Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. During my time back home, I have had a couple of concerns brought to my attention, and I have worked with the Minister. I thank him and his department for working with me on that. My first question is: is there a policy to guide social service workers when a parent, foster parent, or concerned citizens alert authorities of a missing child under the care of the director of Child and Family Services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

With the challenges that we saw last year, can the Minister advise us what MTS is doing to ensure that this doesn't happen in the future and whether MTS has a risk management plan in place?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have heard the barge scheduled to go to the Kitikmeot last year was cancelled in May. Can the Minister explain the rationale for the barge being cancelled? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will table two documents. The first document is a letter dated May 29, 2019, addressed to me, from CHOU Consulting & Development Inc. The second one is a letter from the Native Women's Association of the Northwest Territories, dated June 3, 2019, addressed to me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, and I appreciate the information the Minister has been able to share with us here today. My final question: will the Child and Family Services quality improvement plan that is effective soon support and align with these standards and the training? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I know, in my riding right now, I have a community that is looking at trying to get an area protected. They have gone through hoops, and Mr. Nadli is well aware of it and the challenges to move forward. People want clarity. They want to be able to understand exactly what it is, and so, at this point in time, I think we need to be respectful of that. I think this motion does help that.

As for the process, this is part of the process. It is. It was brought to committee. I sat back, and I listened to the committee. It did not pass committee, but it was moved back here...

A question for clarification here. When I look through the definition here, I don't see the Deh Cho Interim Measures Agreement or the Deh Cho land use planning process here. Can the Minister explain where that part of this is? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize Steve Nicoll, and I will be doing an acknowledgement later today. He is an amazing teacher, and I have to thank him as a parent. He taught all my children and he survived, so I give him credit to that. I give him kudos to that as well. My new CA, Charles Blondin, who is a political student at University of Alberta and he's already into politics, so he's helping me out, making me look good. As well, I'd like to welcome Sheila Cook and recognize her. I was a neighbour of hers, and I'd like to recognize her for the award, as well as Tracy, Tracy Cook...

I will try to be quick with this one here. I struggle with this because I have one community that is part of the Intergovernmental Council, but then I have five communities that aren't. Again, it is looking at how we can work together to work with this.

If the Intergovernmental Council included the people who weren't part of the Tlicho and the Deh Cho, and they included as to the process, I think we could be working together, and it would be a positive step. Unfortunately, we have people who have not signed on to devolution, so people are saying, "You have to make decisions that are good for...

Thank you. I just wanted to clarify because I didn't see it in the bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.