Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

The previous Minister wrote a letter to the federal Minister requesting that Global Affairs Canada hold consultations in the Northwest Territories and we believe that federal Ministers are very willing to come here and do that. They haven't set a time when they want to do that. I believe when the Global Affairs Canada comes here to hold consultation with us that would be a good time to engage in a question in this type of scenario.

Masi. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Health. Does the Minister support a marijuana regulation regime for the Northwest Territories that both allows us to capture more taxation revenues and keep our kids safe from a substance that is very much out of control under the current prohibition regime? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Speaker, within the Government of the Northwest Territories the Department of Justice is the lead department on the NWT Working Group, which includes the Department of Health and Social Services, Finance and Transportation. There are a number of departments that are involved in figuring out the GNWT's response to legalization of marijuana. The federal, provincial and territorial governments have actually formed an interdepartmental working group and the GNWT has two members, one from the Department of Justice and one from the Department of Health, on that intergovernmental working group.

Mr. Speaker, we are paying close attention to what the federal government is doing; we're getting briefings from them at every opportunity when they offer to present them. From the Department of Health and Social Services’ perspective, we understand that there's a desire to legalize marijuana here in this country. Moving forward, we're just trying to make sure that the federal government is aware and is working to ensure that residents in Canada, including the Northwest Territories, remain safe; that marijuana stays out of the hands of children; that appropriate resources will be available to educate people on the harms of smoking marijuana; and that individuals who have been authorized by their health practitioners to utilize marijuana still maintain safe access.

Mr. Speaker, when the federal government did their initial call, I sent a letter to Minister Philpott indicating our willingness to work with them obviously but encouraging them to seriously support the provinces and territories, preferably with financial resources, to get out in front and do some public awareness on the harms of smoking marijuana. Smoking a carbon-based product whether it's marijuana or cigarettes isn't good for you; we need to make sure that the public are aware.

I appreciate the Minister informing this House or keeping this House up-to-date on our federal engagement of this issue; however, my questions are more precisely about what this government's response will be to this new regime. It's not a question of should we support, it's a question of how do we manage it once the law changes. So I'm wondering what the Minister has launched or what this working group the Minister's department is a part of has launched in terms of looking at research or modelling studies here in the Northwest Territories for how this is going to work after April 2017.

As I indicated, there is an interdepartmental working group doing this analysis. We are paying close attention to what some of the other jurisdictions are doing. Some of them are already moving forward with some regulations and I've had an opportunity to talk to some of the other Ministers of Health who have the same issues, and they've indicated that although they're moving forward on regulations they understand that that's cursory or initial and we won't really truly have an idea of what those regulations will be or should be until the federal government comes forward with their legislation.

Coming forward and passing the legislation to legalize marijuana is one thing. It will happen on a certain date; it's been suggested April. It doesn't mean it goes live in April. There will be plenty of opportunity to actually work with the provinces and territories and come up with some regulations. In the Northwest Territories, that's going to take a number of different departments. Some of the regulation similar to regulating alcohol and distributing alcohol will be done by the Department of Finance, and there will certainly likely be some provisions that may need to be adjusted in legislation which will involve all the other departments. So we are working closely together, watching what's happening in other jurisdictions, collecting data, so that we're ready to move once we have a better sense of what the federal legislation looks like.

Thank you to the Minister for that very thorough response. I wonder, though, with all of our legislative priorities and privacy this government in a very large mandate document, do we have the capacity to accommodate a significant shift like this? The Minister just spoke of involving three departments, and if not more, in making all these changes, so is this working group analysing the kind of capacity it's going to take for our government to get up to speed? I would hate for Northerners to be in a legislative lurch while this change takes place and our government to be playing catch-up.

Mr. Speaker, I think this government has demonstrated an ability to get work done on a fairly regular basis, especially when issues that we have not necessarily been the lead on bringing to reality have come forward, things like medical assistance in dying, a federal initiative that resulted in a significant amount of work being done by the Department of Health and Social Services and the Government of the Northwest Territories. When this legislation comes down, we will do our due diligence, we will collect the data, and we will make sure that NWT residents aren't adversely affected by those changes and that they have access to legal product in this country in a safe and responsible way.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you again to the Minister for that. I look forward to working with this government on that issue. Finally, a more technical point: does the department or the working group currently have any recommendations on the legal age or the minimum legal age is 25 or 19 or something else, or is it too soon to make that determination? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, those ages were recently thrown out by the federal government's working group that's out doing some analysis right now. I don't personally have -- I haven't seen any scientific data to suggest the appropriate age. I would say that some of the suggestions around that age seem to have some value recognizing brain development and ensuring that youth develop safe and effectively. So at this point we have no opinion one way or the other but we will keep ourselves informed and see where it goes.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

We have had some concerns from the Aboriginal Head Start program, specifically in Fort McPherson. We received letters addressing some of the concerns that were raised at a meeting with the Aboriginal Head Start staff. Our Director of Early Childhood Programs and the program coordinator went in, we met with the school. The junior kindergarten being offered in McPherson was an option and the school decided to opt in this year. We didn't ask them to, but it was an option for them, they decided to do that. We've informed Aboriginal Head Start staff throughout the whole Northwest Territories that -- we had a meeting with them on August 24th and with the Public Health Agency of Canada as well and they informed all the staff that program dollars wouldn't be affected with the implementation of junior kindergarten program. With our early childhood program operating subsidy increases that we announced earlier this year, say, if, let's say Aboriginal Head Start students or programs take in infants then they'll get more money as well that will offset the four-year-olds in that program, so there shouldn't be an impact on the programs operating together. Our junior kindergarten program in Fort McPherson is run a half-day as well as the Aboriginal Head Start Program in Fort McPherson I believe is also running half-days, so it offers the families full programming for a full-day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, since junior kindergarten has been discussed, you know, one of the major concerns I've always had is we're taking on an extra grade, yet without any additional funding. How does the department expect to manage this as we move forward? As you know, the cost of doing business always rises in the territory, and with added teachers and assistants, how will the department manage this as we move forward?

We have had some training courses for people in the junior kindergarten program; we're also doing web seminars to update our staff in that area. In the Member's riding we currently hold junior kindergarten in all three communities and we also have 28 families in Aklavik, McPherson, and Tsiigehtchic that currently have their children enrolled in a program in one of the three communities. So in terms of the training, we're continually doing the training for the staff to address those issues. As I mentioned, on October 4th we had some of our staff, regional staff, go in and speak with the principal, the teachers, about some of the issues around training, as well as the support for the program itself in the community.

Mr. Speaker, I realize a lot of training has been done, but are there any actually added funds to DEAs to follow through with the junior kindergarten?

Later on we're going to be hearing a motion here in the House, but as we mentioned, one of the recommendations that came out of the report earlier this year is we're doing surveys, we're seeing what's needed in the communities, what resources are needed, and as we continue to hear those updates and talk to all the schools through that survey we will be coming with a plan, implementation plan and any other needed funds. We're going through our capital business plan and in there we did have some funds that were allocated to the communities for capital expenses, and we'll continue to look at those as we move forward.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has said that the goal of our entire school system is to strive to be as culturally-appropriate as possible. How will junior kindergarten achieve this and how can the department be confident it'll do a better job than the Aboriginal Head Start? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of our mandates is to do early childhood programming throughout the NWT in partnership with existing childhood programs. We do support Aboriginal Head Start, we do fund them, I believe the Community of Fort McPherson is going to get around somewhere over $25,000 this year. Part of the department is we do promote Aboriginal culture, traditions and values into our programming, right from JK to grade 12; you can see that directly in our Northern Studies programming, and moving forward in Northern Studies 20 and 30 as well. So it's very important for us and we continue to support Aboriginal Head Start through funding and continue to support the work that they do. Junior kindergarten will also incorporate some of the cultural values in learning as we move forward throughout the Northwest Territories.