This is page numbers 3131 - 3164 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.

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Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. And mahsi to the Minister for that answer. Can the Minister explain what supports are available for older students who have not completed high school, nor have the grade level to go on to college or university but wish do so. Mahsi.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So students in the territory have access to formal JK to 12 up until the age of 21, and there are schools that offer high school courses to older students as well when space is available, so not during regular hours, and there's a number of these throughout the territory, these programs. Aurora College works with students who want to pursue post-secondary or bring up their training to get into post-secondary. There's the adult literacy and basic education program. It includes six levels of study ranging from basic literacy to course work at the grade 12 level. So courses in this program enable participants to learn or relearn the skills that they need to attain their educational or professional goals. College also offers the occupations and college access program and university and college access program, better known as OCAP and UCAP. These programs provide accommodation of prerequisite and prep courses to enable students to enter Aurora College post-secondary programs.

So those are a few of the things that we're doing. And of course, the college has the community learning centres in most communities, and I hope to see those in all communities some day soon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. And mahsi to the Minister for that. Some of my questions might be repetitive.

Mr. Speaker, there are many former students, many have dropped out or have not attained the required grade 12 grade-level staying in our communities with no hope for a future in the work force. How would the Minister explain the various ECE initiatives to our high school students to show how they help improve their school success. Mahsi.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I would not say that they have no future. I think there is a future for everyone. There's Members in this Assembly who dropped out of high school and went back and, you know, accomplished quite a bit with their lives. So I would never say that the student has no future.

Right now, this Assembly has prioritized education to the greatest degree, I think we've seen, in quite a while. So there's a lot of efforts to going into assisting students right from before they enter school in their early childhood through the JK to 12 system and then once they're out. Even if they don't graduate that system, you know, through the improvement and expansion of Aurora College programs, through renewing our skills for success initiative. But it really is the entire community that needs to get behind improving educational outcomes. And so in addition to the individual programs that we do, I always try to speak with community members and let them know that, you know, we need their help as well. We can't do this alone. If kids aren't in school, then they're not going to learn. It doesn't matter what we do. So we really need to ensure that the territory values education the same way that we here in the House do, and so we do that work as well. 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, can the Minister explain how the department's significant initiatives are linked to each other in order to improve student grade levels and outcomes? I'm thinking of the department's renewal strategy, the proposed changes to the Education Act, the new Skills for Success Strategic Framework that the department is preparing, and even the Aurora College transformation. Mahsi.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Member has asked about the biggest things that I'm undertaking -- the department's undertaking this term so I will keep my answer short even though I could definitely talk about this for quite a while. But I want to point out that this Assembly has prioritized improving student outcome to the same level as the rest of Canada. And I just want to note that that's not -- that's no small task. The Canadian education system is among the best in the world, is universally respected. So what we are tasked with doing here is ensuring that our students have the best educational outcomes in the world essentially. And so it's not something that we take lightly, and it's not something that can be done alone.

I will start with one of the biggest initiatives that we're undertaking, and that is the move towards a system of universal child care. And there's no silver bullet for improving educational outcomes, but investments in early learning and child care are as close as we can get to a silver bullet. And so over the coming years, along with federal government, we're going to making significant investments in that area. And not just opening up child care spaces but ensuring there is a high quality enriched environment for youth to participate in so that they are ready when they get into school to participate to the greatest degree, and they're not falling behind right off the bat.

In the junior kindergarten to grade 12 system, we are renewing the curriculum because we need to make sure that students are prepared for the real world once they get out. And we need to make sure that we have a curriculum that students enjoy and they see as being beneficial to them. We need to get kids into school, and I think curriculum's one of the biggest ways that we can do that.

The modernization of the Education Act is another major initiative. There are a number of things in there that we need to do probably sooner than later, and overall the entire modernization will probably take a little longer but that will allow us to ensure that we have that community buy-in so that people do see the system as reflective of themselves and they want to participate in that.

The Skills 4 Success Strategy, this is a strategy that's half over -- we're about halfway through in ten-year strategy and so we've looked at what we've done over the past number of years, and what we need to going forward. Some of the things we can continue to do but others we know that there's been some gaps, and we need to fill those gaps. For example, in small communities there are people who would like to become apprentices but they don't have that opportunity because there's no one to apprentice under. And so we need to help provide them with those opportunities.

So we are revamping the system to encourage students to go to school, to make them want to go to school, and to try and fill those gaps that they're falling through right now and provide them with opportunities that they don't currently have. It's no small task, Mr. Speaker, but I appreciate the Member's support of improving the education system as well as that of the entire Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for HR.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my statement, it's apparent that the issues at Stanton that are leading to ward closures long predate COVID despite it being used constantly as an excuse. From an HR perspective, how does the Minister plan to properly investigate, characterize, and address the poor morale situation at Stanton that existed prior to COVID in order to address the long-standing issues at the hospital? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for HR.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Stanton recruitment is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I mentioned that I'm interested from an HR perspective. HR has tools that are available to them that include workplace investigation, etcetera. I do believe that these questions can be answered by the Minister of HR, and she actually answers my questions so I'd like to hear from her. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. It's actually up to the Premier to choose which Minister should answer. So Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying that I recognize the importance of morale and solid organizational culture. We've just been through a very intense period of that in this building. And of course, it happens in other places as well. But the end result is that we want to build a strong and satisfied public service. So there are a variety of tools available to us, including employment engagement and satisfaction surveys. I talked about those last week with my colleague from Kam Lake. There are surveys attached to the accreditation, and there is currently a survey going on by the professional organization of nurses.

The department or the NTHSSA recently did an exit survey with nurses that left their positions between January and August of this year. And there are a couple of key findings.

One is that their satisfaction is not tied to compensation. That was not one of the top three issues they identified. The top three issues were that they left for personal reasons, which included things like the needs of their families and moving to accompany a partner to a new position.

They also identified dissatisfaction with management, including the level of support they received, turnover in management and staff, and the orientation that's provided; and,

Third, the consideration that the workplace is unsafe because of staff shortages. So this speaks to the understaffing issue that we have heard about.

So there are existing labor management processes and relationships in place to deal with these challenges, and it is critical that the UNW take part in these conversations. And as a matter of fact, we had a good preliminary meeting with UNW, including the president for the local at the hospital on the weekend, that included both myself and the Minister and our senior officials.

As the Member for Great Slave may know, the collective agreement provides for joint consultation committees who identify and develop joint plans of action to respond to pressing issues that become morale issues and that committee at the hospital is in place and meets regularly. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I have some clarification of whether or not I can go back to the Minister of Finance responsible for HR. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. We continue to go back to the Minister of Health and Social Services unless the Premier designates another Minister. It's up to the Premier to delegate which Minister.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance, as I mentioned in my statement the Northwest Territories is the only jurisdiction in Canada that did not use COVID to compensate our healthcare workers for the increased hazard and workload that they've been dealing with. Will the Minister, with her Finance hat on, comment or commit to finding money to provide Northwest Territories frontline workers with retroactive hazard or pandemic pay? Is there any indication that more money is coming from the federal government for COVID? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. As I mentioned, we continue to go back to the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services unless the Premier delegates another Minister. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Health and Social Services Authority and the Department of Finance are working together to review options through the labour market adjustment process which would deal with some of our pressing staffing concerns among nurses. We have no indication that additional money is coming from the federal government. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, before I continue, I just want to remind both sides, Members and Cabinet, please keep your preambles short and try to keep the questions short because we still have four people after this line of questions, and the clock is running out, so. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll play this game. Will the Minister of Health like to revamp her statement from last week saying that there are no ward closures or other ward closures coming? It has been my understanding from several nurses, the union, etcetera, that that is not the truth. Would the Minister like to revamp that statement about further ward closures. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Minister for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. I'll just start by correcting something that the Member said in her statement. The obstetrics ward is open at this time, and it will remain open until December 10th. There was obviously a group of women who were too far along in their pregnancies to be moved to another location to give birth. So the obstetrics unit is open.

I met with leadership of the hospital and the health authority yesterday. I asked that question. I was told that at the hospital, there are no unit closures foreseen at this time.