Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Archie Steven Reginald Charles Kaglik was born in Aklavik on the 19th of May, 1950, to Mary Kaglik, daughter of Louis and Sarah Kaglik. Archie grew up in the Mackenzie Delta with his mom, brothers, and sisters, along with his aunts and uncles. Archie attended the SAM School, a federal day program, and was a residential school survivor.

While at school, Archie was very involved with the Cadets and gymnastics club. Archie reached the rank of sergeant, and was very proud of this. There are many photos of him with his cousin Frank Gilet who was a senior officer in the Cadet Corps. As for his skills in gymnastics, it was amazing. People spoke about his agility he had, and he could a back flip from a standstill.

Archie loved being out on the land hunting and just being out there. Spring hunts were always a big event for their family. It was common to have 20-hour hunts and many miles covered, paddling and trying to find the best spot to hunt, geese, ducks in the spring. He loved the challenge to always get the first goose for this birthday. Each spring, he would always get a brand new .22 for the spring hunt of muskrats. He would modify his old .22s for his brothers to use so that they could go hunting.

Archie always took care of his family when they were out at the camp, making sure the family were safe. Archie spent the better part of his life at his grandfather's Louis Kaglik's original trapping area.

Archie met Marilyn and they had a beautiful daughter Natasha. Natasha became Archie's mom's favorite and she would always spoil her. Later on Marilyn was transferred to Fort Simpson and they moved there. Archie was accepted in the community and they made him feel at home for many years before he moved back to Inuvik. However, he made sure he'd come back to visit.

As Natasha grew into adulthood, and started her own family, Archie went down to meet his granddaughter Meagan. Like all grandparents, his life changed forever. He returned to Inuvik and realized that he needed to go back to be with his granddaughter. The birth of Meagan helped him change his lifestyle for the better. He treasured his granddaughter and took great pride in being with her. The family was forever grateful for "baby baby."

Archie passed away on October 22nd, 2021. The family would like to thank the medical staff at Fort Simpson and Stanton for all the support they offered the family and Archie during this difficult time. As well, they would like to thank everybody for helping during this difficult time and their condolences. He will be sadly missed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just in regards to our mental health issues that we have in the community, can the Minister provide me with an update of activities that the mental health in the Beaufort Delta is providing for -- will take place in our small communities, including my region in Nunakput; is that there any updates on that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the question. The update that I have is that the community counselling program has resumed face-to-face counselling all across the NWT, including in the Beaufort Delta. This is a very serious issue, the mental health impacts of COVID-19, they're felt throughout the NWT and in fact I think throughout the country and the world. It has certainly been a time of stress and anxiety, as the Member referenced, because there's been so much uncertainty and upheaval in our lives.

So we have the community counselling program which, just to remind the Member, that is a same-day appointment availability. We have the NWT Help Line, and we have a variety of online services for people who have connectivity to that. So I also have a specialized Beaufort Delta mental health supports handout which I will send to the Member for him to use or to post in his community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. I'd just like to know what other culturally-appropriate mental health supports are currently available for Northerners in my riding? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, programs like on-the-land healing camps, we fund the IRC to provide, and they make decisions about how that money is spent and what the focus of the healing camps will be. Other departments also have pots of money which will assist people to get out on the land for various activities such as trapping and hunting and so on. So there are a variety of supports available. They are, as I say, probably best referenced online to get the complete list or through the IRC which has its own very robust mental health support system. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we're really lucky to have IRC that handles the money. But I really think what we should be doing, Mr. Speaker, is giving the communities an opportunity to run their own healing camps, setting up a camp out of the community that we could send our youth and our elders, you know, to get them what services they need and what they're going through. I really think before the next cycle, I guess, of funding that goes through, can the Minister, I guess, commit to talking with IRC chair in regards to providing the community corporations with funding to have their own on-the-land healing camps? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was my understanding that the money that goes to the IRC annually pays for community camps, but I certainly am happy to speak to the chair of the IRC and talk to him about how that money is being spent and whether there is a need for additional resources at the community level. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what is our Minister doing toward a digital mental health programming for the constituents across the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we offer a variety of apps, and we're adding more every few months. So we have the Strongest Family Institute, which is primarily for families who need assistance with parenting. We have Wagon, which is an aftercare app for people who are returning from residential treatment or have had some kind of a treatment and they need support. We also have Breathing Room, which is specifically for youth and young adults who are experiencing anxiety and depression. So there are those three, but I understand that there are more.

We recently -- I believe we tabled it here, a report on E-mental health apps and the uptake that they've had. And so I encourage the Member to take a look at that and provide his comments on whether his constituents are using them; and if they aren't, whether they have suggestions about other things that might work better. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the priorities of the 19th Assembly is to increase regional decision-making authority. In the 2019-2023 Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories document, there's a commitment by the government to train its workforce to ensure they are aware of their decision-making authority.

Can the Premier tell us if there's any other potential commitments were considered in this area by the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs in addressing this mandate item? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned a few weeks previously, we started with looking at the regional decision-making by doing a review of job descriptions, and we found that there was no discrepancy. But we know there's discrepancies. So we have got together with the -- we did a questionnaire with regional senior managers to identify training. They did bring up training. But they also identified other things that were happening as was said; you know, the feelings that there's an unequal balance between headquarters in the regional centres.

So based on that, and recognizing that often it's not really comfortable for people to address management in the government, we hired a private contractor to try to do more work with the regional management to find out what their concerns were. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, within the life of the 19th Assembly, can the Premier tell us if she has received any encouragement from regional centres, small communities, or Indigenous governments to do more than just staff training to promote regional decision-making authority in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, and that's why, like I said, we hired a private contractor. It would be really easy for us to say that we just did the review of the job descriptions, everything's fine, we're giving them extra training. But that's not good enough. And I don't think that's what was wanted when we developed that priority. So that's why it's important that we dig further into this and we find out what are the obstacles. And, like I said, I think it needs to be from an outsider to do that work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during question period two weeks ago, the Premier mentioned a contractor being hired to go into the communities and ask what was needed to increase regional decision-making authority. Can the Premier elaborate on that statement? Who is the contractor that was hired and what are the terms and length of their contract? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The contractor is D.J. DeLancey Consulting, and the work that that consulting firm would be doing is a planned phased approach. There's three phases. The first one will be one-on-one meetings with senior managers, which has been done. The second phase of the work to be done is facilitated decision-planning meetings, developing the questions that need to be asked. That's taking place early in January I believe. And the third phase is the facilitated discussions and a final report.

So like I said, we don't know what's going to come out of that, but we need to remain open so that when the report comes that we can actually make sure that we address the concerns so that people do feel that they have the right to be able to make decisions at their appropriate level. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, two weeks ago, the Premier also mentioned a working group being created to help increase regional decision-making authority. Can the Premier elaborate and explain who sits on this working group, how they were chosen, and when is their work expected to be done? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the working group, or planning committee, has ten members, regional and headquarters senior managers. We looked for volunteers to start with and then if we didn't get enough volunteers, we did get people nominated by deputy ministers based on their experience working with both the regions and headquarters and to make sure that we provided a broad representation of the departments that are represented on the regional management committees. I said that they'd be meeting in early in January. It's actually late January, I forget it's Christmas, to develop the approach and the format. And through that, then again they'll be working with it straight throughout to make sure that these are the words of the people and that we look at what we can do going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.