R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so just to correct the record, I know that we don't do a lot of correcting of misinformation in this House, but the unit is not going to make a determination about what core services are. So the way that government works is that public servants will provide advice to decision-makers, the Ministers, and then those Ministers will make decisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I was in Cabinet four years prior to becoming Premier, and during that time I had a lot of questions about the expenditures in the healthcare system, and despite repeated requests for information I had trouble receiving it. And, Mr. Speaker, you were there. You probably shared some of those same frustrations. And so when we started this government, I said we need to get a handle on where our money is going, what we're spending it on and put some structure around that. Because for many years, the health authority had a deficit budget, they were allowed to spend money...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the healthcare system sustainability unit is looking at different areas in the healthcare system and doing an analysis. It's going to provide that analysis to Cabinet to help us make determinations about future budgeting and future structure of the healthcare system.

The work is ongoing. It is a little behind schedule, but we're going to have hopefully all of the information we need and if not, we'll have the vast majority of the information we need prior to the upcoming budget cycle, so that for next year's main estimates we'll be able to factor in that analysis...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 42, Tlego'hli Got'ine Final Self-Government Agreement Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I didn't quite get the question, I didn't quite understand, But I am advocating to Ottawa to uphold the ruling that requires them to fund Jordan's Principle. I try to educate federal Ministers about the history of the territory, how we came about, the responsibilities that the federal government has to the territory, how we're different from provinces, how we're different from reserves. So I do my best to provide the overall context so that Ministers can understand how this fits into the support the federal government has pledged to provide to Indigenous peoples and how Jordan's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very familiar with Jordan's Principle. I previously served as the Minister of education, and I know people in the system who've taught prior to Jordan's Principle, during Jordan's Principle, and since then, and so I am very familiar with the circumstances and the impact it's having on students and teachers in classrooms. And so because of that, every time I am in Ottawa, every time I speak to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Northern Affairs, whoever it may be, I raise this issue with them and how important it is. Last time, or one of the previous times I met...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I became personally aware today when the Member told me, but I was not previously aware of that. That being said, I am not sure if there is someone lined up to attend that, but we certainly have staff in Inuvik and we can line someone up to ensure they attend that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So right now we have a budget before us, and it has in it what it has in it. But with that being said, we've already -- we've recently put a lot of money into service integration, into transitional housing, into better supporting NGOs across the territory, not just here in Yellowknife, and so as we move forward the idea is that we would get better at breaking down barriers and working across departments and government, and we want to move to a place where we don't need pathfinders to work with someone to go and access individual government departments. We want to make...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the question. So service integration is the umbrella term we use for our efforts to integrate services across departments and ensure that residents are able to approach the government and get the services they need without having to bounce around between different departments. Under that, we have Integrated Service Delivery Yellowknife which is what used to be called integrated case management. So I just wanted to get the terminology straight while we begin talking about this. And so to monitor and evaluate how we're doing when we roll out the service...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think the work with the Council of Leaders is very important to distinguish ourselves from what's happening in the provinces where there was a sense that the provincial governments were offloading their responsibility to the school board -- or to Jordan's Principle. So it's a much different situation here in the territory. We advocate jointly with Indigenous leaders. I believe there's opportunities for Indigenous governments to actually apply for Jordan's Principle and then help support students and other families that way. That type of work, I understand, is...