[Translation] About this, people are asking me now about the new school to be built. If that is the case, where will it be, in Edzo or in Behchoko? Because we know we have a lot of parents who are very concerned because this is a major project. This is my question to the Minister of Education. [Translation ends] It really should be up to the Behchoko residents to decide. There needs to be a survey in the community to get their input on this new location. Has a survey been contemplated and considered by this department, by this Minister, as well?

We are approaching this as a government-to-government project, and it is the Tlicho Government who have stated where on their land they want the school to be built. It's not up to ECE to do a survey of the community in that sense. I am not sure what the Tlicho Government has undertaken in terms of community consultation. Where we would be involved with consulting the community is when there is a final decision on where to build the school.

There is a lot of community engagement about what that school should look like, right down to the materials that are used. Schools are very personal to communities, and so we always want to final product to reflect community desires in that sense. However, in terms of the location, that is not the decision that we are making; that is the one that is being suggested by the Tlicho Government. I will also point out that this is all contingent on getting federal money in order to build this school in Rae.

I am glad the Minister is considering also highlighting the importance of community engagement. It's very important to get that input from the general public of Behchoko on this particular new school; how it's going to be structured; how it's going to look; and obviously, where it's going to be located, as well, because I'm getting calls on that. I am sure my leadership will get calls and also the department, too. We have to keep in mind that the funding has been identified through GNWT, obviously, with the assistance of the federal government. The decision lies here, so that is why I am asking the Minister.

Anyways, moving onto the next question because this will be an ongoing discussion: when can we predict to see, obviously, we always talk about shovels in the ground for the new Chief Jimmy Bruneau School? This is not a new concept, and we have been discussing this project for some time now. Enough talking. Let's put this project into action. Where is that? We need it. When is that going to be happening?

If everything goes smooth, it is still a few years out. This is a big project if it is a new build, and so we would be looking at the completion of construction by 2025.

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

Masi, Mr. Speaker. The Minister touched on federal engagement. I am assuming that federal has been approached because the chief, my leadership, last year, we met, and there was a clear direction to the Minister that we need this to happen, a new school replacement. Has the department reached out to the federal government, and what is the status on that? 2025, by the time we reach that, Mr. Speaker, that is the next four years. That is going to be well over 30 years since the last renovation, and that school is deteriorating as we speak. That will be over 60 years of age for our school. What's the latest status on the federal engagement, Mr. Speaker? Masi.

We were moving forward with this, and in October, there was a decision made to move the coordination of federal engagement from the project's specific working group that I mentioned earlier to the infrastructure cooperation agreement group that is part of the larger infrastructure agreement between the GNWT and the Tlicho. That has set us back a little bit, so we are still working on finalizing the terms of reference. Once that happens, then we can move forward. In that time, there has been work done to identify: who do we approach; what pots of money are available and that type of work? It is not like we are sitting idle, but we are not in the position yet to do the full-on engagement. I look forward to that happening relatively soon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for NTPC. During this sitting, will the Minister be able to table the terms of reference or other direction provided to the deputy ministers for the development of the NTPC governance option? If not, why?

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT is currently undertaking a review of the NTPC governance as structured, including how to improve the accountability of the corporation to the GNWT as well as the Legislative Assembly. The GNWT is currently developing a terms of reference for this review. One of the things we would like to do before we finalize this document is to be able to sit down with the Standing Committee on Government Operations to seek some of the committee's input. I will commit to sharing this draft document with Members prior to the conclusion of this sitting of this Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to ask the Minister if that work will be completed during this sitting and be able to have a date of when we should be expecting that work.

I acknowledge that the work on the governance options for Power Corporation has proceeded much more slowly than any of us would expect or would like. We emerge from a particularly challenging than any other would like with a year of COVID. We are considering approaches to better resource this important work, so it can be addressed in a timelier manner. Again, Mr. Speaker, I commit to providing an update to Members along with the draft terms of reference document as previously mentioned.

The Minister has mentioned that it has taken a long time to get here, and she has said, just to be clear, that they are going to be looking for assistance to finish this work. Has this been started? Has the Minister's department or the deputy ministers of this board reached out and gotten help to develop this governance model option?

While the board will be engaged through this process, it is important to identify that the board is not undertaking the review itself. It just wouldn't make sense. It wouldn't even be appropriate for a public board to be able to undertake review of its own governance structure. The review will be held by a public service, engaging experts as needed, giving advice to myself as Minister responsible for NWT Power Corporation.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if they can get an arm's-length review so we are not having public servants review the NTPC board structure and governance so that we get some good options and that they're not going to be -- like I said in my Member's statement, they need to be arm's length from the government. Please, I would direct, not direct but ask the Minister to commit to looking outside the public service to do this review. Thank you.

As I mentioned earlier, we are committed to engaging the committee as this work advances. The next step is to be able to meet with Standing Committee on Government Operations, offer a briefing, seek input on this review, and perhaps some of the input from the standing committee will be able to help provide some directions on how we proceed with the governance review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Following up to my Member's statement regarding the lack of diabetes programs in smaller health centres and isolated communities: the Minister of Health and Social Services is tasked with ensuring the residents receive top-notch healthcare, even for the smaller communities. Can the Minister look into her department to see if they offer diabetes programs in the smaller health centres and in the isolated communities? Mahsi.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for the question. What I can say is that community health nurses, nurse practitioners, and family physicians all provide diabetes care, and it is available in every community in the Northwest Territories. There is also specialized support that is available at Stanton from internal medicine specialists who are located here in Yellowknife.

It is very important to us as a department that we ensure that all primary care providers, so that would be community health nurses, nurse practitioners and so on, have strong core skills to provide appropriate care to diabetics. Obviously, this is a major disease in our territory and very debilitating. We want to make sure that people have access to excellent care wherever they live.

There is a clinic that takes in people who are newly diagnosed with diabetes to try and help them understand their condition and how to manage it. This is located in Edmonton, and it is an Indigenous program. It presents a culturally safe situation but, of course, enrolment is down because people don't want to go to Edmonton during COVID. There is a delay in sending people down to the special clinic for those who are newly diagnosed, but that doesn't take away from the fact that care is available to them in every community here. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that. Mr. Speaker, my own experience at my local health centre goes like this: I go in for bloodwork and wait eons. I then make an appointment to see another nurse. This is a totally different nurse. She states that there is no record of any blood being taken, so she takes more blood. I don't hear or have any follow-up notice, so I go in again to see a different nurse. This is a third different nurse in our health centre. She states there is no record of any blood drawn nor anything sent out. At this point, I am just about ready to faint.

I don't believe they take people with diabetes seriously, and this is a serious detriment to providing the best healthcare that the department can provide. In all seriousness, can the Minister have her department follow up with the health centres to determine what process is being implemented once bloodwork has been drawn as these samples have to be sent out for analysis?

The process is this: the blood is drawn in the community the person is in, and it is then sent to Stanton lab for processing. The reports are then sent back to the community through electronic medical records, and electronic medical records has instituted a set of rules which provide the nurse in charge or the primary caregiver in the community with a flag that says the lab results are back and that they are out of range and that attention needs to be paid with a follow-up appointment. It shouldn't matter who the nurse actually is in the given situation.

The information is entered into the electronic medical records, and then, as I say, there is this flag that appears that says they need to follow up with the person whose blood was taken. Then, of course, if the values were out of range, they would book a follow-up appointment and make sure that they are in contact with the patient to help him or her manage their condition. At the moment, I feel that we are in a situation where, even though staff changes in small community health centres, we, in fact, have a system that will carry diabetics through.