This is page numbers 3221 - 3266 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 units.

Topics

Canada Greener Homes Grant Program
Members' Statements

Page 3228

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'll talk today about problems with the federal Energy Efficiency Grant Program that are preventing NWT residents from receiving program benefits, saving energy, and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The Canada Greener Homes Grant Program was established in May 2021 by the federal government and provides cash grants up to $5,000 to private homeowners for energy efficiency retrofits. To receive the grant, applicants must have home energy audits done both before and after retrofits. The Arctic Energy Alliance is the only provider of such audits in the NWT that's certified by the federal -- or certified to federal standards.

The audit requirements apply to minor projects of even a few hundred dollars. The Alliance has long since set aside audit requirements for minor projects under its own programs, recognizing that many energy efficiency benefits are obvious without the need for individual assessment. The federal program fails to recognize the lack of certified auditors necessary to meet requirements in a timely fashion.

The alliance has two certified auditors and two more in training. Past efforts to provide energy audits through contractors in the NWT has not been successful, although that option is, again, being pursued.

The wait time for energy audits in Yellowknife is now up to a year. COVID restrictions on entry in to private homes can further aggravate the wait time on a situation. I'm calling on our Minister of Infrastructure to partner with other jurisdictions and convince the federal government to change the energy audit requirements for the Canada Greener Homes Grant Program to enable NWT residents to access the funding.

I'll have questions later today for the Minister of Infrastructure who has lead responsibility for the Arctic Energy Alliance. Merci, Mr. Speaker.

Canada Greener Homes Grant Program
Members' Statements

Page 3228

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.

Eulogy for Gunnar Paulson
Members' Statements

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Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on September 30, 2021, Gunnar Paulson passed away at the age of 64. Gunnar is survived by his brother Chris and his three daughters: Josanne Kenny, Kristen Tanche, Hannah Paulson, and his two grandchildren William and Amaria Tanche.

Gunnar grew up in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, and always planned on travelling when he got older. When the travel bug hit him, he was off. He spent time all over the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Iceland, and many other places. In the 80's, he settled in the Northwest Territories, mostly in the Deh Cho and Tlicho regions but also spent a lot of time in the Yellowknife area.

Gunnar worked in many different professions, from fishing, surveying, office administration to diamond mining. He was a hard-working person who enjoyed all different jobs he had.

I had the pleasure of meeting Gunnar when he worked for the Whati Band. He was well respected by his co-workers and bosses. He worked hard to get things done right. However, the job wasn't what he was most proud of, and that was being a father and grandfather. He was a loving father and was very proud of his daughters and grandchildren. He was full of stories about their successes and challenges.

Gunnar was well known for his humour. He enjoyed telling funny stories and he had a long list of one-liners he would use during your conversation with him. If it didn't happen, you were disappointed. However, there was one thing that stood out was Gunner's generosity. If he was able to part with something to make the other person's life better, he would do it. Like the old saying "he would give the shirt right off his back for you." This was Gunnar. He had a lot of friends all over the North and will be sorely missed.

The family would like to extend their gratitude and appreciation to all those who came to pay their respects to Gunnar in person or virtually. Mahsi for showing him support, love, and compassion. The family are grateful for everybody's kindness during this difficult time. His daughters would like to thank the Stanton medical staff, the doctors, nurses, and nurses aides for making their father comfortable during the last few months. As well, for making the family feel wanted and respected during this difficult time. Mr. Speaker, he will be sadly missed by us all. Thank you.

Eulogy for Gunnar Paulson
Members' Statements

Page 3228

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Nahendeh. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and community at this time. Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The questions are for the Minister of Health. Can the Minister tell this Assembly how many locum health care providers the department employs throughout the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the question. For the month of December, there will be 77 locum physicians providing services to the NWT. It sounds like a lot, but this is substantially lower than the average of 103 locums per month. In addition, as of October 31st the following casual locum staff working throughout the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority: 11 community health nurses, one midwife, one nurse practitioner, one respiratory therapist, and 26 registered nurses. And to give some context to these numbers, as of June the 30th there were 338 frontline nursing positions and a total of 1509 positions throughout the whole of the NTHSSA. Thank you.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell this Assembly if these positions are concentrated in Yellowknife or throughout other communities as well; and, due to increased vacancy of health care professionals, is the department looking to locums to fill the gap going forward? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Health and Social Services system has always relied on locums, and that is still the case. The positions are located throughout the NWT, and we use them to cover short-term gaps and ensure that we're providing quality services to our patients. Thank you.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm if locum turnover is something the department considers real, something constituents say is happening and resulting in inadequate and untimely community health care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, locums are self-employed basically. They come here on short-term contracts, and they may come once, they may come on a schedule; there's no way to know. And on the employer end, they are used to fill gaps as necessary. So in some cases, we do see locums returning on a regular basis and, wherever possible, we encourage them to continue coming to the NWT to ensure that patient continuity that the Member was seeking of.

In addition, we maintain a locum talent pool list which is a list that we consult and call people from on an ongoing basis.

What we've seen from locums in recent months is that there's a lower uptake across all health care areas, and that's not just in the NWT; it's across the country as well. And so we're monitoring this and determining whether we need to increase our recruitment efforts not only of full-time staff but of locums as well. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, an issue that is discussed is of some health care staff is the inequity in the treatment between permanent staff and locums. It is assumed locums are treated better when it comes to compensation and time on the job. Can the Minister confirm if this is an issue and if so, how is it being addressed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. The terms and conditions of the collective agreement set out the compensation and benefits provided to our indeterminate and casual employees, and this includes locum nursing contracts. Physician locum compensation is separate and in its own collective agreement with the NWT Medical Association. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member's statement was on COVID-19 and what are our safety precautions going forward, and it was for the COVID Secretariat, the Premier. Mr. Speaker, my residents and my leadership in Nunakput are concerned that travellers are coming from outside the territory, are not getting COVID tested before coming into our smaller communities out of Yellowknife into Ulukhaktok. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Honourable Premier.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'll start with saying that there's a couple factors with that. The transportation of airlines is governed by Canada, regulated under by Transport Canada, and right now they have, I think it was October they started and at the end of November so we're there, all passengers who fly on their airline have to now be vaccinated, so that is one method of controlling COVID spread. However, I know that there was a request from Ulukhaktok to get testing when people get on the planes. So there's a couple things with that as well. There's that Ulukhaktok has one of the highest rates -- they're really doing well; they have 91 percent fully vaccinated. 95 percent are partially vaccinated. We don't have the testing capacity to do every community right now. And there's false negatives and false positives and so it's not a matter of getting a test and being safe. That leads people to the assumption that they can just go about business. No one's allowed to isolate in small communities. They have to isolate in the regional centres. Or the hub communities such as -- Ulukhaktok would be Inuvik or Yellowknife if they're coming through here. At this point we're telling people that the best precaution against COVID is get vaccinated, wear your mask, keep your bubble small, stay home if you're sick. And keep six meters of space between you. So, again, we don't want to set up false expectations that someone gets tested and they're safe, because that's not the truth. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought it being Yellowknife, it would be an automatic yes to get a testing machine at the airport. We have a $20 million revolving fund, maybe we can use some of that to use it. The thing is, Mr. Speaker, our communities are small - where you going to go? Soon as you're going to get medevaced out of the community or why wasn't that same concern brought up in Tuk, why weren't they shipped out into Inuvik in the isolation centre? You're telling me one of my outside communities are able and the other one's not? So kind of where we're going with this, Mr. Speaker, thank you.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple questions there, I'll try to answer them. The reality is when an outbreak does hit a community such as Tuk was hit, we don't move people outside once the community has already been infected with the COVID-19. What we do is we try to isolate that community, that's happened in all of our smaller communities, and we've been able to contain it.

One of the best defenses, as I stated, was six feet, not six meters, correction on that one. But every -- when we first saw COVID first hit, we asked our departments to make sure that every local community government had a plan on how to deal with COVID. So what I would say is Ulukhaktok, if they don't have a plan on how to deal with a community outbreak, please contact me and we will make sure that we work with them to make sure that they have a plan so that if COVID hits, they will know what to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Every community has a community plan in regards to COVID right now. That's not the question. The question is will the Premier commit to getting people -- putting more responsibility on the airline to say, Okay, here's a piece of paper I got COVID test. If they have that COVID test they could fly out of Ulu or fly from Yellowknife to Ulu, for the safety -- and being resolved I guess to my leadership in the community because people are worried. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that goes back to the first question about getting testing and airlines, at this point we're not looking at doing that because that is not -- it is not a guarantee that if you get tested that you do not have COVID. That's why we ask people to be tested on day one, day eight, day ten, depending on their orders, is because you can get a false negative or a false positive and, again, we don't want to set up the communities to think that everybody who gets off the plane is safe, because that is not the truth. So it's all of us have a responsibility. This pandemic is turning to an endemic and so we all have a responsibility to make sure that we keep our bubble small and we do the best we can to protect our communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Nunakput.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, because it's travel and NWT, will it make people pay themselves $262.50 to get tested? So, Mr. Speaker, going back can the Premier provide a "lessons learned" of COVID-19 and how her COVID Secretariat has -- can be I guess improved and to have response teams going into the communities instead of the way this pandemic, when it first hit, my leadership was put to the test and they did good but at the end of the day, we need the help. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, we'll be doing a "lessons learned." I mean, we didn't know what we were getting into when we got COVID. We don't know whether we would make it or not. The reality is that it is becoming an endemic and we have to learn with this so we will be doing a lessons learned once we get -- figure out if it's going to keep coming or not.

But along the way, Mr. Speaker, we have not been not learning from our experiences. Every single community that's got hit by COVID has taught us things. And every time we get a community that does have an outbreak, we try to look at what are some of the areas that we did really well, what are some of the areas we need to work on. And so the next community that does get hit, and honestly, Mr. Speaker, we do better. But I do say that the community governments themselves have done phenomenal. So it's community governments, it's Indigenous governments, it's the GNWT, and it's every resident working together that has brought us to where we are with COVID today. And thank you, Mr. Speaker.