Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, my question is what is the provision of speech-language therapy and social and emotional support being left to the schools instead of being administered by the Minister of Health and Social Services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the mental health and speech-language, both -- for years, both the education and I think when -- and within health have had separate budgets, so the K to 12 I can't speak to that. That can go to the Minister. But where the health authority lies is when those children have needs for speech and those can -- those referrals are made to the speech pathology through a referral process. And they can be self-referral from families, from physicians, from the schools. And we provide those services; however, you know, right now we're challenged with a lot of vacancies. With mental health, I know with the CYCs, we have -- we initiated this program, I believe, 2018-2019. All of the mental health work was done under health and social services but after a two-year or three-year review, I believe there was a large push from education bodies to want to be more involved and have more of that within their authority and so that's why the change was made at the beginning -- to make the change at the beginning of this government, to split that so that part of the work was done in education and the clinical expertise would stay in health. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question is why is the Minister forcing schools to use their budgets for children's assessments and essential learning equipment when the schools aren't equipped to deliver these services and don't have the funding and trying to tap into the surplus dollars doesn't work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would have to get more information as to what the Member is referring to as I wouldn't be able to respond to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Much of the cuts to Jordan's Principle education funding supported services that are the responsibility of the Minister of health. Will she take the pressure off ECE and provide parents with timely access to assessments and to support their children with complex needs and requirements instead of forcing schools to fill that role? Mr. Speaker, education and health and social services are treaty rights. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I would like to say on that is that, you know, in this House, you know, we've heard time and time again how it's impacted within education; however, a lot of these supports are -- you know, I think -- we know we don't have enough positions or whatever in ECE -- in the schools. You know, we're bound by what our budget is. We're bound to be able to provide the services, and we try to reallocate as much to the programs as we can. Within health and social services, it's the same area. Jordan's Principle has been supporting health and social services as well because education and health is both. And this is why myself and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, as well as everybody from Cabinet, has been meeting and bringing this issue up, how it's impacting the Indigenous students especially in the Northwest Territories, and even more so in the smallest communities. When you look across Canada, you know, the smallest communities, the Indigenous communities are reserves, and that's the decision that they made before the new Minister came in, that they would only fund reserves. We've tried to educate them on the Northwest Territories that our small communities make up -- are mostly Indigenous kids so we need to be able to have this funding as well in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
