Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have spoken many times about the lack of jobs in the communities in my region and the lack of opportunities for our young people to make a good living. It is true that there are a lot of mining jobs in our territory. In a few communities people have had some success getting those jobs, but it is not easy in communities that are a little further away from the mines. In my region very few people are working at the mines.

Unemployment is highest in our small communities. You would think that we would focus our training for jobs in the mining sector, but that is not the case. Mine training is not delivered in most of our small communities and it should be. Progress towards production has been made at the Prairie Creek Mine. Canadian Zinc is expecting a drop of its Type A water licence in the next few weeks. When the mine finally opens, there will be more than 200 new jobs available.

Canadian Zinc signed a socio-economic agreement with this government back in August 2011. The company committed to hiring 60 percent of its workforce in the North. At that time the Minister of Education noted that this is an excellent opportunity for Northerners to benefit from meaningful jobs and training, particularly in the Deh Cho. Unfortunately, that does not seem to include the communities in my Deh Cho riding.

To my knowledge, the only training that has taken place has been in Fort Simpson, Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte and at the mine itself. Aurora College was one of the main partners in delivering this training which was spearheaded by the Mine Training Society. The federal government also contributed $200,000 through CanNor.

Opportunities in mining and other development must extend to the communities in my riding and that means getting some training done very soon. I am also concerned that Canadian Zinc may not meet its target for northern hires as training is only offered in a couple of communities. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past summer I was fortunate enough to attend parliamentary training down in Quebec where I learned of a couple of jurisdictions who created this legislation for mandatory and coerced treatment, that anybody who is a harm to themselves or to others that ended up in the emergency rooms would have to go under mandatory treatment. That really got me thinking and wondering if there is some type of legislation that we can implement here in the Northwest Territories.

Well, I did a lot of research. I talked to some of the jurisdictions, some of their MLAs, to discuss how we can try to do this up in the Northwest Territories. At first they said it would be challenging, but I was very optimistic to see if we could continue to pursue this.

It wasn’t until we went down to Ottawa for NWT Days where I had the opportunity to set up a meeting with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, and chat with their policy and staff and try to see if there is some type of legislation that we can introduce into the House by a motion to ensure that we protect our citizens and our residents that end up in the emergency rooms, that end up in the jails, that need the help when they are harming

themselves or others.

So it wasn’t until last week when I had a good chance with our research staff, and we looked and talked about whether or not this is something possible that we can implement in the Northwest Territories, and the same discussions we had would be it would be really challenging due to the lack of resources that we have in the Northwest Territories. Well, as a result of the lack of resources that we have, a lot of people are slipping through the cracks and not being recognized or getting the help and the treatment that they need.

So last week when I went home, I took home with me the Mental Health Act. I said if we can’t create new legislation, let’s look at the type of legislation we have here and see how we can amend it, see where we’re failing, and see how we can fix this so that people who are ending up in emergency rooms, that are ending up in the correctional facilities, in the jails, how we can help them and get them back into the help that they need so they can become healthy residents.

Well, I reviewed the Mental Health Act over the weekend and there were a lot of sections that raised a lot of questions for me. I’m glad I had the opportunity to do so. Today I will have questions for

the Minister of Health and Social Services, as well as the Minister of Justice on how we can address those. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Colleagues, I’d like to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of our special guest, Mr. Colin Eade, from the Government of New Zealand.

Mr. Eade came highly recommended by my colleague the current High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom and former Speaker of the House of Representatives in New Zealand, Dr. the Right Honourable Lockwood Smiths.

Mr. Eade organized his stay here in the Northwest Territories to see firsthand a non-adversarial democratic process, the way in which it has developed and evolved over time and where it is likely to evolve in the future. Mr. Eade has been driving professional development to public servants to help them understand the way the Westminster form of government works in New Zealand. He’s developed a working interest since he became a senior advisor to the Ministry of Health, including placement in the Ministers’ offices.

Members will be seeing him in the Assembly all this week while he gets to see and learn how our northern consensus government works here in our territory. I’d like to welcome Mr. Colin Eade to the House.

---Applause

Thank you for coming and taking in today’s meetings. Welcome to the House.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement with regard to the Mental Health Act, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The interpretation of a psychiatrist under this act means a medical practitioner who holds a specialist certificate in psychiatry issued by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada or an equivalent qualification acceptable by the Minister. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services how many psychiatrists under this interpretation we have in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Stanton Territorial Health Authority funds two full-time psychiatrists. The Stanton Territorial Health Authority has one psychiatrist on staff and uses locums at the Dalhousie Global Psychiatry Team to cover the second position. A second psychiatrist will be joining the Stanton Territorial Health Authority staff in the summer of 2013. Additionally, Stanton Territorial Health Authority has the equivalent to a quarter full-time equivalent psychiatrist dedicated to providing child and adolescent psychiatry services.

The reason I’m asking these questions is because a lot of the sections in the Mental Health Act deal with the information and services provided by psychiatrists.

In terms of the locum, the Minister said we had one full-time psychiatrist at Stanton Hospital and the second one is a locum. In terms of the locum psychiatrist that we use at Stanton, how many days out of the year is that locum here to provide services and assessments to residents of the Northwest Territories, to patients? How many days out of the year does that locum provide those services?

Two positions, one is filled full time and the other one is filled by locums, and more than just one psychiatrist also filled in addition to the locums that we are using from the Dalhousie Global Psychiatric Team. I think that the second position is filled fully by locums and the Dalhousie Global Psychiatric Team. I am assuming that it would be one full-time equivalent being filled by those locums.

In terms of psychiatry services that are offered at the emergency room, what is the protocol when somebody comes into the emergency room that needs a psychiatrist? Is there a protocol in place at the emergency room that allows those types of services to happen, or gives the medical practitioner or nurse that’s working there what they need when they deal with somebody who is mentally incompetent, or there is a mental disorder that’s in place?

Because the actual protocols in this type of situation or scenario are determined by the health centres, hospital, or emergency centre, I don’t have the actual written protocols with me here today, but I can provide that information to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the health centres and hospitals should determine their

protocols based on the Mental Health Act and what’s addressed in the Mental Health Act.

My last question for the Minister is in regard to these locums. Does the Department of Health and Social Services provide education on the Government of the Northwest Territories Mental Health Act to these locums that come into the Northwest Territories so that they know what the protocol is when they’re dealing with somebody who has a mental disorder and ends up in the emergency ward?

The locums that do work in the Northwest Territories are required to know the Mental Health Act. As far as the training that they would require to ensure that they are following the Mental Health Act, again, I do not have that information with me here.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The inclusive schooling is an area that is currently under review. Based on the information we’ve received from the general public, most specifically, of course, from the Northwest Territories, we need to provide or enhance our programming. Right now we spend well over $26 million in this area. In return I think we can do better. That’s the whole area where the reporting mechanism and the framework itself we are exploring through the education renewal process. Part of that includes the schooling review. There is a reporting mechanism in place for the school boards on an annual basis, but in my view, that’s not enough. It doesn’t tell us how many special

needs students there are within the system. Those are areas we are continuing to explore and we want to enhance and improve in those areas.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I’m really glad to hear that the formula is under review. I think the Minister has mentioned that a number of times last week.

Some NWT communities, especially Yellowknife, tend to attract special needs students, families with kids with special needs, and they seem to come here because we have facilities and services here that aren’t available in smaller communities. I’d like to know from the Minister how the department’s inclusive schooling funding formula recognizes the extra financial burden that is borne by magnet community schools.

The current formula funding is based on enrolment. That is the whole reason we are currently reviewing it. We want to make those changes because we have been told that it doesn’t reflect student needs or doesn’t do much in the area where we haven’t identified special needs. Based on the feedback that we’ve been receiving, and even through the early childhood development, the stakeholders, the three experts spoke to us, and in general and as well as in their research and studies and also the elders have told us that we need to re-emphasize and put that as a priority within our department and that’s what we’re doing. We are currently reviewing that actual programming and funding that’s attached to it, developing the framework itself how the reporting mechanism should be strengthened and tied to those key areas.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I appreciate, and gather from his response, we don’t currently have anything that recognizes sort of magnet community schools and the needs that they have. I’m really pleased to hear that that is something that the department is considering.

Similar to that, some schools obviously end up with more special needs students than others. Some end up with students with much higher needs than others. That ends up putting an extra financial burden on either a board or a school.

I’d like to know from the Minister if, at this point in time, our funding formula provides any flexibility, if there is any flexibility within the formula to give more money to one board or one school over another because of their extra special high number of needs students.

Those are discussions that we’ll take into consideration as part of the overall plan once we engage the general public on the review itself. The Member is correct that there are certain schools, certain funding may not be enough. Also, there are some schools that

do not have equipment, such as small communities, isolated communities. Those are the factors we need to seriously look at. Based on enrolment does capture all schools. The review is before us and we want to make those changes that will reflect on what’s been said, what’s been heard around the Northwest Territories from the parents, from the experts, even from the professionals. Those are the areas that have been stressed to us as my department and we took those into consideration as we move forward.