This is page numbers 2299 - 2340 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 indigenous.

Topics

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

There are a couple of questions there, Mr. Speaker. I want to address the second one first, about people having sanctions for displaying racial bias in their hiring. There should not be racial bias in hiring. There should not be racism in hiring, and if that is happening, I want it brought forward. There are meant to be teams who work together. Human resources is involved precisely to ensure that the process is fair and that the policy of affirmative action is applied fairly and appropriately.

With respect to the first question, whether or not there will be some changes or a fairness review, again, Mr. Speaker, I made a previous commitment this session that the direct-appointment process is one that needs some information and some information-sharing, and I would like to bring that to committee. The direct appointments process right now has very specific rules, very specific targets of what is allowed and not allowed and right now actually achieves a higher percentage of affirmative action candidates than the usual hiring processes. All that said, though, to the extent that a fairness review should be part of it, that is still between the Affirmative Action Policy review that we are doing and the recruitment framework that we are doing. That is something that can be included in either one of those.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the ways that I get my opinions into those types of policies, reviews, et cetera, is to bring them up here in the House. This one is a little bit more on the philosophical plane, but we often hear that increasing the population of the Northwest Territories is a great way for us to increase our revenues by upping the number of transfer payments that we get from the federal government. However, our priority is to increase our local employment and hiring and keeping with northern businesses, et cetera. My question is: does the Minister find that these two goals are somewhat contradictory to each other, and if so, how do you plan to address that in your upcoming affirmative action and other policy reviews? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

I think that is exactly the kind of question that should be debated in the House, and I am pleased to have it brought to the floor and, frankly, pleased to have it come back, if necessary, for reconsideration or further discussion or debate. I don't think that they are necessarily in conflict with one another. I don't think they should be in opposition to one another. As a government, we want to do everything we can to ensure that Northerners have the skills, the training, the education, the underlying health, the housing, all of the parameters that are going to allow them to apply for any and every job in the public service. At the same time, I am well aware that, in this moment, we bring teachers, doctors, nurses, and various other professionals and individuals to the North to fill the positions that we are still not filling from amongst northern graduates.

I don't think they are mutually exclusive. If we're doing things right, we are creating a public service that is inclusive; we are creating communities that are inclusive; and we are building an economy that can grow so that everybody can be welcomed, so that every one of our graduates has a great job to go to, and so that people can continue to move to the North and stay here as residents, and not just come up as visitors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I am wondering if the Minister will commit to removing the community residency requirement that is currently used by local housing authorities and local housing organization in communities across the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hear the Member's comments about the residency requirement, but it does provide consistency for the Northwest Territories as to how we allocate units. We have a significant wait list, I do hear the Member on that. Looking at the tenants in the smaller communities, whether they are going off to school, fleeing a domestic situation, and they are wanting to return back to the communities, the Housing Corporation will work with those clients and there are specific forms and paperwork that they would have to complete and fill out just to maintain their housing unit in the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

I had the luxury of listening to one of my colleagues, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, earlier today, and he had a quote that actually works quite well in this moment in time: "This policy is actively contributing to the social and economic disparities of Northerners, and the harm currently outweighs the good." I appreciate the Minister's desire for consistency. I believe that this policy has run its course, and it's time to get rid of it. I am asking the Minister, in the interest of creating safe spaces for Northerners and ensuring that all Northerners have access to housing and returning to their home communities, if the Minister will please remove the community residency requirement currently used by local housing authorities and local housing organizations.

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

No, I will not commit to that. I will not remove the residency requirements for local housing authorities. We have to maintain and make sure that, if we have a housing list in one of our smaller communities and we have new residents coming into the smaller communities and they are able to get on the housing list while we have a housing list that has already existed, the Housing Corporation has to maintain consistency and maintain how we allocate the units at the local level. I do want to keep in mind that I do know that we have a wait list of 900. We need to get houses on the ground, and with that, we're looking at partnerships at the local community level. With that, the Housing Corporation has made a significant impact throughout the territory, and we are working toward putting houses on the ground; slowly, but it's coming along.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

One of the things that the Minister referred to was making sure that she maintains fairness within the housing lists. The housing lists that are created are created on a first come, first served basis, and then people are prioritized within those lists based on their needs. I feel that, if it's based on need and it's based on first come, first served, you are still maintaining the integrity of the process, but what you're allowing people to do is to access education. You're allowing them to access healthcare. Maybe somebody has a child, and they need to come to Yellowknife in order to access inclusive schooling opportunities that aren't available in their home community. Potentially, somebody could be moving to Yellowknife in order to access Aurora College, or they could be moving to Inuvik for that same reason.

When we're going out to communities and we're talking to our constituents and we're wanting people to take advantage of different opportunities and to bring those opportunities back to their home communities, we also have to make sure that they have the housing available to do that. What I am asking the Minister is: how does she intend to get around this policy so that people can access different opportunities and bring them back to their home communities?

Paulie Chinna

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

As an Indigenous woman who comes from a smaller community and has relocated outside of my home community and tried to look for career opportunities in order to become successful on my own and represent my people at this level, it had taken me to move out of my community. Returning back and looking at the housing wait list and looking at if I were to relocate, the Housing Corporation is not the only housing solution that is available at the community level. Right now, the Housing Corporation is working toward looking at our Co-investment Fund applications and encouraging Indigenous groups to come forward. Not only that; I do hear the Member talking about the domestic violence and the tenants who are wanting to pursue educational opportunities. The Housing Corporation has developed I want to say a formula, almost, an application process that, should the applicant be wanting to exit the community for a number of months, there is an opportunity for them to return and the house will be available for them upon their return.

The other thing is that I don't want to discourage local individuals from leaving their community to pursue other goals and other education opportunities and other positions and looking at that. I will be bringing this back to my department, but then, I'm not going to be removing the residency requirement.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just listening to my colleague from Nunakput, I know that has been an issue that I have raised in the past on NIHB and dental services in the communities, and I know that NIHB pays 100 percent for people with a T and who are First Nation status, all the travel costs for dental, just from my past career. However, I do know that they have really stringent travel criteria for travelling for medical emergencies. That's one of the problems. Another problem is that, when they access emergency dental care, they don't have it, so they go to the health centre. They go there usually after hours or during regular appointments, and the staff don't always realize what the process is because, as a health practitioner in a health centre, it's a non-insured health benefit. It's not an insured service, so sometimes, they turn them away or tell them to call the Inuvik dental clinic, for my region. That's what usually ends up happening, and then it ends with that. Then we get the call.

My first question is: will the Minister have her department or her working group that she had mentioned reach out with NIHB to come up with a plan to allow for a quick and easy process to access out-of-community dental services, as needed, and possibly lightening up some of those restrictions, knowing that we haven't had dentists in over a year? They have bad teeth in the communities, and a lot of them are on wait lists for oral surgery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member mentioned, this is an NIHB service and the travel requirements are their travel requirements. I do not have an opportunity to address those requirements. Thank you.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

I just want to advise the Minister that the NIHB, actually, we have a department in Inuvik in the office, an NIHB office, that gives money to pay for travel for the travelling dentists, so we are kind of involved with this. I think that having that discussion at that table, again, I will ask the Minister to commit to having a discussion with that NIHB office about the travel restrictions and the criteria so we can access dental services for the people in the communities that don't have it.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

I can have that conversation.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you to the Minister. Will the Minister also have a discussion with the department in the emergency, because I know the last time the previous health Minister had made the commitment and said that there are instructions on how to access emergency dental service in the health centres, and just make sure that I can get commitment that there is this information in the health centres and the staff are aware of it?

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

I do not have that information at hand, but I can find it.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The problem with sterilization equipment at Stanton hospital began in July 2020 and took almost six months to resolve. I do want to acknowledge that the new Minister certainly updated the public and myself more regularly when she took over the portfolio and did contact residents who were waiting, but I still have a basic question. What was the cause of the problem with the sterilization equipment, and has it been permanently fixed? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Stanton sterilization issue is actually two issues. The first is wet packs, and the other is mineral staining. I am going to talk about each one. Wet packs: once ideal humidity levels were achieved and sustained, the wet pack issue was resolved at Stanton, and that happened in the fall of 2020. As the Member said in his statement, the importance of this is that, if the instruments are not dry, they can attract bacteria, which would then lead to infection. This issue has been resolved.

Mineral staining is another issue, and it continues. The root cause is not yet fully determined, but sterilization and water experts who have looked at the situation believe that the staining is caused by mineralization in the water, specifically copper and iron. There have been very many investigations into this and how this water supply system can be adjusted so that the water no longer stains the fabric that the instruments are wrapped in when they are sterilized. There has been some improvement, and now the fabric has light-coloured stains, which are thought to be not an issue because the instruments themselves are not stained. What is really important to know is that we have a very rigorous quality-control process to do the sterilization of instruments that are used in surgery to confirm that they are, in fact, sterile and that people are not being infected by the instruments that are used in their operations. Thank you.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course, during the problems over the last six months, patients were often left in pain, and really, many surgeries were delayed. I just want to get some reassurance from the Minister whether there is still a backlog of surgeries and whether that has been cleared up.