This is page numbers 3035 - 3094 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 know.

Topics

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for that, for that comment as well. And myself as a Minister, I struggle with that as well. I'm wanting those federal announcements to be made here in the Northwest Territories. I know the Indigenous governments have made significant progress with the support of the Housing Corporation and with the constant advocacy. And that's what I mean by the support and also putting the federal applications going forward, this government did commit $5 million other the next three years. We have been working with the Indigenous governments to making sure those applications are submitted and they are being able to receive the financial funding for them.

And I hear the Member. I will press the federal government on those announcements. And I have also put in a request to the federal ministers -- Minister Fandel and Minister Hussen that I would like to meet with them after the session is done. I would like to go to Ottawa and meet with them face to face. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, this whole process began before the federal election and once the election was had, the same government was back in power and there was still no announcements so it's almost like what's happening in our community is like, oh we're not supposed to look at it, it's secret like. Considering the Housing Corporation is on task to offload their housing stock on First Nations before 2038, has the corporation provided any communication and meaningful consultation as to the pros and cons of becoming a landlord. Mahsi.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, I wanted to touch a little bit on the declining of the CMHC funding. You know, it's going to be quite alarming for the Northwest Territories. And initially, we had an agreement with the Northwest Territories Social Housing Agreement with the federal government. At that time we were given 21.2 million. And since the end of 2020 and 2021, we've seen a decline of 7.8 million. And right now, we are housed at 13.4, which is enough to operate and maintain 650 public housing units throughout the Northwest Territories.

This is quite concerning to me as a Housing Minister, and I've asked the department to provide me with some information on how we are going to be looking at that declining of the CMHC funding and how are we going to be working to offset those costs.

Right now, we are constructing multifamily dwellings, looking at 9-plexes, 4-plexes throughout the Northwest Territories and also looking at the energy savings for these houses for long-term utilities and looking at that, I guess those savings costs.

And also getting into market housing units. We have entered into an agreement with the RCMP as well to look at 45 housing market units throughout the Northwest Territories annually over 50 years. With that agreement, we should be receiving 1.8 million over the next 50 years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister and the Corporation know of the lack of available lands within the communities that actually -- the lands that actually belong to First Nations. Thus the great possibility of paying land leases on top of the many other bills one will be saddled with.

I'm dismayed with what I would term as pulling the wool over the eyes of the First Nations organizations by rushing the initiative in such a very short timeframe to submit an application - from November 18th to the end of December. I don't know if there was real lot of thought given to those from the First Nations perspective because many of them did not submit applications.

I'm just wondering what has the Housing Corporation done to ensure First Nations were screened properly as per the criteria set out before funding was released to the applicants? Mahsi.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Like I have said before, Mr. Speaker. Like I have said before, the Housing Corporation in the territory really doesn't have any say on the approval or denial of these applications but we continue to support their efforts.

The Housing Corporation has hired a position to be working with the Indigenous groups to support and encourage those applications coming forward. And I've said that we do have money that's set aside to see those federal applications -- provide the proper consultation and consultants to see those applications approved and forwarded to the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Oral Question 806-19(2): Obstetrics Recruitment
Oral Questions

November 25th, 2021

Page 3041

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health. Why were the midwifery jobs I mentioned in my statement not filled for Stanton? What led to the delay in the positions being posted and when can we expect those positions to be posted and filled? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. I'm going to take some time to explain that the scope of practice for midwives is different than it is for obstetric nurses. Sometimes you get midwives who are also obstetric nurses and often they're not.

So midwives have their own scope of practice to attend low risk births in hospital settings but in other settings as well.

And so even had the midwifery positions been available for advertisement and if we had been fortunate enough to fill them at that time, we would still be in the same jam that we are today with the shortage of obstetric nurses. So they are a valuable component of the suite of services that are provided to people giving birth, but they are not interchangeable with other parts. Thank you.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That wasn't my question. My question was why were those positions not posted and filled, but I will follow up with the Minister afterwards.

Is the Minister and Cabinet willing to match any funds raised by the Northern Birthwork Collective and other NGOs to support the 120 families redirected to give birth in Alberta. What else will the department be doing to offset this burden on expectant parents. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've spoken in the past about the case management that is underway know with the obstetrics team and the families who are disrupted by the closure of the obstetric services. And when we have a better idea of what the breadth of those needs are, we will be in a better position to understand what additional services that are required that is in addition to the standard medical travel model that we offer. There have been no discussions about private fundraising or matching the Birthworks initiative although I do appreciate that it's happening. Thank you.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll definitely be following up with the department then on that when they have that information.

Mr. Speaker, what hospital ward shutdowns does the Minister anticipate to see at Stanton. What departments are facing similar staffing shortages as OBS and what is being done to prevent this from happening in other wards. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thanks, Mr. Speaker. Rather than answering strings of questions, I'm answering just one. At this time, Stanton is not facing any additional closures. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you. Well, at least she answered one. Can the department implement and honor retention and hiring bonuses immediately not just for the nurses but also for other health care nursing, such as midwives. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. My colleague, the Minister of Finance, has already answered this question.

But to briefly recap, there are conversations ongoing now between our two departments that need to involve the union as well to see whether we can create a specific MOU, policy, directive, or mechanism that would address the questions of retention bonuses. Thank you.

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. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, as I was writing it I started to get really concerned since we're halfway through our term and so I'm hoping my questions for the Premier will brighten up the rest of my day.

So the Northwest Territories has done much work, homework. We've done frameworks. We do annual reports. We work with auditor general, and we have recommendations from them. We're doing surveys all the time. We're currently in a survey.

So my question is can Madam Premier tell us what's being done to help the departments in accessing federal funding so that we can start to help with some of these issues that I brought up in my Member's statement. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Honourable Premier.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do just to let the House know the Member was kind enough to share the question just before we sat down and so I've been writing a book. And the first question though is what are we doing to help departments.

The first step within that is that Ministers sit their departments, their deputy ministers and their management team, and define what the initiatives, the mandates are and the needs of the department, and they define what the budget that they will need to do.

As well, while that's going on, we also have contacts close to Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, that we work with to develop federal engagement. Their responsibility is actually, because they're on the ground, to talk with federal Ministers, officials, get the feelers out there, find out what the priorities are going to be, etcetera, for the new government because we need to line up our asks of course.

After that, during the same time, we plan our asks across the departments. We've learned over the years, longer than this Assembly, that you can go into the federal government and have a hundred asks, but there's only so much money that they as well have, just like us. And so it's way more strategic to figure out what our asks are going to be and hit from all sides.

So not all departments might get funded every single year but there's a strategy so that we spread it out.

And then EIA and Finance also looks at all the asks and then we are there to assist the departments as needed, to coordinate the asks, to make sure they stay on the federal engagement, to make sure that our asks are coordinating with the priorities.

And then finally what we do is all the departments, once we define that, every time I meet with the Prime Minister or the Finance Minister, Northern Affairs that I meet with, we consolidate all our asks and I carry those into my opening comments every time when I talk to Ministers. So that basically is how we support departments to make sure their needs are met. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Premier for that answer. As I mentioned in my Member's statement too, we're always on crisis so we even though we can ask for what's in the mandate and what's the priorities, we seem to be just crisis after crisis after crisis, so. So I think we need a crisis fund too when we go to Ottawa.

Mr. Speaker, there has been many calls for a whole-of-government approach, not just by Members in this House. The latest coming from the Director of Child and Family Services in their annual report. Our departments are looking at integrated services because they cannot achieve their policy goals on their own.

So can the Premier tell us if there are areas that are operating under a whole-of-government approach already. And I know the Minister of Finance has stated that they're trying do this but how is it coming from the Premier to the Cabinet to flow down that we need to be working as a government as whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a little bit more difficult because of our style of government and the leniency of Ministers to be able to define their own goals within governments and the Premier responsible in the Executive Act to discipline but not to define which they shall do, which is good, because we're not a dictatorship, although we get accused of it sometimes.

But what we do is try to work together. One of our work that was started in the last government carried on, and we've been quite proud, is our integrated service delivery which started as a pilot within Justice and has moved into working, trying to get this now to all departments working together so that people don't have to knock on 50 doors.

The other thing we do is we have committees of Cabinet carried over from the last government. We still continue to do that. Ministers right across the board sit on committees regarding the economy, the regarding the environment, and regarding social issues. Those are done. And issues are brought up, and we hash them out all together because we all have a part in many things. And we also have a deputy minister group that they also sit and regularly meet and talk about how each department has to coordinate together to make sure that our mandates are addressed.

And finally right across the government, we have many working groups that are working across departments. A good example is the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls work that we're doing now, and how it takes all of them.

So we do try to work across department as much as possible. But I'm not going to say it's perfect because there's always challenges when you have ten houses and then that House tries to get together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Premier for that. You know, as I stated in my Member's statement, when I started to write, it was kind of going in a positive way and then as I started to write, it just seemed to continue to go gees, we're really in a hard place. And some of the answers that the Premier has provided us, I just feel that, you know, we're sitting here in the North and we have years of years of not being able to take care of different crises and we just keep Band-Aided them.

And so my question is that now we have this new government in Ottawa, which is pretty much the same government, what is the strategic plan that the Premier has that she is going to go to Ottawa with and try and get more money for all of these new crises on top of COVID that COVID has really exposed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'm going to try to condense my novel into a synopsis of the novel.

The first thing is that all of us as Ministers have regular calls with the applicable Ministers at the federal level to try to advocate for our needs.

One of the biggest things that this government has taken that's a little bit -- it's not different, it's just expanded on and is really focusing on partnerships. So we have regular -- I have regular meetings with the three northern Premiers, Northern Premiers Forum, that we all strategize. We recognize some of the issues will be individual but a lot of the asks, Mr. Speaker, are actually across all the North. So we work together on mutual asks which gives us a lot more power.

The other thing we learned with COVID-19 is the necessity to get buy in from other jurisdictions. So this government, when COVID hit us and everybody was saying "help us, help us, we have huge numbers" and the three northern territories sat together and we worked diligently on making all Premiers understand our needs. And it worked, Mr. Speaker. They supported us to get one the first rollouts in the vaccinations. And so that shows the power of having all Premiers on board instead of fighting against each other.

The other thing we did is right after the election, as soon as the Prime Minister was elected, I called him. I gave him a couple days so he could get his place and then I called him, because you've got to hit while it's time. And I asked for a couple of things.

I asked if he could put the North in every single mandate letter for the Ministers, the federal ministers. I don't know if that's been done, but he did agree that the North had to be a focus not only for the northern affairs Ministers but all ministers had to be looking at the North.

I asked him about the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework. I think that has been mentioned. He's going to make some movement on that. I asked him about base funding. We always have the problem if they fund us per capita we can't address that. Our needs are different. Schools, I mean, one school, the population in Ottawa, they might have one school on that block; we have got 33 at minimum plus, in communities. So our needs are greater. And of course flexibility in the asks.

The other thing we do with that is of course I asked for the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework. That's going to say on forever.

We also have -- well, we started with weekly and now they're moving to biweekly calls with the Prime Minister, again advocating for the North, strategically, not asking, don't want to offend our neighbors in the South. As well, the Finance Minister and myself are heading to Ottawa right after this session, no rest for us. We're getting on a plane and jumping on because the budget's coming, so we're going to be talking to the federal ministers about budget asks. That's our priority.

And then all-government, all Ministers are going down in January to hit ministers individually because by then the budget's will be out and they'll know what they have to work with.

The other big thing, and of course we work with our MP and senators as well when we go south. The big thing in this government that's a huge thing, and I'm proud of, is we started a modern treaty and self-government table and we started a Council of Leaders table. And previous governments had said give us the money, we will decide; it's our lands, you know, our jurisdiction.

This government has worked hard with Indigenous governments and said the money has to come to the North, to the NWT, but it doesn't have to come to us. Indigenous governments are looking at self-government. They're looking at -- talking about drawing down programs. It was already announced, one. So we need to get the money here. And if we fight against Indigenous governments competing, we're doing an injustice, Mr. Speaker. So by working together, Indigenous governments and the GNWT, hand in hand, will benefit the residents of the Northwest Territories, and that's what's new in this government. Thank you, I hope that was a brief enough synopsis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.