This is page numbers 39 - 60 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

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

The Department of Health and Social Services delivers the On-the-Land Healing Fund in partnership with Indigenous groups. This budget is approximately $1.8 million a year. It supports community development facilities focused on mental health and addictions. The Member asked which locations, and I can get back to the Member on the location of the on-the-land healing programs.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Since we do not have an actual treatment centre here in the Northwest Territories, I would like to know the costs over the last 10 years. How many clients have we sent to the southern institutions, and how much did that cost this government?

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

I will commit to get back to the Member on exactly the numbers that he is requesting. I apologize. I don't have that with me right now, so we will get back to the Member on the numbers.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, I would appreciate all the detailed information that the Minister will be providing. My fourth and final question is: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission call to action has 23 calls upon all levels of government, including the territorial government, to increase the number of Aboriginal professionals, retention of Aboriginal professional healthcare, and also training for all those health professionals. Do we currently have in place all these areas of interest that have been highlighted as part of the calls to action in our communities, in our 33 communities, Mr. Speaker? Masi.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

I don't have that information at this time. However, I will note that the department provides a number of services and supports for mental health and addictions, including child and youth care counsellors, facility-based addiction treatment, psychiatric care and treatment, the Northwest Territories helpline, and the partnership with the land-based Indigenous groups. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Question 22-19(2): Results of Education Audit
Oral Questions

February 7th, 2020

Page 43

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. What is the Minister's reaction to the findings of the audit, and in these findings, what concerns him the most? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I first took over this portfolio, I soon after became aware that we would be receiving a report of the Office of the Auditor General. Personally, I was happy to have this at the beginning of my term because, as a former Regular Member, I was on the committee that looked at these reports and I know how valuable they are.

I am happy to have the information. I wish I could say that it was a glowing audit. It wasn't scathing, but it obviously shows that we are not doing as well as we would like and that we can do better. There are certain areas that are more concerning than others, mainly because we made progress in some areas that have happened since the report. For example, the languages; we have done much since the Auditor finished the report that wasn't reflected in there.

There are things like the graduation rate, which was mentioned earlier. There is no universally accepted way to calculate graduation rates, but you never want to see something that shows that you are not graduating half your population. There is nothing in there that I can say is shocking to me. I have been a Member. I have talked to people in the community. I hear the concerns about education. We are very concerned. We are developing plans to move forward.

I want to also state that the Member noted that we are treating our students no better than cows to a slaughterhouse. I just wanted to comment that, when a student goes into a classroom, teachers treat them much better than cows to slaughter. We have a dedicated staff. We have about 800 teachers in the territory. I want to let them know that I support them and I support their efforts. Going forward, I am going to make sure that we hear from them and we hear how to make these things better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Let's just get this straight, too. I support my staff in the communities, in my riding, and across the territory. I sat on the education committee in my home community of Tuktoyaktuk for the last three-and-a-half years, and I support them. I support my youth, my youth who ECE is failing. It is not this Minister's fault. It is prior. At the end of the day, the department has to be committed to adopting a more accurate method in getting graduation rates in the NWT, to get more information broken down by the riding. That is all I am asking for. We have our haves and have-nots in our ridings. In the small communities, we are have-nots.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

The thing I love about education is everyone is committed. I know that the Member is passionate about education. I just want to reiterate my support for our teachers, as well.

The department has looked at the methodology they use to calculate graduation rates, and we have made a change that more accurately reflects what you would call a true graduation rate, even though there really is no such thing. Different jurisdictions use different rates.

For the territory, we have a lot of in-and-out migration. We have a small population. There is nothing that suits us perfectly. We tried looking at other graduation rates around the country. When we applied them to our situation, some groups of our population were graduating at over 100 percent. Clearly, it is not a cookie-cutter approach. We have created a method now that more accurately reflects, I think, the number of students we have graduating.

To the Member's point about this data collection, we have also created a framework regarding this data collection. We are going to begin reporting yearly on a lot of these indicators. I know that this is the second report, and the first report made lots of comments about the lack of data. This one makes those notes, as well. I have to say that we have come a long way in 10 years, and we have even come a long way since the work on this report was completed.

We now have a lot of that data that we did not have before. The thing we have to do now is analyze it and figure out exactly what it is telling us. Education is difficult because you can have the best teacher and you can have the best facilities in a class, but there is a lot going on outside that classroom. There is a lot going on in students' lives. It is hard to say, "This program, is it helping students effectively?"

Those are the kind of things that this data is going to help us with. We are going to develop our program so that we know that it is working, so that we can do a better job serving our students.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Education is key to our success in our territory and to our people and to our youth, because our youth are our future. Will the Minister make a commitment to the Assembly to provide a draft copy of the department's implementation plan in advance so the standing committee can have a public hearing?

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

The process with these reports is that the department develops an action plan, which it then provides to the standing committee prior to the public meetings that are arranged between the standing committee and the Office of the Auditor General. I guarantee that the committee will have a draft prior to that meeting.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Nunakput.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Minister, for that response in regard to the advance notice on public hearings. Is the Minister prepared to take a closer look at social passing and consider ending this damaging practice where we are setting up our students for failure on social passing in the small communities across the territory? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

The term "social passing" is a bit of a misnomer. Students aren't passed into the next grade. They are placed in the next grade. If they don't achieve, if they do not get the credits, if they don't do the work that they need to pass, they do not pass. They are placed in the next grade with their peer group, and they have lesson plans that are adjusted in order to meet that.

I am not going to commit to eliminating social passing because, right now, there is no requirement for a student who doesn't achieve a certain level to be placed in the next grade. That is a decision made by the administrators, by the teachers, and by the school after they have a conversation. Every parent and student has a right to remain in a grade. If a parent and his teacher feels like the child needs to stay in grade 4 or 5 for a second time around, then that is their right. They can have that conversation, and they can do that.

What I do commit to is working to better prepare students so that this doesn't become an issue. If we focus our efforts on early childhood and we ensure that students don't fall behind, we ensure that, when a student comes out of JK, kindergarten, grade 1, grade 2, and they are at those levels, we are not going to have to worry about social passing anymore because they are going to have the skills and ability to pass on their own merits. That is what I commit to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The questions I have today are for the Minister of ITI and Infrastructure. Yesterday, I made a statement on the economy. The reality is that, outside YK, the government is the economy. My first question to the Minister is: what is your department's plan to put our northern businesses and residents to work as soon as possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier will be formally introducing our government's mandate during this session. I do not want to get ahead of the process and speak to it is content in any detail today. However, I can confirm that our mandate will lay out actions and investments to address the priorities that we have identified. Those include more jobs, more business opportunities, and growth and diversity for our economy.

Our mandate includes initiatives that are aimed at increasing employment in small communities; increasing resource exploration and development; ensuring government procurement and contracting maximizes benefits to residents and businesses; increasing economic diversification by supporting economic growth in and outside the non-extractive sectors; and setting regional diversification targets; and we are going to adopt a benefit retention approach to economic development. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

I thank the Minister for that answer. The second question is with respect to the BIP policies. What will your department, ITI, do to ensure that our current BIP policies are doing what they are designed to do, with respect to the application of them, fairness, and monitoring, to ensure that our northern businesses and residents are really benefitting from them?

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

The Government of the Northwest Territories Business Incentive Policy and the Northwest Territories Manufactured Products Policy are designed to ensure that government purchases are made through Northwest Territories-owned businesses and to leverage our government's purchasing power into investments in the Northwest Territories' business and manufacturing sector.

After speaking with stakeholders the last several months, I recognized that there is a need to improve upon the Government of the Northwest Territories procurement and the Business Incentive Policy. The Departments of ITI and Infrastructure are working to address this and are looking for areas in which we can strengthen the government's procurement processes. We continue to offer training to increase awareness of our contracting opportunities and of the procurement process. In fact, workshops were held in January in Norman Wells, Tulita, and Hay River.

We have committed to a review of procurement generally and the BIP specifically. It will be an opportunity to put everything on the table and to find a solution together. ITI is currently considering the process and results of past BIP reviews and will develop some options for how best we can move such an initiative forward.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

The next question has to do with payment to contractors. We find that, in talking with a number of contractors, they have been waiting for payment for up to five, six, seven, eight, nine months. What I would like to ask the Minister is: what will your department do to ensure that our northern businesses are paid in a timely manner for work done? Just so that we can avoid financial hardship and that we're putting them under.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

I do acknowledge that prompt payment of invoices is really critical to our small businesses in the North. We do have a government set of standards and expectations for the payments of these invoices, but I do acknowledge that that system is not always working properly.

The Financial and Employee Shared Services division of the Department of Finance is responsible for processing and issuing payment for all supplier invoices for goods and services provided to all Government of the Northwest Territories departments, including the Housing Corporation and health authorities. As the Minister of Infrastructure, I can tell you that it is an individual department's responsibility for managing the contracts, which includes timely processing of invoices for payment by our finance department.

If this is an area that the Member feels is lacking, and I have heard from others that it may be, I think that we need to look into including information on the payment terms and that process with our regular workshops that we are doing on procurement, so I will commit to including that in the next set of workshops.