This is page numbers 767 - 824 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

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

The reason I ask this question is because I have no doubt that those eight people who are trained in epidemiology, this is the most important time in their career, and the most important time for the decisions they are making for all of our residents. A lot of that has been behind closed doors, and I haven't seen a lot of that data today. I think there is sometimes a hesitation on the part of scientists to give data to people like myself, who have no idea what to do with it. I was hoping the Minister could commit to bringing forward some sort of report of modelling, the data we have, an idea of the number of people with respiratory illness in the territory, what other jurisdictions have been doing. I would like to see some scientific evidence, and I was hoping the Minister of health could get that team to put something together for the public.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

The epidemiology unit created what is called a public dashboard. The public dashboard is not quite live yet. It is something that demonstrates some of the Northwest Territories' case and test data in more detail. We are developing some important and transmission models so that we can better understand how this COVID might spread throughout the Northwest Territories with partners that are outside the Northwest Territories. We are working on the dashboard. It's not live yet. We are getting there, however; we do have information that is available.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

I look forward to seeing that public dashboard and what kind of scientific evidence is put on there, as well as seeing the transition modelling. I hope to see that sooner rather than later. A request: often, when our government publishes data, they don't actually do it with a data set or give you access to the open data. Sometimes, it's just a PDF. Sometimes, it's a nice graph, but, obviously, there is always some underlying data there. My question for the Minister is: in that public dashboard, can we contain access to the actual underlying data in an open format?

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

The guidance documents are available on the GNWT website, and the public data dashboard will be available shortly, as I have just mentioned. The daily situational reports used identifiable data so these can be made public. Individual privacy can be assured. This only can be done with greater numbers. Right now, we don't have that.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. With the Emerging Wisely document, post-secondary is not recommended to begin in the fall, and there are a lot of post-secondary students who are hoping to continue or pursue their post-secondary this fall. Will there be programming in September, and what will it look like this fall for post-secondary in the college?

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Emerging Wisely document, I believe it is phase 3 that the colleges can open. What the college has been planning for is for distance learning, come September. However, we don't know exactly where we're going to be, and we would like to be able to provide some in-person instruction for people who absolutely need it. The work is ongoing to try to figure out if we can do that, but the plan right now is distance learning for the most part. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

With the way the economy is right now, a lot of our students have no jobs. Some of them offset the cost of their post-secondary with these jobs. The federal funding is not a lot of money compared to what summer students would normally make. Will SFA be increasing the funding this year for those students to be able to afford their post-secondary?

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

The Member is absolutely correct. With the lack of summer employment, it is going to make it very difficult for summer students. As well, some of their parents, too, maybe have lost their jobs. It's going to make a very tough situation.

The federal government has announced increases to the Canada Student Loans Program. The Northwest Territories opted out of the Canada Student Loans Program back in the '80s, I believe, in order to create our own program tailored to Northerners. It is more generous to Northerners, but, as a result, we don't get that increase that the Canada Student Loans Program will get. However, the government did commit an increase to those who have opted out of the program, so we will be seeing an increase. The way it works is that the territory gets the student loan money based on how many students went to school. For the upcoming school year, we will receive that money in January of 2022. There is a bit of a lag there. With that being said, I am looking at ways that we can bridge that gap and figure out how to support students, because this is a serious issue that is going to affect a lot of people's lives.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Student housing, for some, is their main housing. Will the students be able to continue to live in the student housing even with distance learning?

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

The Member is hitting all of the high points here. These are a lot of hard conversations that we are having. There are some people who are from communities where, perhaps, the Internet doesn't allow them to take distance learning. I got an email from someone the other day saying that they max out at 2.3 megabits per second on their Internet speed; they need 2.5 in order to take the program at the U of A. There are some real issues out there. We are looking at how we can support those students. Opening up residence for people is one of those, but that is an ongoing conversation. There are a lot of considerations, but these are exceptional circumstances, and we need to do everything we can to ensure that this is not a lost year for the students who wish to pursue post-secondary.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With that, if the Inuvik single-unit student housing is being occupied, something that is very needed in Inuvik, as well as the homeless shelter right now, how will -- I guess there are three Ministers, there; there's homelessness, health, and education -- work together to ensure that single students can get housing, that this program continues? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

I can't speak for all of the other Ministers involved, but the Member points out one of the big issues here. This is not just a student housing issue; there is a homelessness issue; there is a vulnerable persons issue. There are all sorts of things going on here, and so we all have to work together. Those conversations are happening.

I don't have an answer right now. This situation is evolving, but I know that we are working to find solutions to all of those issues. As many Members have rightly pointed out today, we have seen some great strides in terms of the social supports we offer, and we don't want to backslide on that, but we have to make sure that, if we have housing for students, or if we have these certain things designated for these certain needs, they are used for those. I don't have an answer, but I will work with my colleagues to try to find a solution to all of those issues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Steve Norn

Steve Norn Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Through this pandemic, we have had a lot of people go to the hospital sick. It has raised a lot of very sad stories that came across my desk, my e-mails. We have heard some of these terrible stories on the news about people being sick and dying alone because of COVID, and I was just praying that it never did, and I'm hoping it doesn't go that route.

I still had to make a lot of calls for some of my constituents because, as I mentioned before in my Member's statement, we like to do things as groups with our loved ones. I know that, if I was sick, terminally ill, I wouldn't want to be alone during my last days. With a lot of our protocols that we had to change and make adjustments in our own hospitals in the NWT, my question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services: what is the current number of visitors allowed for people who are sick in the hospital? Marsi cho.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time, for anybody coming in the hospital, it would be on a case-by-case basis, but, if you have family members who are terminally ill, we will look at allowing more than one. Thank you.

Steve Norn

Steve Norn Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you for the response from the Minister. I would like to just know a little bit more. Are there going to be any changes in terms of actually giving us a solid number? I know that it's case-by-case, but giving an actual solid number? I know that we have to keep in mind our social distancing and some of the rules that we have from our CPHO. If we could get an answer from our Minister, marsi cho.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

The most important message we have right now is we know that families need to be with loved ones during this time, while they prepare. The Northwest Territories Health and Social Services authority has a patient-centred approach, which allows visitors to come and visit family. As visitors come to see patients, we would review it on a case-by-case basis.

Steve Norn

Steve Norn Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you. Nothing further.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few more questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I know that, recently, there was a recall on N95 masks. That led me to wonder how much PPE we do have on hand. How many days or weeks, or some other measurement, of PPE is available to us here in the NWT? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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