That is great news. Is the Minister in a position to commit to returning back to the House with an update on this work on looking into establishing a youth council? Can we get a commitment that he will bring this back to the House after he has done his work to look at this project?

I do believe it is very important that our next-generation youth who are coming up and going to be our leaders in the future do have that input and also bring some of the concerns forward.

I know that a couple of governments back, it might have been the 15th Assembly, they did have a youth symposium that brought youth from right across the Northwest Territories. That brought some recommendations to the government, and the government did act on those recommendations. I do believe that is important. Once we have those discussions, I will be bringing that information back to Members.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a vast territory and a geographically dispersed population, so bringing together all youthful voices into a youth council like this, I think, really speaks well to public policy objectives.

In addition to reporting back to the House, can the Minister commit to reaching out to schools, to Indigenous groups, and to young people in the general call for their thoughts and input into the development of a youth council so that we can get a sense of what it looks like from their perspective and what they want this council to do for this government? Thank you.

I am not sure if the Member knows, but, in previous governments, I have done a lot of work with youth in every position that I have had. We have a lot of smart youth out there and strong voices that represent their cultures, their languages, represent their people, and I am more than happy to reach out to the schools as well as some of the Indigenous governments that allow youth to participate in their day-to-day business. We will be reaching out and finding ways to connect with our youth and getting their input in terms of looking at the possible development of a youth council for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Education had a Minister's statement today, “Strengthening Support for Students,” and I just have some questions about that.

He mentioned that child and youth counsellors are going to be phased in across the territory and they are going to be in the schools. A concern that was brought to me is that, while it is great to have the counsellors in the schools - like the rest of the country, we are sorely lacking when it comes to dealing with mental health issues - the issue is that students will have to leave class to go see these counsellors.

Is that the plan? Are we just putting counsellors in the school, and, during class time, students will have to leave class to go see these counsellors? I would just like some clarification. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, in my Minister's statement, I did mention the child and youth care counsellors in the schools. We will be piloting that initiative out with the Department of Health and Social Services. We are expecting these child and youth care counsellors to be in the schools but also to be offering services to residents in the communities throughout the whole year.

In terms of the Member asking questions about whether they will be in the school or do they have to be out, we also want to make sure that we do protect privacy and make sure that the students have the confidence that their privacy will be protected.

If that is the case and they do need to go outside the school to go to a health centre or to a hospital to get the services, we feel that students need to have access to such services, whether it is for a mental health concern or other issues where they do need to see the counsellor. Privacy is important, and we want to make sure that students can have that confidence, if they need to see a counsellor, that their privacy will be protected. If they are comfortable being in the school, we will have those child and youth care counsellors in the school. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate everything the Minister has said, and I thank him for his response. I guess the concern that was raised is, if students do go to see counsellors during class time, which is their right and I am glad they have that option, they will miss a class. With some of these courses, you have to be there every class to stay on track.

Will the department be doing anything to ensure that there are appropriate supports for students who maybe miss class to go to counselling? If you start falling behind in school, that just adds to your problems.

I do appreciate the concern. When students do miss class to go out and seek other supports that they need to be successful in life, we would work with the education authorities to ensure that teachers who are in a situation where their students are leaving class, whether it's for a medical appointment, dentist appointment, or if it's for counselling, that the teacher makes every effort to ensure that the student gets the materials or information that they have missed for that day or a couple of days.

We are putting counsellors into the schools, but it sounds like we are not giving any support for any other issues that arise from it, such as students falling behind. Basically, we are just saying that teachers have to pick up the slack. I just want to confirm that there are no more academic supports that go along with this.

Every education authority works with their schools to develop their school-year plan. As such, with any supports that are needed, the administration will work on looking at providing those supports. I know there are schools that actually have tutors that go in after school hours. As well, I know there are a couple of schools here, in Yellowknife, that have evening classes that allow students that might have missed the morning or might have missed the day to come into school in the evening and catch up on their school work. There are definitely innovative options out there to help students succeed with their academic courses.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I said, the country, I think, as a whole is behind when it comes to dealing with mental health. This is a great start, but it just seems like an add-on.

Going forward, I think we need a more holistic approach. Would the Minister commit to increasing funding to schools so that they can offer additional academic support to help these students who are accessing these mental health counsellors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I mentioned, we are putting in career and education advisors as well this academic year. The whole education renewal that we have been working on over the past number of years is going to hopefully impact the way our students learn, the way our students succeed, the way our students are able to graduate, right from the JK to 12 system. With our new investment in the career and education advisors, I think we are going to be helping our students to complete graduation, look at a career that they might want to take, or, further, going to a post-secondary institution.

The child and youth care counsellors are another way that we are going to be helping our students with any of their mental health and other possible social concerns that they have. Overall, collectively, all of the investments that we are making in education, through education renewal, I do believe and I am confident that we will start to see an increase in graduation rates, as well as students' success. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The introduction of a national pharmacare program would bring benefits to all in this country, including residents of the Northwest Territories, including things like national standards and maybe even some more money from the federal government. What is the position of our government on national pharmacare? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am a big supporter of a national pharmacare plan here, in Canada. We are the only first-world nation that has publicly-funded medicare that does not have publicly funded pharmacare. As a country, I think we need to make significant progress in that area.

At a national level, I would say that one of the largest champions of pharmacare is Dr. Eric Hoskins, who is actually the Minister of Health in the Province of Ontario. He has been pushing Ontario and pushing Ministers from across this country to work together to lobby and encourage the federal government to pursue pharmacare. He has pulled together meetings, like a meeting that was held during the last Health Ministers meeting, where the Canada Labour Congress came and met with all of us as Ministers and we all talked about the value and importance of a national pharmacare plan.

I have discussed the work that is being done at a national level with my Ministers both in this government and in the previous government. They have endorsed the work I am doing support Dr. Hoskins, and the Ministers to pursue pharmacare and encourage the federal government to pursue pharmacare, as well. Thank you.

I can honestly say I think that's the most positive response I have ever gotten in the House from a Minister, so congratulations. Thank you very much, and I appreciate the Minister's work on the issue. My sincere thanks.

So my next question here: in my statement I referred to the fact that some of our residents, particularly the working poor and young people, are not covered under existing programs for prescriptions. If we truly want our students to come back, we need to look at making sure that they can access prescription drugs, which are now covered in Ontario for young people, and the Minister knows that. So can the Minister tell us what our government is doing to ensure that those not currently covered are receiving necessary prescriptions?

We know that our supplemental health program here in the Northwest Territories is a very generous program, but the Member is right, and the Member from Yellowknife Centre brought this up the other day. There are some gaps in this program. We are doing a review of our supplemental health programs here in the Northwest Territories, and I intend to engage with the Standing Committee on Social Development in the coming months to discuss options to program reform. This will include actions that we can take in the short term, as well as approaches to substantial program reform over the longer term. I do caution all Members; this was attempted once before, and it went poorly, and it did not succeed. We are going to be forced to make difficult decisions in the best interests of all of our residents, but I think it's important that we work together to find a way to close this gap in an affordable, sustainable, and appropriate way.

Again, I want to thank the Minister. There are some difficult decisions to be made ahead, but we have to start that conversation. So joint drug buying programs are something that our government has participated in to help lower our expenditures on that side. Can the Minister update us on NWT's participation in national-provincial drug buying cooperatives and any analysis of their benefits which might be under way?

Many, many years ago, the provinces came together under the direction of the Council of the Federation to form the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance to help control the high cost of drugs across this country. They have worked hard to identify and arrange relationships for group purchasing that has actually helped bring down the costs of many drugs, in particular many of the non-generics in this country. Since the last federal election, the federal government has joined on to the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, which I think was an incredibly important step, as they have the ability to amend legislation and do things at a national level to affect the actual prices. We are working very closely with the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance. We are a member of the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance. We look forward to continuing to work together to bring down costs. We are a very small jurisdiction, but we still have a voice at the table.