I understand that some of the issues, according to the Member, might have been something other than weather, but I would like to point out that the beautiful Northwest Territories is 1.1 million square kilometres of land and 33 communities ranging from the Beaufort Delta to Fort Smith, including Yellowknife. I've been in Yellowknife on one of the most beautiful days and talked my friend up in Inuvik who had 40 below weather, blizzard, and no flights for landing. It is possible to have good weather in one location and bad weather in another location.

With respect to the Member's question, we do have some boarding room capacity. There are certainly only a certain number of beds in that thing. We also know that, with the increased demands around tourism, which we all know is a great thing, it does make it a little bit more difficult to get rooms. When we know we can't get rooms, we will work with our residents for non-emergency issues and try to schedule them for when we can get capacity. I strongly encourage residents to keep following up with medical travel and make sure we are having that conversation so that we can get them in as quickly as we can. We work with our residents.

The issue about where do people stay during a day trip, that is an issue that has been brought up by many Members, the Members from Sahtu, Hay River, and others. We are currently working on a review of medical travel, and we are hoping to find a way to resolve that particular issue. I am hoping to bring the medical travel review to committee by the end of March so that we can have a discussion on these types of issues.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to have to rebut that. I have been in the Northwest Territories all my life. Yes, it is 1.3 million great square kilometres, 33 communities. The day I am talking about, the plane went from Edmonton to Fort Simpson to Inuvik to Yellowknife. It hit four communities. Again, this airline company or the contractor didn't provide the service that was much needed.

I realize sending patient escorts out earlier than required might not be the best solution. I have heard it before about the potential appointments being cancelled, capacity issues with boarding homes, et cetera. I can't argue with those points. What is the department going to do to help patients who seem to be continually put out by this type of situation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I hear the Member. We do know that there is some frustration with individuals who are uncomfortable with going the day of their appointments just in case there is a cancellation. There is some frustration there. Patients can go early. They can book the flights themselves and seek reimbursement. The reimbursement is based on the rate that we would pay. We have a standing offer agreement with a number of our airlines, which is a little cheaper than what residents would pay if they booked themselves. We can reimburse them up to that rate.

If there are unique situations, the residents can approach Medical Travel to see if there is an option for them to come early. We are open to those in unique situations on a case-by-case basis. There are a couple of options that are available for our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh. I was just being generous. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As I said in my statement, the caseload for the Public Guardian is completely unmanageable because of the number of public and private guardianship orders she needs to supervise. My question for the Minister is: when does the Minister plan to increase the number of staff who work directly with clients? Mahsi.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member did bring this to my attention early in the life of this Assembly. As a result, I did order a review to be done. There were 16 recommendations that came out of that review. Many of them required us to do things like providing some additional training supports. It did talk about increasing the staff. One of the things we wanted to do before we actually moved forward with a request for additional financial resources is to make sure we are spending our money wisely.

We have developed new procedures manuals. We have developed different training available to our people. We have gone out and recruited some psychiatrists and psychologists who can help us with specialized capacity assessments. Those things are done. We are strengthening the office. We are building a business case so we can move forward through the next round of business planning to seek funds to provide the financial resources we need for that unit. I feel that, now that this work is done, we are in a good place to build that business case to seek support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I did give the Minister credit for speeding up the assessment process, but we are talking now about another year-long delay before this 150-person caseload is going to be addressed by more staff. That is entirely unacceptable. This office needs to be re-staffed now. I would like to see this staffing adjustment made in a supplementary appropriation during this sitting. Can the Minister make that commitment?

The Member is aware that we have processes that we utilize in this Assembly, including business planning, and that we have to have solid business cases if we are going to pursue or ask the Department of Finance and the FMB for additional resources. Currently, until we build that particular case, we are utilizing existing resources from the Department of Health and Social Services. We have identified staff to go and help the office meet their demand and provide work they are doing. All of this is helping us build a business case. We will be submitting the business case during the business planning process. Hopefully, we will see an expansion in that office.

It is my understanding that the additional staff relieve the Public Guardian when she is unavailable because of training or annual leave. It is not my understanding that there is any more than one social worker working in that office at any given time. Can the Minister please confirm that?

We are providing additional resources by way of human resources to assist that staff person when they are away on training and other things so that we don't fall behind further. The number of active files has decreased over the years. We are making improvements. The assessments are done by different individuals, psychiatrists and psychologists who we have contracted with. That has really helped us bring down the number. Those relationships will continue.

We will continue to bring our case file down. We will continue to provide the services. We are building the business case. We are going to put forward a submission once we have all the evidence we need to justify that, recognizing that all business cases have to compete against everything else in the Government of the Northwest Territories, we need to make sure we do the work right so we have that solid case.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the most vulnerable people in our society. They have intellectual disabilities. They have dementia. They have FAS and its effects. They need to have a relationship with the Public Guardian so that she can make effective decisions on their behalf. There are 77 public guardianship orders in place now. That means there is no family backup. There is nobody else to assist these people in making important decisions about their day-to-day life, and their health in particular. I can't understand why the Minister is not out in front of this and providing the additional staff immediately. My question is: will he reconsider? Mahsi.

The Member did bring this to my attention, and I directed the department to do the work. They did the work. We are rewriting the policies and procedures manuals, fixing the unit itself so that it can get best value for money and so that the staff are adequately resourced to provide the services that they want. There are 79 public guardianships. There are 85 private guardianships. There is a caseload of new applications.

We are working on these, trying to reduce those numbers to provide the support we need to the residents. I am confident that we are building the case we need to seek additional resources. In the meantime, we will fund within and provide the support centre needed to make sure that work is getting done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Justice. Would the Minister of Justice please advise this House what process was used to determine which communities the GNWT visited on consulting on the proposed cannabis legislation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Legalization of cannabis was, of course, announced by the federal government approximately one year ago, so we had a very limited time to meet the target date of July 2018. Staff visited nine communities; Fort Simpson, Fort Liard, Inuvik, Tsiigehtchic, Norman Wells, Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Hay River, and Behchoko. We simply didn't have the opportunity or time to visit all 33 communities.

In addition to that, there was an online survey that was open to all residents. As I mentioned, public hearings were held in seven regional centres, including Inuvik, and two smaller communities, including Tsiigehtchic, which has a liquor prohibition regime in place, and Fort Liard. The meetings were well publicized. In addition to the meetings, of course, there was the online survey so that the opinions of residents could be obtained. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister already answered my next question, so I'll go to my third: does the GNWT have any guidelines to assist the departments to undertake consultations?

Yes, of course, this government is committed to establish open government policy. In these circumstances, again, with the limited timelines that we had, we decided to visit a cross-section of the communities. With respect to Fort McPherson specifically I know that letters were sent to Indigenous and committee governments, including the Hamlet of Fort McPherson, the Tetl'it Gwich'in council band, and the NWT Association of Communities. In addition to that, there was a teleconference in which the people of Fort McPherson participated. Also, there was the NWTCA meeting a couple of weeks ago where officials and Cabinet Ministers attended. We are working currently to establish and develop public engagement guidelines so that we will have a policy in dealing with matters such as this.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like the Minister of Health and Social Services to give us the current state of affairs on development and implementation of midwifery services on a regional and territorial basis. Given that the latest on midwifery does not present a solid path or timeline towards a Northwest Territories midwifery program, what concrete steps are being taken by the Minister to implement midwifery across the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.