This is page numbers 295 - 344 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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 going.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed towards the Health Minister. I am not certain that the health Minister is aware of ongoing problems with healthcare in the small communities. However, does the health Minister have any aspirations to fixing the healthcare system? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Member brings up a concern about the health, in general, across the Northwest Territories. I do want to talk about a program we are doing. It is a primary healthcare reform, so it is an initiative that is advancing culturally, safety, and relationship-based care as priorities of the Health and Social Services system where clients have better access to services closer and in their communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Does the department conduct annual evaluations of healthcare services provided by each health centre?

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

I am not aware of whether we provide evaluations on each of our health centres, but I can look into it and get back to the Member.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

My final question to the Minister: does the department conduct investigations into complaints made against health centre staff in terms of the treatment received by patients?

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Absolutely, we do. I can get back to the Member on the process of being able to have this looked into.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement earlier, I said that I hope by the end of four years I can go renew my driver's licence on an evening or weekend in Yellowknife. My first question to the Minister of Infrastructure is: what are the current barriers to extending the hours of the DMV? I know that nothing is simple around here, but can she just identify some of the barriers?

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member's acknowledgement about the difficulty of sometimes changing a process that has been going on a while. They have tried in the past to change some hours or to privatize the office here, and it didn't work well.

Some of the issues in which they were saying was the problem was that the timing and having people working late was leading to situations of harassment and even stalking. If that was to occur, there needs to be a response team available to the office that is located there. That would then mean extending security hours and others. It would also mean to extend the hours of people who could do the special approvals or overrides and authorizations. It is not just those three people sitting at the front or one person sitting at the front; there is other staffing that would have to be amended.

There were things around even just the building maintenance that would then have to change in order to have the extension of the hours. A big one was also in dealing with the union collective agreement, which I am not the Minister for, so I won't speak to. However, there would need to be negotiations and changes to that contract in order to extend the hours. Currently, we only have two funded issuing positions and one supervisor position. Any of these issues would not allow a six-day-a-week issuing without hiring additional staff, and as we have all heard many, many times in the last little while, we have no money. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

That was quite the list of challenges to simply being open for evenings and weekends. I do believe there is a solution here, and I do believe that I can work with the Minister to find one, even if we were to close Mondays and open Saturdays. That would be the exact same amount of working hours. Perhaps that is one of the solutions.

I am going to spend the next four years trying to work through each of these issues. I would like to begin with the collective agreement. The Minister is correct that collective bargaining is the department of the board of management, of which she is a member, and it is chaired by the Minister of Finance. Ultimately, each department brings towards to form the GNWT's bargaining mandate, which then meets with the respective union.

My question for the Minister of Infrastructure: is she willing to write to the Minister of Finance that the Department of Infrastructure, in the future, would like the flexibility to extend those hours at the department of motor vehicles?

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

It is my understanding that it is not my place to be lobbying my colleague, the Minister, in that manner, so my answer to you would be no.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

That is completely the role of a Minister in their department. There are a number of schedules in our collective agreement, specific cases for corrections and nurses. Yesterday, we had a conversation about homecare workers and allowing them to work more flexible hours so that they can serve elders outside the hours of 9:00 to 5:00.

The Minister of Finance does not know the on-the-ground operations of every department. I am not asking that the Minister of Infrastructure commit that she can do this. We can't commit anything to change in the collective bargaining agreement. That is why it is bargaining. I am asking the Minister of Infrastructure to write on behalf of her department to the Minister of Finance asking for the opportunity for more flexible hours at the department of motor vehicles to be pursued during bargaining.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

The Member is correct in that there is a lot of conversation that will go on within the Cabinet and which I would very much be okay with having a discussion with my colleague about your email. I have to say I was actually quite intrigued when I received your questions and did look at this as maybe an opportunity of something we could change. However, as I learned the processes of the GNWT, I understand that there is a process that has to be followed. Yes, I want to streamline and change processes so that they are more efficient. However, at this point, with the knowledge I have, I do not want to say that I would put a formal writing request in to my colleague.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In my statement today, I spoke about the work that the Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation project, or CAPE, has done to look at ways to reduce alcohol harm. CAPE identified a group of best practices, and I wonder for the Minister could tell us what role, if any, the GNWT had in developing this work. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member. I was able to print out the CAPE report. Unfortunately, the Northwest Territories scored very low. We only have 33 percent. As part of the report, it came under 11 policy domains. I want to speak a little bit about the report, because it is very disturbing, and it is something that our department needs to improve on. I do want to talk about some of the things that we are doing.

In 2016, the GNWT created an opioid task force, and recently, under the mandate, the task force group has been expanded to include alcohol and drugs. That is one part of it. Last month, the group renamed as the territorial committee on problematic substances. Its mandate is to develop a comprehensive response to the ongoing issues related to substance abuse in the Northwest Territories.

One of the deliverables for the Northwest Territories will be in the form of a whole-of-government alcohol strategy. It has already been identified in the CAPE, as it is an evidence-based review, as having a specific territorial strategy to discuss alcohol-related harms in a coordinated approach that will have a measurable impact.

The whole-of-government approach is 11 policy domains, as I mentioned, as part of the CAPE report, and many of them fall just outside of the Health and Social Services, hence the importance of having a territorial approach.

The plan is for the committee to report to the chair of the deputy minister's committee on child and family. As this is an inaugural meeting, it was identified to the committee that the development of an alcohol strategy would require community input through active engagement and determine the scope of work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

I appreciate the Minister was able to share some good information there. I just wondered, in particular, to repeat my first question, what role the GNWT played in the development of the CAPE report.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Yesterday, I mentioned that there was a research RFP out. This is a preliminary research and discussion paper towards the development of an NWT alcohol strategy and was recently tendered. The results of this discussion paper will be presented in the full-day workshop that is held next month, March 12th, at the Chief Drygeese Centre. The purpose of that workshop is to set the direction for a whole-of-government approach towards the development of an NWT strategy. This will be led by our Department of Health and Social Services.

The next step during that process is to be able to talk about the CAPE report, as there were recommendations under the 11 domains.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

I am going to give up on that question, and I am going to go on now to the failing grade the Minister has referenced, that we got a failing grade, as most jurisdictions did. What are the barriers that government is facing right now to developing better alcohol policies, as outlined in the CAPE report?

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

There are a lot of barriers as a result of this report. I mean, it basically told us we are failing under the Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation. Our department is working with and receiving funding from Indigenous Services Canada so that we can support this problematic substance abuse, and we are looking at hiring a special advisor for this substance abuse. We will continue to be tasked with looking and coordinating the alcohol strategy in the Northwest Territories.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife Centre.