Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to commend the department on their work to date working with ECE to get the hunter ed program in the schools. I know we're piloting it in nine schools. I also know there's been some work through Bush Kids and other initiatives to have kind of traditional knowledge in schools. But I would really like to have the Minister work with his ECE colleague to get hide camps into schools. Is this something the Minister could look into doing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, educational bodies and schools have programs in place to bring in cultural programs to the schools. ECE has some funding for cultural programs and often gets funding from other departments, organizations to supplement school or community-based initiatives. ENR and ECE recently launched the hunters education as a high school credit program, as the Member talked about and I said in my Minister statement here today. The implementation of this pilot project can inform the development of other future harvesting programs.

ENR has also provided funding to schools throughout the NWT to take a kid trapping what -- which supports other land skills -- based skills. ENR will continue to partner and support external organizations such as schools, Indigenous governments, and Indigenous organizations to develop, deliver land-based learning opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the department has provided support through a variety of funding mechanisms for hide camps. In the past, I know they've supported the Dene Najho Urban Hide Camp which happens right in Somba K'e Park here in Yellowknife.

I'm just hoping the Minister can give me a total of how much money we have provided to support this area and exactly where one can apply, where the funding comes from? Thank you.

Thank you. In my Minister's statement today, I talked about the land -- On the Land Collaborative. The collaborative supported eight specific hide tanning programs since 2006 for a total of approximately $195,000. ENR Takes a Family on the Land program can support tanning given its focus on mentorship. The next applications call for this program is expected to open April 2022.

Through ECE, the arts -- NWT Arts Council has funded individual handing time -- individual hide tidy -- or tanning projects and provides support to organizations such as the Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith. All our application programs are advertised, and interested organizations are encouraged to contact on the land units for more information. And if they have challenges with that, reach out to our regional offices. Our regional office staff are more than willing to help them with this sort of thing as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister may have answered my question there but I'll tell you 200 grand for those eight camps was a great deal, and I know many people are running these not necessarily with government support, that they're community-driven initiatives. But I've talked to some of the organizers and they'd really like to, you know, take these to another level, perhaps fly in elders, fly in people to help support, you know, turn them into bit of kind of an educational aspect as well. And I just would ask the Minister that perhaps the department, you know, with this fund, reach out to people who run these camps and get the word out there that anyone who wants to run a hide tanning camp, the GNWT is willing to support them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I think here we're telling people that we're interested; please reach out to us. We don't know all of the time what camps are out there and that, so we encourage them to reach out to not just, like I said, the on land unit but our regional office. We're more than willing to work with them, work with the schools to do this. So the Member is right; this is very much about, you know, being able to pass on traditional knowledge, and that's what we're all about, is trying to be able to do this. So if the Member is aware of certain things, please have him get them to reach out to our regional offices and we'll work together with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for raising this issue. The staffing shortages that we see across the NWT are particularly acute in the Tlicho region and Behchoko in particular.

There are vacancies for the manager of health services, the nurse-in-charge, two nurse practitioners, two public health nurses, five community health nurses, one clinical nurse educator, eight community social workers, two child and youth care counsellors, one child and youth care supervisor, two individual and family counsellors, and one trauma counsellor. In other words, I don't know who's working in Behchoko but you have a very large vacancy rate there.

We advertise these jobs on a territory-wide basis. And we, as you know, preferentially hire P1s who have been -- who are Indigenous to the NWT. We also preferentially hire people who come out of the Indigenous Gateway Training program. So we put out the job competitions generally and hire Indigenous people preferentially. The caveat there is that they need to apply and to have the relevant experience. These, in some cases, are specialized positions which require specific training. Thank you.

Will the Minister and leadership team commit to visiting Tlicho region to discuss how to create more culture and community-based solution for addiction, substance abuse, and mental health? Thank you.

Yes, thank you. The delivery of health and social services in the Tlicho region, as the Member knows, is handled by the Tlicho Community Services Agency. I have met with them once while in this role. Certainly interested in meeting with them again to discuss any of the issues that they are particularly concerned with. The TCSA is also part of the leadership council for the NTHSSA, and so I do see the chair, Ted Blondin, at those meetings, which I attend about once every three months. Thank you.

Thank you. Will the Minister commit to identifying where the Tlicho government can take authority over mental health program? Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I'm sure the Member appreciates that we want the initiative to come from the Tlicho government, and so we are interested in seeing any proposals they have that would expand their service delivery, would make it more culturally appropriate to their region, more specific to their region. We have the specific funds that the Tlicho government applies for, such as on-the-land healing. But we're interested in seeing proposals for other services that we provide that the Tlicho government would like to provide instead. Thank you.

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

Thank you. Will the Minister commit to transferring the child and youth care counsellor program responsibilities to Tlicho government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the recent bilateral with the Tlicho government, I indicated that we were interested in discussing this possibility. We would like to see a proposal so that we understand what it is that the TCSA would like to do with those positions. And of course that would include a discussion with ECE since the CYCC program is a joint initiative of our two departments. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I'd like to continue the conversation started earlier this week in regards to child and youth mental wellness.

The Health and Social Services has a child and youth mental wellness plan in which objective 3 states: Provide training for all NWT school principals, program support teachers, junior kindergarten to 12 educators, and classroom support assistants in trauma-informed and culturally respectful practices. I'm wondering if this training has been developed. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible Education, Culture, and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, in response to the child and youth mental wellness action plan, such training has been developed, both trauma-informed classroom training and culturally sensitive classroom training. It is not mandatory for all NWT educators, but it is available upon request and it's free to education bodies, and there has been significant uptake on those programs. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister can define "significant uptake" and if the Minister is willing to work with school boards to mandate this training for educators who work in the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, I don't have the numbers in front of me, and it's not -- it's not as easy as just mandating training for educators. As I think we've learned over this Assembly, there's a strong separation of authorities between education bodies and the department. That being said, we always encourage training; we provide extensive training; we work with the NWTTA to ensure that their members are aware that the training is available. And as we go forward in modernizing the Education Act, this is definitely an area where we want to look at to ensure that all teachers receive the appropriate training. Thank you.