This is page numbers 2569 - 2602 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 community.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Our thoughts and prayers are with the community and family at this time. Mahsi. Members' statements. Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Mr. Speaker, nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system, and across Canada, we face a nursing shortage. The market is highly competitive to attract and retain nurses. We in the North have long struggled to fulfill all of our nursing positions. This last year has shown just how important our healthcare workers are. Our pandemic response was informed by our ability to manage the threat, and we took no chances, Mr. Speaker. However, we need to take that bold spirit to attracting and retaining our nurses.

I have had many exhausted nurses reach out to me over the course of this pandemic, offering solutions and looking for change. I believe we need to reintroduce service agreements, offering incentives to continue employment in the North. We rely on locums to a great extent in the North. However, at some point, when it is more attractive to be a southern resident nurse than it is to be a local one, many seize that opportunity and look for more flexible hours and higher pay.

Mr. Speaker, we need to offer better training opportunities for our nurses who want to stay. We need to build on the success of the Aurora College nursing program, one of our best programs that has led to many great local nurses. We need to then allow those nurses to further specialize in different fields. Many of those specialized positions are filled by locums presently, and increased training opportunities would work to solve both of those issues, Mr. Speaker. By doing this, our local nurses, particularly in remote communities, will stay longer. They will have a stronger connection to their communities, and the culture in our healthcare system will build to retain our nurses.

Presently, one of the biggest reasons our nurses leave is workplace culture and burnout. We need to offer more flexible working hours, increase part-time options for nurses, and allow nurses to come back from retirement should they wish. We can't make it a binary of forcing nurses to either burn out or leave. Mr. Speaker, I know this is a priority of this House, and the department knows it, too. We need to make that spirit that we applied to COVID-19 and focus on retaining the nurses that we have to make sure that our healthcare system capacity remains.

I believe that our situation is actually getting worse, Mr. Speaker. We risk a downward spiral where more nurses leave for other markets, making the current nurses work more overtime, causing more to leave. We need to commit to serious action to ending such a spiral. I will have questions for the Minister of Health. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.

Reconstruction of Behchoko Access Road
Members' Statements

Page 2572

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Summer is coming up. We know that the road between Rae Junction, that road hasn't been worked on for over 30 years. Last summer, they were working on it on contract. It has been over 30 years that the road hasn't been worked on, so I would like to talk about the road contract. [Translation ends]

Summer is just around the corner, so my statement today is about the reconstruction of Behchoko access road. Mr. Speaker, it has been well over 30 years since the construction of the road from Rae Junction to Rae. Just last summer, a three-year public works project to smooth out and strengthen the 10-kilometre road that gives Behchoko connections to the outside world was finally in progress.

The people of Behchoko were pleased to see the work started last spring and are eager for completion in 2023, but, Mr. Speaker, they are not pleased with the community's share of local jobs and business opportunities. Sadly, road projects seem to be an ongoing issue. Many road construction projects have promised local benefits and failed to deliver.

Mr. Speaker, have we delivered what we agreed upon last summer with the contractor? Summer 2021 is coming up, so I will have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure at the appropriate time. Masi.

Reconstruction of Behchoko Access Road
Members' Statements

Page 2572

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, 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. The Minister confirmed that new bed projections were based on 10 years of statistical information versus the five that went into the 2015 report. Can the Minister confirm what statistical evidence was considered in developing the NWT's long-term bed requirements? I have a difficult time believing that so much has changed in five years when our population has a minimal change overall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for Hay River South for that question. What has changed is a greater amount of data about actual use has allowed us to quantify the age and stage of the people who are entering long-term care facilities. We have actual information to rely on. In 2015, those were truly projections based on bed ratios for age. What we have now is actual versus projected. That is why those two numbers are different, what was required in 2015 and what was required in 2020. Thank you.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

The NWT has issues such as lack of housing, addictions, effects of residential schools, and others. Compared to the rest of Canada, these issues negatively impact delivery of extended care and homecare support due to our relatively small population. I would ask the Minister: what, if any, consideration was given to the uniqueness of northern health issues during the recent review process for determining long-term bed requirements for Hay River?

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

It is my understanding that, in doing that report, the Bureau of Statistics looked at issues such as the age of people going into long-term care; what their health status was going into long-term care; how much time they spent in long-term care; which community they were from and which community they want into long-term care in, which are sometimes different. They looked, certainly, at the comorbidities, as we say, more than one chronic disease, that drive people into the requirement for higher-level nursing care and thus into long-term care. I feel confident that the health of the population was a primary consideration in looking at the bed needs going forward.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

The reality is that many of our NGOs, families, and support networks are taxed to the breaking point, yet this government wants to try and squeeze a little more out of them. Can the Minister confirm if the department, during its reassessment of long-term bed requirements, talked to those community organizations currently supporting long-term and homecare clients, and to what extent was that conversation?

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

It is my understanding that the consultation on the new bed projections is about to begin next month with, in fact, a trip to Hay River to talk to people there about the findings and to verify those numbers on the ground. We have not done that in advance. The study that was done was done by the Bureau of Statistics. They are not using qualitative information; they are using quantitative information about the size of the population, the health of the population, where they live, and so on and so forth. That is not the kind of document that we would normally expect them to consult on. We just asked them to produce the numbers, and that is what they did.

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. I don't really like to say it, but it appears that the process and conclusions were conceived in Yellowknife by bureaucrats with no or limited input from stakeholders, which it sounds like happened. I am glad to hear, though, that the department will be going out.

I would ask the Minister: once the consultation takes place, we may see a change. We may see that maybe Hay River only needs 24 beds. We may see that Fort Smith only needs 12 beds. We may see that we need 36, 64, I don't know, versus the 48 initially proposed, but whatever the answer, the analysis has to be done right. It has to take into consideration what the community needs, and for Hay River, it would be surrounding communities, of which there are five of them. I would ask the Minister if she would at least commit her department to during the reassessment to really consider Hay River and the area that we do serve and the needs of the people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

I would like to just say a word about the catchment area for Hay River. Kakisa and Fort Providence are within the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority area, and so generally speaking, they are served out of Fort Simpson, which is the headquarters for that authority; Fort Resolution is within the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, so they are served from Yellowknife. The Hay River long-term-care bed projections are based on the Town of Hay River, K'atlodeeche First Nation, and Enterprise.

What we know about the occupation of the beds right now is that, at the extended care facility in Hay River, there are 23 people in there; 17 of them are over 70; there are two who are under 60; there are a number who have a diagnosis of dementia; we have got a number of people on the waiting list; there is a respite bed available, and that the work provided at Woodland Manor is equivalent to 35 full-time positions. We have a lot of information about what is going on now, and we have a rationale for what we are projecting to happen in the future. The task the department has and I have as the Minister is to verify these numbers and persuade the Member and residents of his community that these numbers are factual and verifiable and reliable and that these are the numbers we are going to go forward with. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Masi, Mr. Speaker. The Rae Access Road upgrade is now under way this last summer and this summer. The people of Behchoko are grateful for this long-awaited improvement on highway safety, but they are not happy with the token number of jobs and business opportunities that the project has created for the community. Mr. Speaker, the project is on Behchoko land and also uses public money, so I have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure. Could the Minister tell this House what the general policy is respecting local economic spin-offs from highway projects such as the Behchoko access road contract? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don't have a policy per se on some of these tendered contracts. However, specifically for the Rae Access Road, RTL Construction started the work and were expected to finish this fall, of 2021. About 60 percent of that work is completed. The peak season, we had about 28 people who are employed. Of that, 16 were Tlicho citizens, which, again, is 57 percent local involvement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

I am more focused on the targeted agreement between RTL and also Tli Cho Construction, Tlicho Government, so can the Minister of Infrastructure tell this House what the actual local employment and business targets are for the Behchoko access road project?

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Further to the infrastructure cooperation agreement between the GNWT and the Tlicho Government, an agreement has been reached where the Tlicho businesses will supply 25 percent of labour to complete the Rae Access Road construction project.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Since at least two summers, actually 2021, 2022, 2023, three summers, I am more interested in what the targets the Minister has alluded to and also the training apprentices components of local benefits agreement, so where is the training and apprenticeship component of the local benefits agreement within the contract itself?

Diane Archie

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

I don't have that level of detail with me in terms of pulling the actual agreement here as quickly as I can find it, so I may have to get back to the Member. I will get back to the Member in terms of more specifics on the contract.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Question 679-19(2): Road Construction Economic Benefits
Oral Questions

March 29th, 2021

Page 2573

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, the 25 percent target, that would have to be closely monitored. We have experienced in the past, whether it be with Stanton or other mega projects in the past, where it really has not been fulfilled, so I will be keeping an eye on that. Mr. Speaker, my last question is: what I would like to know is if the Minister's department has done enough to verify compliance with the local hiring targets and what enforcement measures they have taken when the targets are not met. Mr. Speaker, we still have a three-year summer project, so this is very important. I would like to know so we can get some answers on that. Masi, Mr. Speaker.