Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, that is not the only safety requirement. We ensure that the contractors are able to provide a letter indicating they are in good standing with WSCC. However, that’s not the only requirement. We have construction safety on the agenda before a contract is awarded and there are several items the contractor must have in place before they are able to contract with GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It has been brought to our attention that NWT businesses are to self-register with the GNWT in preparation for RFP application within our shared procurement services.

Can the Minister indicate how are NWT business safety programs or services evaluated for relevance, certification or standardization given the vast array of national safety standards and criteria out there? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Department of Public Works takes safety seriously. We are working with industry to ensure that when individuals are on site

that not only the main contractor has followed all the NWT Safety Regulations under the NWT Safety Act and that all the subs that go on site also follow that. We have several items, anywhere from clothing to regulations with WHMIS need to be taken by employees. I’m not sure I’m following what self-registration is. Thank you.

Almost every other jurisdiction in Canada has, in one form or other, a contractor management system that identifies, assesses and controls the standards of business and workers in the workplace, especially in safe operations. Ironically, the GNWT feels a system will cause small communities to be left out in the cold.

Can the Minister clearly explain and defend the department’s position on its refusal to instill a modern day safety management tool? Thank you.

This is not just a small communities issue. If this is implemented across the board, it will leave a substantial number of contractors unable to work with the GNWT. That includes large companies that are not registered in the contract management system, including subs. There are contractors that are going to be able to get jobs, but their subs won’t be able to go on site. Contract management systems can be used to prequalify contractors. So, in a sense, if a contractor is not registered with the contract management system, then they wouldn’t be able to bid. We could also be able to do an evaluation and could use it for evaluating bids, tenders, evaluating proposals and so on. It is something we are moving towards, but we’re not going to rush in and eliminate all the people we have been doing business with to date. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today it’s really hard for me to know, and any other person listening, what exactly is a baseline of safety required by contractors working for the GNWT, especially if the GNWT is acting as a principal contractor. To be truthful, Mr. Speaker, I don’t think the GNWT knows that either. So we know by de facto, the WSCC is a program they use and we also heard from the Minister “we use several items” and we don’t know what that means.

Can the Minister indicate what the minimum baseline requirements are for safety that businesses must have in place in order to bid on RFPs within a procured service model? Thank you.

In addition to being in good standing with WSCC, the contractor has to have a copy of the safety plan on site. Also, they have to have regular meetings on safety through the process. Depending on the size of the contract and the nature of the contract, if there are hazardous materials such as asbestos, they have

to have an abatement plan for those items. For the real large projects, even our own project officers who go on site, need to have job-specific orientations before they get on site and work with the contractor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I made comments earlier about the Youth Ambassador Program. We get a lot of youth who go through that program, but we also get a lot of youth who go through various programs through the Northwest Territories. We do have the successes but we also have some youth who fall through the cracks.

I want to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, what type of follow-up does the department do, or the division, in following up with students after they have successfully gone through the program? As I mentioned, there is a mentorship program, but not everybody makes that mentorship program. What are we doing for the youth who don’t make it to that second level? Is there a follow-up component to this Youth Ambassador Program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think of all the programs that are run through the GNWT, the Youth Ambassador Program is one of the best. This is one program that’s going to have long-term benefits for the people of NWT. A lot of these young people are going to be our future leaders. In my time in interacting with them, I think the future of the NWT is in good hands.

To the question, the sport and recreation youth staff are constantly in contact with a lot of the youth ambassador alumni and potential youth ambassadors just to support and encourage them to pursue a healthy lifestyle and set goals and work hard. There is some follow-up with the former youth ambassadors, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

I know the department does a great job. As I mentioned, they have developed a lot of life skills and job skills. A lot of questions we’ve heard through this sitting of the Legislative Assembly are the human resources issue and vacancies in some of the jobs.

Does the Minister and his department work with the Department of Human Resources to look at how we can get some of these youth ambassadors, who are fairly young, anywhere from the age of 18 and 24, to fill some of these vacancies? Has the Minister had these kinds of discussions with the Minister of

Human Resources, or any other department for that matter? Thank you.

My information is there are 11 youth ambassadors who have been hired as summer students and have completed internships. There are six former youth ambassadors who are actually employed within the GNWT, and some of the successes you can measure. We have some youth ambassadors who are holding councillor positions within community governments, and there are some that are executive directors of NGOs. We’ve had some that have taken international volunteer placements and many have had academic scholarships and bursaries. Many of them are in volunteer roles in the community. We’ve had four youth ambassadors who have actually won the Outstanding Volunteer Award for the youth category. So, there’s a lot of opportunity for them there and the department tries to do what it can to ensure that there are opportunities for them within the GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It’s great to hear all those successes. Aside from asking questions about the success of this program, can the Minister possibly commit to work on some sort of success story on the website? I know on the NWT website there’s a blog where youth ambassadors can post things, but would the Minister be willing to create a success story on all the years that this program has been going? Success stories that we’ve had among our youth ambassadors to showcase how successful the program is but also encourage youth that are coming up to look into the program and also join in the successes of that program? Thank you.

This program has been in effect since 2007. We’ve had about 250 youth ambassadors go through this program. There have been 27 youth ambassador projects. We’re coming up on 10 years here soon, and we’ve had some discussions of maybe doing a 10-year anniversary booklet or something to do exactly as the Member stated, just to measure some of the success we’ve had in the program. But we also have the proud2bnwt youth website, and that suggestion has some merit to it. We could possibly post a lot of the success stories on there, because this is a program that we as a government should be quite proud of in the development of our young people across the Northwest Territories. Any chance we have of highlighting their successes I think will go a long way in the development of them plus future youth who are coming up through the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister offer an explanation for the wide discrepancy between the NWT’s self-reported health status, which scored an A plus, and their actual health status, which scored a D minus?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are large health disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in residents across Canada. Poor health outcomes in the proportionately larger Aboriginal population here in the Northwest Territories, compared to other jurisdictions, is influencing the overall results in the NWT.

To be clear, the Conference Board of Canada’s report, How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada, measures health outcomes based on 10 indicators which evaluate health outcomes as opposed to health care systems. Health outcomes are primarily influenced by socio-economic conditions, such as education, housing, income or employment, which are the responsibilities of multiple departments here in the Government of the Northwest Territories. To that end, the government, in cooperation with the social programs as well as economic development, have been working on a number of action plans including the Mineral Development Action Plan, the Economic Development Action Plan, the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, the Action Plan on Anti-Poverty, following up on the NWT Anti-Poverty Framework as well as early childhood development. A number of things are being done in this area to help improve these outcomes over time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The only one that the Minister left off the table was devolution to help people’s health.

Can the Minister explain what areas under his responsibility, under health care indicators, why there is such a discrepancy between the report and the D minus received, rather than blaming other departments and referencing other proposals by departments? We’re talking about health care indicators and health.

Once again, to be clear, health outcomes are measured using 10 indicators that evaluate health outcomes, not health care systems. We are making improvements to the provision of health and social services here in the Northwest Territories. We’re moving forward with the health transformation with a focus on all residents of the Northwest Territories.

I just want to point out that the report from the Conference Board of Canada provided several recommendations for the NWT to improve health outcomes such as using a tailored approach including Aboriginal traditional knowledge and health policy, creative programs focused on Aboriginal youth, and developing culturally appropriate measurement tools and indicators to evaluate health and wellness programs. We’re evaluating and considering these recommendations and seeing how we can incorporate them to improve the health outcomes of residents of the Northwest Territories.

I would also just like to highlight that we have created the Aboriginal health and community wellness division which is working very closely with Aboriginal governments and partners throughout the territory to improve the outcomes of all residents of the Northwest Territories.

The Minister cites the MDS, that’s Mineral Development Strategy, and the EOS, the Economic Opportunities Strategy, as the solution for this. I’d like to actually hear what the Department of Health is doing when it comes to improving the outcomes of life expectancy, premature mortality, infant mortality and mortality due to cancer specific to health.