Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, and I do want to commend him for taking on that big job. I think he is the right guy to do it. I supported the previous Minister when she conducted an administrator review of Income Security programs. They resulted in some important changes, but what we really need is a systematic approach to change. An example of that is guaranteed basic income, or at least a pilot project around guaranteed basic income. Has the Minister or his department considered a guaranteed basic income pilot project in the NWT, and when is he prepared to make that happen?

I wish I could have more positive answers here for the Member, but the fact is we are not considering this. The work that it would take to actually look into this and do the research is not doable, given what we have been mandated to do by this Assembly. Successive governments over the past number of decades have gone through cuts. The people to get cut are the policy people. We are pretty thin on policy positions. It is tough to do a lot of the work that we want to do. I am not even sure how we are going to do the things that we are mandated to do and that this Assembly is asking of us. To take on a project of this magnitude, I just can't do it at this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned in my Member's statement that the succession planning document "20/20: A Brighter Future" was released in 2009. I began my career with the GNWT in 2008 with the Department of Public Works and Services. That was about 11 years ago. For 11 years I was in employment, I never ever got moved up into any position. Perhaps if I stayed another 11 years, I would have been an antique. My question to the Minister is: does the GNWT still practice succession planning? Mahsi.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, succession planning is still a priority. Indeed, it is ever only more of a priority. There are quite a large number of GNWT employees who are going to be retiring over the next five to 10 years. In short, I am definitely in agreement, and I am pleased that the Member has raised this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What actions and initiatives are currently in place to achieve the goals of succession planning, and how do these impact employees in the GNWT's regional offices? If not, why not?

The Department of Finance does work with its regional offices, across all of the territories, in order to use the tools that we have at our hands currently, which includes everything from mentorship to secondments and transfer assignments, but also to be gathering the information to consider, indeed, what kind of succession plans need to happen. It is an ongoing process. Again, as I have said, I am grateful to have that alerted to me. It is one that we are going to have to pay attention to, given some of the demographics we are facing.

Has the department done any analysis or assessment of succession planning best practices, and are these being incorporated into our human resources practices?

There was the workforce development framework released last year under the last Assembly that was the result in part of a jurisdictional scan, looking at best practices. That is still being worked into the process that we have currently. It is hoped that this will continue to evolve into a best practice of corporate-wide resources for all the territory and for all the different regions.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I believe the Minister just answered my last question about developing a new workforce development framework. I wonder if the Minister could provide stats for the succession planning or any movement up to management positions by all employees of the GNWT since 2009? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

That specific request is one that is very large in terms of the numbers and the scope. What I would suggest is that I will speak to the Member and make sure that we can identify, perhaps, the core of the issue that we want to look at here. I agree that succession planning is critical, and I agree that we can always do a better job of it. These are human systems, and they can always be improved. What I was referencing in my previous answer was the fact that there has been some work done, but the work isn't finished yet. It is still being developed. There is much more to come. What I will do is, as I say, I will connect with the Member specifically. If I need to bring something back as a result of those discussions to the House with some specific numbers, I will do that. I want to make sure that we get to the core of the issue of what the concern is around succession planning, recognizing that we can, as I say, always continue to do better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In my reply to the budget, I spoke about new information from the community survey, which reveals that one in five NWT households has trouble meeting its most basic needs, including access to sufficient food. The rates of moderate to severe food insecurity have increased over the years. My question to the Minister is: why does she think these rates continue to go up despite more direct and indirect spending by government? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is unfortunate that the rates have been going up. I do want to talk about that. We had a meeting this week with the National Advisory Council on Poverty. During our meeting, we had some excellent discussions. These are 10 members across Canada who are dedicated, they are passionate, and they are knowledgeable. They are members from coast to coast to coast. We sat down and had an opportunity to talk about our anti-poverty work plan; it is the Working Together II. In there, we have identified a couple of key areas, especially food secure. The Working Together II has five pillars, and one of them references food security.

Going back to the meeting with the National Advisory Council on Poverty, we did mention some barriers that we are facing in the Northwest Territories, including the on-reserve funding. On-reserve funding through the national poverty strategy does not benefit the Northwest Territories. We also talked about food security and how important it is for us. I say important because it is one of our 22 priorities here. We will be addressing that in our budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for that response. What new initiatives or approaches is the Minister going to undertake to reduce and eliminate hunger in the Northwest Territories?

I do want to talk about the action plan, because there are some initiatives in the action plan. I look at this, and it is multi-departmental; Health and Social Services is not just the department that is responsible for poverty. Our meeting today included our Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. We also had our Minister of housing and Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Also, our Premier attended. It is not a one-department approach.

I do want to talk about the action plan because here are some ideas, and the Member is asking for some ideas: increasing income support to elders with people with disabilities. I apologize to them and speak on some of the issues that are within each of the departments. I hope that's okay, but this is an action plan that we all have input and have a responsibility for; a commitment to make childcare more assessable across the Northwest Territories; funding to address homelessness in the smaller communities through Northern Pathways, which is a housing program, and also the supportive housing program. We also provide funding to support the Housing First program, the rapid housing program in Inuvik and Yellowknife. These support people who are either homeless or at risk of being homeless. Action to address food security throughout supports to harvesting and to agriculture. Community gardening is another project that, as a government, we all need to enforce. I am looking at ITI, because our Minister of ITI is also responsible for some of these projects in the Northwest Territories.

I recognize that the new anti-poverty action plan is a multi-departmental plan. It is my understanding that it is in the leadership of the Minister of Health and Social Services. That is why I am asking her these questions today about food security. One of the things the anti-poverty action plan speaks to is creating a new food security coalition. Can the Minister tell us whether that work has started?

The Member is correct. That is in our action plan. We are planning to establish a multi-sectorial NWT food security coalition. These are representatives from not only just the government, but also Indigenous governments, community governments, not-for-profit organizations, and this is something that we're establishing. I've looked at the action plan that the Member is talking about, the Working Together II, and, in there, the timeline for creating this coalition is in 2022.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer. Minister, I think we've got to get started before 2022. There is so much hunger; 2,271 youth and children under 15. We just can't ask them to wait two more years while we get to work on this. We need to start immediately. The final question I have is about the federal government's role in helping to reduce and eliminate food insecurity which, of course, they do through the Nutrition North program. My question is: what action is the Minister going to take with the federal government to improve the effectiveness of Nutrition North? Thank you.