This is page numbers 3847 – 3882 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was change.

Topics

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

I appreciate that answer from the Minister. In regard to the plan to support family, staff, and communities who have been impacted by these tragedies, can the Minister advise some of the things the department is able to offer?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

First and, I guess, foremost is that we do offer, and we do make our counsellors available to the families who are struggling so that they can continue to work through their grief process and come to terms with the horrible incidents that have occurred. We want to do more than that. We want to support communities, as well.

We strongly encourage residents of communities to attend things like the Mental Health First Aid program as well as the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. The more people who can attend these things in the communities, the better. That includes the families, as well. We work with the territorial authority, Health and Social Services Authority, and community leadership to develop a wellness and suicide prevention plan. That work is still under way. We haven't completely reached our resolution on that plan.

The department offers On-The-Land Healing Fund $125,000 a year, which goes to the Dehcho First Nations so that they can facilitate on the land programs that lead towards healing and supporting individuals who are going through crisis.

There is also always the helpline available to residents. Should they need to speak to somebody and speak to somebody now, I would strongly encourage people to use that helpline and engage with the practitioners we have in the community, whether it is community health nurse or a counsellor. In September of next year, the new youth mental health counsellors, we encourage them to reach out and get in touch with the providers that are out there.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I greatly appreciate the Minister's ability to provide that information here to the House as we can share it with our residents. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister provide a brief summary of some of the things the department has been able to do in regard to the suicide prevention treatment and after-care as part of the mental health and addiction recovery in NWT Strategic Framework 2016-2021? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

The framework that the Member is referencing is a foundational document that sets the direction we are going to move forward in a number of different areas. It is going to result in three different action plans. One of the action plans, the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, has already been released. The Addictions Recovery Action Plan and the mental health recovery action plan are still in development. They will be developed during the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

Having said that, with respect to the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, one of the key items that, I think, residents of the Deh Cho and I think other communities will recognize is the implementation of the youth mental health and addictions counsellors who will be Health and Social Services employees working in the schools, providing supports for our youth.

There is also the Territorial Suicide Prevention and Crisis Response Network, which is something that the Members told us clearly that we needed to put in place to support communities in times of crisis. We are moving forward with that. It was a great recommendation. We have some financial support from the federal government that has allowed us to make this happen. This is about pulling together and developing a culturally-safe, common suicide risk assessment. It is about ensuring there are seamless pathways so that when a community is in crisis, we can get them the support they need, both internally but externally. It is about establishing clear processes to allow these things to happen so that the responses are swift, timely, appropriate, and respectful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member's statement, there is a review of the social work program under way now at Aurora College. The report is due on April 10th. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: why wasn't this review completed prior to making the decision to phase out the social work program? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we made the decision to phase out the social work program based on low enrolment and low graduation rates. It had a history of low rates over the years. The Aurora College decided to an independent, internal review on its own. I do understand that review is going to be completed in April 2018. We will see where that review and what recommendations that review has in terms of moving forward with the long-term strategic plan for the Aurora College. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

When the Minister gets the report, can the Minister request the report? What does he plan to do with it?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

We can possibly review that report. Because it is an internal document and an internal review that the Aurora College has taken on, my understanding is that because it is an internal document, that is not planned for release to the public. I can follow up with the Aurora College on that, though. Because it is their own internal review, it is something that will not be released to the public. As I mentioned earlier, that can help position what that program is in terms of looking at a long-term strategic plan for Aurora College, after all of our other work around the foundational review is completed as well.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

What I am asking the Minister is: this college is under administration, so he has a direct role in its governance. When he asks for this report and receives it, what is he going to do with the results? I am not asking him to make it public. He has a terrible record of making things public. I am asking what he is going to do with the report.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

We are excited to see what this internal review is going to recommend at the end. As I mentioned, we do have a diploma program with the social work students that are coming out of the program, and we continue to support them to go and get their degree, whether it is in a southern institution or going over to Yukon College.

What comes out of that review, we are not too sure what it is going to look like, but we will take it into consideration. When the foundational review is complete and we have that managerial response complete as well, it will help us set a stage for the long-term strategic plan at Aurora College. We will see what recommendations come out of this internal review and how that will impact it as well.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the foundational review and/or the review of the Social Work Program recommends that the program be continued or expanded into a degree program, is the Minister willing to reverse his decision to phase the program out? Thank you.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

We have a lot of things that we are doing right now in post-secondary initiatives. It is a very ambitious agenda. We have the foundational review that is going to help us decide the direction of how Aurora College will be providing its programs and services, but we also have this overarching legislation that is going to help other post-secondary institutions come up, do research, and also possibly look at providing degree-granting programs. We have Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning and College Nordique that will soon be involved in that.

If it looks like we can look at providing a degree-granting program, we will definitely look hard at that, because we want to make sure that we do meet the needs of the labour market here in the Northwest Territories, as well as in all three northern territories and, if possible, other jurisdictions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Earlier, I spoke about the link between post-secondary education and people's ability to get good jobs. We are all aware of the earning disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories, yet this government is cutting Aurora College programs and failing to expand support for other growing institutions, such as Dechinta Bush University. Why has the government taken this course? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we want to ensure that any programs that we provide to residents of the Northwest Territories have the supports and that they have the skills necessary to be into the labour market within the Northwest Territories. We also want to make sure that, when we are investing dollars into our programs, we are getting a good output of skilled, trained workers to meet the labour market demands.

We also support a lot of our other programs. We support College nordique. We signed a multi-year agreement with Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, and we also increased funding with Dechinta over the past couple of years.

We are continuing to support our post-secondary institutions, whether it is Aurora College, College nordique, Dechinta, and we are also looking at ways that we can invite and bring other post-secondary institutions up to do research and provide other services to our residents. We are continuing to work on our agenda for post-secondary education, and I think we are doing a great job on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

I clearly understand the Minister supports all of the initiatives that he has outlined. Yet, Mr. Speaker, Ontario has nine Indigenous governed and operated post-secondary institutions. New legislation provides a pathway for them to offer post-secondary degrees, certificates, and diplomas. The province will spend $56 million over the next three years to expand the capacity of Indigenous institutes. Will the Minister look at this model and revise his discussion paper to reflect best practices?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

We see the important work that Dechinta is doing, as well as other organizations here in the Northwest Territories that promote culture and language, and we work with those organizations to continue to support it.

Although there is none such as the Member has mentioned here in the Northwest Territories, it is unique, and it is something that we do need to look at it, because we are already doing it in our JK-to-12 system, and that is something we can look at moving forward as we embark on our post-secondary agenda, looking at improving some of the work in that area that the Member has specifically identified.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

It may not be possible for institutions like Dechinta and College nordique to grow and prosper without more public funding than they get now. This funding could open the door to much more investment beyond our territory. For example, this summer, Dechinta went on the river. What is the Minister going to do about this and live up to the mandate commitment to expand post-secondary students for our students?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I do know that College nordique as well as Dechinta are looking to expand their roles. I think that was a great program that they did this summer, travelling up and down the Mackenzie River. We continue to support these post-secondary institutions, as well as looking at ways we can help sustain the work that they do. That is one of the reasons that we did enter into that multi-year agreement with Dechinta and increased their funding.

As I have mentioned in this House, over a period of time we are creating this overarching legislation that is going to look at accreditation, quality assurance, and also look at opportunities that will give Dechinta and College nordique more opportunities to expand and have accredited courses.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.