly, I think we may have identified an area where the department could maybe follow up with us in writing afterwards. Just knowing that there have been things identified and that follow-up is happening in a different department, I would be curious to hear that progress. I think it would be helpful for us to know and understand. But we have limited time here, so I am going to move on.

I know that there was a report that was released early in our term. I am deeming it the MMP report. I can't remember what its official name was. But it had a number of recommendations for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I am just noticing that I am running out of time here, and I did have some more questions. I will turn to a new subject.

Can the department provide an update as to whether dedicated staff to lead efforts to support NGOs have been hired and trained? Has the department seen any improvements related to the non-governmental organization stabilization fund? Do any challenges remain that they're still trying to address? Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. I appreciate, frankly, that there just is work going on to address that. I think it's something that government gets criticized a lot about. So I think it's good that we have people who are putting minds to how to address these issues of siloing.

Just on that note, I am curious if we've put a lot of thought into generally -- the deputy minister mentioned culture developing and how that can happen. I wonder if we put a lot of thought into the organizational culture of the GNWT and how we can shift that culture, where necessary, and as much as possible...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And yeah, really appreciate the Premier's answer to that question. I just want to be clear. What I am suggesting here is that, yeah, being a Cabinet Minister is a challenging role. And I think if there's one thing I learned, you know, I spent a bunch of years as a municipal councillor before I took formal leadership training. And following that leadership training, one of the biggest takeaways I had from that was that it's an ongoing process. The process of needing coaching in difficult situations, in particular situations, and just constant development is a really...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very encouraged to hear that and appreciate that from the Minister. I am really glad to hear that we have this working group going. I just note that the -- can the Minister give us any indication of how this is going to work? Can the Minister give any indication of staffing levels that they're looking for? What kind of timeline we can expect? I know that my constituents have been very clear with me that they want access to midwifery services in this community. Is the Minister working towards that goal? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, you know, to the Premier's credit and to the credit of everyone working at this table, you know, I've had our research team looking into this and confirmed, you know, we're the only government doing this in Canada. This is the only IGCS there is. And so we really -- I often say we're not reinventing the wheel here. Let's just do what other jurisdictions are doing. We don't actually have that referred to in this case. Because we are inventing the wheel and that is not a simple or easy thing to do, but it means that we also need to be in control of this and be the ones...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I am happy to hear that from the Minister. And just on behalf of my constituents, I would note that midwives are a great resource for doing the work that she just referenced.

So, Mr. Speaker, in answer to questions about midwifery recently, the Minister mentioned that there has been difficulty staffing physicians in communities. Many births these days are high risks and might not be able to be done within a community. Is the health department investigating how midwifery services could be incorporated into our system, considering these challenges? Thank you.