Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the Department of Justice doing an integrated case management approach that they have completed recently. I was wondering if the Minister could tell me: what does the Minister think about piloting an integrated case management approach to poverty and health in our small communities, maybe to start with, on the pilot? Thank you.

The Member is asking for the Minister's opinion, but I will allow the Minister to answer.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking for my opinion on something that I haven't actually had any discussion with the Member on. I'm not sure exactly what the Member means by an "integrated case management approach" to this particular challenge that we face across the Northwest Territories. I would be happy if the Member were to send me something from committee and himself outlining exactly what he's talking about so that I can get informed, so that I could therefore develop an opinion.

Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment answered our colleague from Kam Lake that he heard about the news from the college that the social work program was being cut. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please tell this House when he heard the social work program was going to be phased out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The college was provided a budget reduction target, and those discussions happened back in September. In cooperation and consultation with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the college identified a number of proposed reductions to look at meeting this target, and that was known to me in November 2016 and was confirmed in December, and then they became part of the main estimates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my address about the budget, communication is poor. Thursday was another example of why I say we have poor communication in this House. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise the House when we on this side will get a full briefing on why this program was phased out?

I would be pleased to sit down with committee and discuss some of these reductions within the college at the convenience of committee, whenever there is time. I would be more than happy to do that.

I would like to thank the Minister for his answer. That is encouraging. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about how the college communicated with its students via e-mail. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise this House if the college has a communication policy that they use when informing students about changes and if this policy was adhered to on Thursday?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Aurora College does not have a specific communications policy in regards to informing students of changes in programming. Aurora College does operate on the principle that students should be provided as much notice as possible in regards to changes, and students are normally provided information via e-mail. We feel at this time, in terms of the program and phasing out the program, plenty of time.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I may disagree. Communication via e-mail is probably not the process I would do, and I would actually encourage the staff at the college to work with the students and tell them face up and tell them what is going on.

As I said in my Member' statement today, the college has decided that this will be the last year for intake for Northerners wishing to take the social work program. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise this House what will happen to the students who are taking this access program presently to get ready for the social work program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Aurora College has met with each of the five access students who are going to be impacted. These private meetings were to discuss options, both at the Aurora College for other possible programming or other post-secondary institutions, depending on what the students' career path needs are, and interests, so they have met with them to move forward and helping them look at where they want to go in their career. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about mental health in Nunakput, and my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services about the NWT Help Line program. Mr. Speaker, my first question to the Minister is: can the Minister provide any preliminary observations from the first night of group phone sessions, for instance, the number of people who called in and if this program has started to positively impact Northerners in need? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I get into the details, I just would like to point out that this was the first delivery of this model. There was some advertising for it, but clearly there wasn't enough. At this point, we are not panicked, but we do have to do some more communication. Mr. Speaker, the first delivery was January 30th. We had two people registered. Neither of them called in. At the end of the day, we had nobody call in to that group help line. As I said, we are not panicked yet, but we recognize we have to do some better communication to get that information out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the response. My second question is: how are these new programs, including group phone sessions and confidential Facebook chat sessions, prepared to respond to unique cultural needs like those of Inuit Northerners?

To ensure that the care coaches -- those are the individuals who actually respond to the calls and are participating in the group counselling -- are ready to work with residents of the Northwest Territories, information is provided to them on a regular basis about the Northwest Territories; the realities, region by region, of the types of challenges that are being faced; the number of suicides; other mental health challenges; as well as some of the community realities so that they are aware of those realities. They also have a number of local resources that they can call in, the health and social services centres, as an example, in order to get additional information on the communities that they are talking to residents from. There are a number of ways that we are trying to make sure that those individuals have some cultural context, some northern context, and understand the realities that our residents are facing when they call in.

The Minister may have answered my next question, but just for clarity, my final question is: what other culturally-appropriate mental health supports are currently available for Northerners across the Northwest Territories?

There are a couple of different things that are happening. One, as an example, departmental staff attended an invitation-only event, We Belong, which is an international forum on life promotion to address Indigenous suicide, in November 2016, which was hosted by the Canadian Foundation for Health Care Improvement. We had an opportunity to go and learn and bring back some of the information from those and apply it to programs across the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, the department also continues to deliver on-the-land healing fund for mental health and addictions, which goes to different Aboriginal governments across the Northwest Territories. We are of the opinion that those Aboriginal governments and the Aboriginal people are far better positioned than we are to deliver on-the-land programming, so we are providing them support to do that. We have committed to providing technical expertise or resources, e.g. staff, when they request it. We want to be partners, but we accept that it is their design and their implementation.

Then the department has also recently released a report on building a culturally-respectful health and social services system, trying to improve some of the cultural competencies of staff throughout the Northwest Territories so that, when they are dealing with individuals from small, rural, and remote communities, or even larger communities, they understand the cultural context and are able to provide the best, most respectful care and service possible.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.