Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I would like to clarify that at no time was it my intention to move programs out of Fort Smith. My vision is to actually expand and strengthen programs in all campuses. It is not about one community or another.

I do want to also talk about the idea of ENR and what the Member had talked about. Yes, that is part of our visioning exercise that we need to do, is going throughout the territory and looking at the strengths that we have to offer and getting that from all of the communities, all of the people, so that when people identify one of the strengths, ENR, I see, is one of our strengths. Then, from that, we work on the visioning exercise for the college to be able to actualize the territorial vision. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I mentioned the investment that the federal government will be making in conservation, and I agree with the Minister that ENRTP program is a good program and produces lots of good officers that are valuable to the communities.

We also have other areas of land that need protection, with some of the work that we are doing in this House about improving some legislation for protected areas. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister could start working with Indigenous governments to maybe look at the Indigenous guardianship programs, the Canadian Rangers, or even park officers, for that matter, where Fort Smith sits at the edge of probably the biggest national park in the country, and there are a lot of park officers there that could maybe get educated in Fort Smith. I would like to ask the Minister if she could look at the people involved in all of those areas, work with the people involved in all of those areas.

Yes, it is definitely important. This is a territory-wide issue. Our future for post-secondary is bigger than the people in this House, so it is important that we work with all levels of government, our municipal governments and our Aboriginal governments, for two reasons: to find out how we can best support the students; and the second one is to look at our vision and look at the strengths and identify areas that we can grow on. So, yes, I am seeing that part of the vision exercise is that we would be consulting with Indigenous governments to see what their vision is, as well.

Mr. Speaker, staying in the area of education, but not something that I mentioned in my Member's statement, is the research centre in Inuvik that's also part of Aurora College. I'd like to ask the Minister if she would look at what is possible for research. It appears as though Inuvik is blessed with probably the best fibre links, the best Internet connections in the world, and there's a research centre there. I'd like to ask the Minister if her department could work with the research centre to see how they could expand that to increase the studies and make Inuvik Aurora College into a world-class research institution.

I do have to say I really appreciate the questions today because the MLA has actually pointed out a lot of the vision things, a lot of our strengths, a lot of the areas that we need to work with. The reason that I'm really promoting to move into a polytechnic university is because that research money is leaving the Northwest Territories. We have hundreds of universities coming across the world up to Inuvik to study our issues, and we're not tapping into that money because we're still a college.

So moving into a polytechnic university will allow us to not only access that money, but it keeps the knowledge in the Northwest Territories. It has a lot of potential, and I am certainly going to expand on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Lastly, I guess, is the more difficult of all of the tasks that I think we should be working on in post-secondary education, and that is the nursing school in Yellowknife, here, for the old Stanton. I realize that the Department of Health has other uses for that, but I still feel that there's room for that place to become a good nursing school for homecare, that has so much potential for our communities and our elders. It is also a great way to keep the elders in their home as long as possible and save a lot of money in the system by not having them go into long-term care. So I'd like to ask the Minister if she would continue to work with the Department of Health and Social Services to see what's possible there.

Currently, our nursing students do actually utilize the Stanton Hospital for their practicums. That is very important. Hands-on learning is critical within any university, certificate, diploma, or degree programming, so we will continue to work with Health and Social Services on utilizing that. I do note I hear the Member who is saying: can we make the school there? That, I cannot promise. What I can say is that the campus in Yellowknife has outgrown its current headquarters, and that has to be looked at. At this point, I can't say whether it would be part of the old Stanton Hospital or if it would be a new building, but what I can promise is that we will continue to work with Health and Social Services to make sure that we have the best practicum opportunities possible for our students. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I really want to start with saying that I'm really excited about Norman Wells' daycare. One of our mandates is to get daycares in every community, as many as possible. There is lots of research. I could go on and on about the amount of research that says early intervention is the best intervention for children to ensure that they are successful in life. So Norman Wells is one that we've been watching closely. We're working closely with that community. I know that they have submitted their application. There are a little bit of processes: they need to get a fire and a health inspection. We are willing to work with them, and then, once those inspections are done, we're hoping that they'll be able to start to provide services to children.

I'll ask the question again: when can they receive a reply to the submitted application from the society?

As a commitment, I know that there are processes, but, if it makes the MLA feel better, then I can commit to, by the end of this week, we will phone Norman Wells' daycare society and actually help them to give them an answer and tell them what they need to go through. It is a process. They need to apply for the health and safety, they need to apply to the fire marshal to get those inspections. It's not as easy as just one department taking this over, but we are willing to work with them as much as possible to make this a reality.

Now we have a deadline for a yes or a no. My next questions is: because the society has limitations, will the Minister's regional office assist the society in working with the Department of Infrastructure to certify the building, as the Minister mentioned earlier, for the assistance

I've said it, and I'll say it again, that we are committed to making this a reality. We will do whatever we can to support the daycare. I'm not even sure what they're called, but the daycare center in Norman Wells. So, if that means working with Infrastructure, if that means helping them to fill out the applications, if that means walking into offices, we will do what we need to do to make this a reality.

Masi. Member for Sahtu.

I'm very encouraged by the energy of the Minister's statement to assist the society. You can imagine, the society, I know the individuals, they're young parents. They don't know the difference between a two-by-four and a building code, so I'm encouraged by the Minister's statement to help the young parents. Mahsi.

Masi. I'll take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, further to my Member's statement, there was a prominent case of cultural bias in the Northwest Territories, in the death of Hugh Papik, an elder in Aklavik. A subsequent report made 16 recommendations to improve services delivery. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services give an update to this House on the progress the department has made in implementing those recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's completely inappropriate for any Member in this House to be talking about an individual.

I can say that there was a review done of a situation a number of years ago that resulted in some suggestions and recommendations on how to move forward to address systemic racism that exists here, in the Northwest Territories. The Member should be aware because I am pretty sure he was in the House when we tabled, in November 2016, Building a Culturally Respectful Health and Social Services System, which is our commitment to building a Health and Social Services system that is culturally safe and respectful of all patients and clients across the Northwest Territories.

A key component of that document was the requirement for an action plan, which we intend to release this fall, with a number of recommendations and programs to move forward with training our staff here, in the Northwest Territories. We have cultural safety programs and training that have basically been developed. We're looking at piloting here before the end of the calendar year. We'll make revisions based on what we hear, and we will roll out on a territorial level for all Health and Social Services staff starting in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. We have made significant progress in this area.

That case and other cases are well-canvassed in the media, including the case of my constituent that I mentioned earlier. I think they are subject to discussion in this House. The cultural safety and training piece is probably the largest part of these recommendations. Can the Minister speak to some of the details of the cultural training program that is being developed by the department?

I appreciate the Member's comment, but, because other people breach those confidentiality and talk about things, it doesn't mean we in this Assembly should. I appreciate that the Member is ultimately talking about cultural safety, and I appreciate that conversation, but it's inappropriate to use people's names in this House.

We have done a significant amount of work to develop cultural safety training here, in the Department of Health and Social Services. We have an Indigenous Health and Community Wellness division who have actually worked with different Indigenous governments and individuals across the Northwest Territories to develop this meaningful training. We are about to pilot that. We are intending to pilot it between now and the end of the calendar year.

From there, we anticipate that we will have to make some tweaks here and there, based on what we hear from the staff who are going through it. Our intention is to finalize this fiscal year and begin rolling out for all staff over the next couple of years. It will be training that's available for new staff as they come in, as part of their orientation. Refreshers will be available, as well. It is probably going to take us a bit of time to ensure that all Health and Social Services staff have the training because we also have to keep providing services while we're getting this training done. This is well on its way. The action plan will be out in the next couple of weeks. Training is happening, and we are moving forward.