(audio).

The MLA for Frame Lake.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I love Private Member's bills. I'm 50/50. I appreciate the comments from the Minister but sometimes if we don't have deadlines, things just don't get done. And I'm just going to leave it at that. I support the bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, MLA for Frame Lake. MLA for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to thank Caitlin Cleveland for putting this Private Member's bill forward. And I agree with my colleagues, the issue of dental hygienists in the communities are needed. And I come from small communities and, you know, it's welcome. This should have been done a long time ago. And, and -- so, Mr. Chairman, I just want to say that I will be supporting this bill. Thank you.

Mahsi, MLA for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Are there any other general comments? Seeing none.

Is the committee agreed that there are no further general comments?

Can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?

Committee, we will defer the bill number and the title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 3 of the bill.

Clause 1, does committee agree? Minister of Health and Social Services. Pardon?

My apologies, committee. Does the sponsor wish to bring in witnesses?

Yes.

Mahsi. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses into the House.

MLA for Kam Lake, please introduce your witness.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right is Ms. Christina Duffy, legislative drafter.

Mahsi. Committee, we will defer the bill number and the title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 3 of the bill.

Clause 1, does the committee agree? Member for YK North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question for the witness. Clause 1 is the one that requires this Act to be effective December 1st, 2025. I heard a lot of talk about, you know, the importance of dental work, and the Minister agreed there's work to be done with Indigenous Service Canada. No one's disputing that. Can I just get the Member to speak a bit more how we landed on December 1st, 2025. The conversations she had with committee in accepting the committee's motion to amend this and then any conversations she had with the department about this date. I'm just kind of wanting to get a sense of who all agrees that December 1st, 2025, is the date that this needs to be done by. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, MLA YK North. MLA Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the original date was a lot more ambitious in the original bill that I had proposed and -- proposed to committee and originally tabled. I can only speak to my experience with committee. My experience with committee was -- when I met with committee during clause by clause, they had proposed to me a new date that was more realistic, and I agreed to work with committee and concurred with the dates. As far as committee's discussions with the department, that would have to come from the deputy chair. Thank you.

Mahsi. MLA for YK North.

Yeah, thank you. This somewhat gets to the very confusing nature of Private Member's bills where, you know, it's your bill but the committee has it but it's actually above the department.

Can the Member just inform me whether she had any discussions with the department or the Minister about this date? Thank you.

Mahsi. MLA Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Yes, I have had numerous conversations. I will say that the Minister was very open to having conversations throughout the life of her tenure as health Minister with both myself and the MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes. It has been reiterated to both of us that this is an ambitious timeline, especially given the legislative backlog and the legislative agenda of the Department of Health and Social Services. That said, I do believe that this work is very important work. And some of the things that we've seen in other departments within the -- or sorry, within the Government of the Northwest Territories is where they've actually contracted out some of their legislative work.

In previous correspondence I've with the Department of Justice on previous contracts, of course all contracts are different, but, you know, sometimes this -- this is roughly a $50,000 contract that is tenured, and they're able to get their product at the end of the day. And when I look at, you know, potentially waiting much longer than the timelines outlined in this bill, I have to weigh the -- at the end of the day, the cost, and my concern for the access to oral health care for residents outweighs my willingness to push the deadline back any farther. Thank you.

Mahsi. MLA YK North.

No further questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. MLA for Great Slave.