This is page numbers 3837 - 3896 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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work to implement the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework has already begun. That work was underway, as the House might recall in the course of business plans, departments were already going through the motions of setting targets for themselves and that, of course, being tied now to the performance evaluations of senior management.

Mr. Speaker, I can say that in the last year, one important positive result that we do think has come from this renewed attention and the renewed efforts within human resources is that since its launch in 2018, the Indigenous Career Gateway Program was never fully utilized until now. It is now fully utilized, on top of which, Mr. Speaker, an additional 12 Indigenous people were hired through the processes that are established without there even being the additional funding. So it's not only oversubscribed; it's actually seeing even greater benefits. And Mr. Speaker, I do think that's because of the kind of attention that is being seen on this issue by this Assembly, by this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain how and when the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Program and Action Plan will be rolled out across our government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, this is a whole-of-government approach. The tools and the processes that are being employed exist across the government and to the availability of all departments. But at the same time, it's going to be also specific to each department owing to the fact that different departments have different jobs predominant in those departments. There's two different goals here. There's Indigenous representation in the workforce and then there's having Indigenous leadership. So to achieve both of those goals, each department is expected to have their own work plan that's being supported by the Department of Finance so that, again, so that all of the tools that we hear about sometimes are actually being marshalled to their use, including the Indigenous Career Gateway Program that I just mentioned that certainly has seen some success. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has previously mentioned that each department will have Indigenous employment plans along with specific Indigenous employment targets.

Can the Minister tell us how the Indigenous employment targets will be formulated and how those targets will be achieved? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Mr. Speaker, the steps that are taken is that each department is looking at all their different employment categories. So they analyze across one department what kinds of jobs or positions are there available, then they're looking at the number of Indigenous employees that they may already have employed within that department and within those individual positions, looking then at known upcoming vacancies or existing vacancies and then trying to determine if, in fact, there are people already within the public service or perhaps in the casual pool, in the intern pool, looking for opportunities to train up and trying to connect the Indigenous employees or potential employees that we know are there with those positions.

And Mr. Speaker, along the way, there's quite a few things that -- and I'm conscious of time, Mr. Speaker, but there's other things along the way that are being done.

There's exit interviews happening. There's work done with the Indigenous Employment Advisory Board, all with a view to figuring -- to matching up either, again, the opportunities that are there or the ones that are upcoming in a more thoughtful way, in a more targeted way, in a more meaningful way, with folks that we know are there and who can fill those positions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Frieda Martselos

Frieda Martselos Thebacha

Mr. Speaker, we know that affirmative action is a policy within the Government of the Northwest Territories; however, can the Minister tell us what she thinks about creating an Affirmative Action Act with the creation of a legislation regarding affirmative action strengthen the stated purpose of the affirmative action and produce better results for the Indigenous recruitment and retention in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is, Mr. Speaker, admittedly, the first time I've heard that proposed as a specific solution although what I will say is that within the course of reviewing the Affirmative Action Policy, which is work already underway, right now, really the point is to consider all options as to how to make that policy more effective.

As I say as well, Mr. Speaker, we are also, of course, undertaking a review of the Public Service Act, which is not only focused on the formal elements therein but focused also on diversity and inclusion and what we can do with the Public Service Act, which is the guiding legislation for the public service, to make that act also have diversity and inclusion as a focus.

So, you know, Mr. Speaker I don't know right this moment how those two reviews processes might shake down. Maybe there will be a whole another piece of legislation. But one way or another, I certainly am committed to looking at all the possible options and all the possible solutions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for MACA minister for sport and recreation.

I would like to see a campaign to increase awareness of sports available in the NWT and specifically for the Arctic Winter Games. Does the department have trained certified coaches on staff, and how many? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, communities have the coaches. They're the ones who get certified. We have a certified program called the NCCP, the National Coaching Certificate Program. So it's very much about the sport, technical, and the theory part. So they get trained that way. So staff may have it. Volunteers have it as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I'm trying to highlight that in the small communities there, we don't have a lot of the sports coaches or many people that play the sports themselves to be able to engage the youth in our communities. And I'm trying to get that so that we can get them some specific training from the department themselves. This is the department that works for the people, and we want them to go into the communities to provide much needed training.

I'm just wondering if the Minister could reach out to the communities, or his department, to determine the number of sports offered in the communities? Mahsi.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have regional staff. There is rec coordinators in the majority of the communities. We have volunteers that offer programs. Each community has different sports programs in their recreation programs. So for the details and try to get that information, I'm not going to ask the department to get out there and do that right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, that's kind of disheartening to hear from the Minister that works for the people of the Northwest Territories, especially for people, the residents of the small communities, because I come from a small community too, and I don't see that. I see we need help. Even if there's a rec coordinator, that person needs help. And I really, you know, would recommend that the Minister get his staff, his trained staff, out into the communities, every community, and to meet with the hamlet and the recreation staff and see how we can, you know, progress the sports in the small communities, especially the training that's probably required and the coaching required, the certification that's required, so that we can encourage the next batch of youth coming up. And especially the times when, you know, you're training for Arctic Winter Games. There's many sport in Arctic Winter Games and you need to make people aware of those things, those opportunities. It seems like we have to start from ground one, day one.

I used to be involved in recreation way back in the early days, before it was even a paid program, and we were advocating for a position, a paid position at that time. There was a few of us around that time. And here I am, back to square one putting that out there. And I really want the Minister to consider sport and recreation as a priority for the communities and his department to get out and help the communities. That's more or less a comment that I just make there, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Taken as a comment. Minister responsible for MACA.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess we should clear something up. The department, Sport North, Aboriginal Sports Circle, NWTRPA, Mackenzie Recreation Association, and the BDSRA, we all work with the communities. We have regional staff that go into the communities. The communities have the opportunity to meet with the sport and recreation, the Mackenzie rec meetings and the BDSRA meetings, so there's two different regions, one in the north, one in the south, have the opportunity to meet with the communities. The communities have that opportunity to bring forth their concerns, what they would like to do. There is programs out there through our youth ambassadors program -- or not youth ambassador, our youth tours. So we do have those things. We have those things right now. Communities just need to ask the departments or the Sport North or the Aboriginal Sport Circle if they can do it. We are able to do those things, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I was wondering if the Minister could provide this House an update on the current wait times for audiology services in the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question. I'm just going to provide a little bit of context to begin with.

I am personally aware of the isolation that occurs as a result of hearing loss and the importance of being able to have some kind of intervention that will reduce that.

We, as the GNWT, provide audiology services to all residents and we are unusual in Canada in publicly funding this benefit rather than having people -- asking people to have it covered through their insurance or out of their own pockets. So we have been challenged to maintain service levels in the NWT because the audiology profession is in high demand.

So with that preamble, we have two audiologists in the NWT at this time. There's one in the Beaufort Delta and there's one at Stanton Territorial Hospital. The wait time for adults is 19 months in the Beaufort Delta and 26 months in Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Now, having said that, we do have a triage system so that if someone experiences sudden hearing loss for no particular reason, they can be seen within a matter of days. Thank you.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for providing those figures. I think there is a recognition that we need to do more to get those numbers down.

I know there's -- I heard the Minister say there's one position in Yellowknife at Stanton and there's one in the Beaufort Delta. Can the Minister just speak to whether there is -- if there is vacancies presently or whether there is plans to add additional positions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are, in fact, two positions in Yellowknife and the position -- the second position in Yellowknife has been vacant since August of 2021. Recruiting has been going on for this position but unfortunately we have yet to find a successful candidate. Thank you.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And given those long wait times, I've heard from a number of constituents they are just simply going out-of-territory to get their tests and to get their services, and they find that a much more efficient system. I'm just wondering given this long wait time, are we able to reimburse people who get services out-of-territory? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. I understand why that would be, Mr. Speaker, an alternative however we do not provide reimbursement for people who go out-of-territory for assessments. They would need to do that at their own expense and with their own insurance plans, including NIHB. Thank you.