R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Implementation Act does require the Government of the Northwest Territories to work with Indigenous governments, and there is a working group actually struck right now that is working on developing that action plan. So that work with Indigenous governments is happening. I'm not sure if the Member's speaking of a group of MLAs, but we're definitely working with the Indigenous governments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, that's a big question, what's been, what progress has been made towards self-determination. It's not an easy path, as everyone is well aware, but this government, we've released a mandate that makes very clear that we intend to work with Indigenous governments as partners, not as, you know, vassals of the state. So we've done our best to implement that work. The Council of Leaders meetings have been, I think, more successful every time that we've met. We recently travelled to Ottawa with a number of Indigenous leaders to lobby on shared priorities. And I think...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for letting me address this issue. So across Canada, health care services are strained. The North is no different. We hear all the time in this House, I hear from my own constituents, there's issues in the health care system. That's not news. That's nothing new. That's an acknowledgement that I want to make clear that I am making today.

One of the things we're doing to address these issues is the establishment of the health care system sustainability unit. Now, this is a unit that is positioned within my Department of the Executive and Indigenous...

-- point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'll have to get back to the Member with some specific details about what meetings they plan on holding but there -- as I mentioned, this is not something that we're doing alone. And this unit is not there to make decisions about how things are going to work. They're there to look at, examine, investigate the system, and bring forward recommendations for the decision-makers to be able to make decisions about how things work. And the best decisions are made with broad input. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the unit, it's not fully staffed up yet, but the staff members that they have have been pouring over all of these documents that the Member's referencing. A lot of work has been done. There's work that's been done 20 years ago that the staff are looking at. So we are really taking an approach that we don't need to start from scratch; a lot of work has been done. And even if there's, you know, letters from the medical association or things like that, those also offer insight into what issues we might want to focus on, so those documents are definitely being looked at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is speaking about individuals who are not on the floor of this House, not here to defend themselves, referencing that the hiring of deputy ministers and said we don't need deputy ministers; we need smart people. I think that's clearly out of line. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we're looking at this system, we need to speak with those individuals who know it best. And so a dedicated email address has been set up for frontline workers, workers throughout the health care system, to be able to reach out to the health care system sustainability unit and provide their input. We don't want this to be a top down approach. We want to hear from everyone. And so steps have already been taken, submissions have already been received, and from what I understand there seems to be a bit of an uptick in those submissions given that it's rolled out for a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'll speak a bit to my experience in my previous role. You know, I was generally given a slate of options for capital projects and some of those include accessibility options, and so as Minister I would move forward with those that I personally prioritized those. In this instance here, these repairs -- or sorry, these renovations are resulting from a human rights adjudication panel decision about the accessibilities of the washrooms. And, you know, that's why we have the human rights adjudication panel so that when there are issues like this identified, they can be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me on my left is Charlene Doolittle, the deputy minister of the Department of Justice. And on my right is James Bancroft, the director of corporate services with the Department of Justice. Thank you.