Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in some of these documents, such as the adjuster's confidential reports and the mitigation assessment reports, they contradict each other. You'll have one report that'll tell you this is what it costs. As an example, somebody was provided with $50,000 for remediation through the adjuster's confidential report. Through the mitigation assessment report, it says the building is non-repairable and it cannot be lifted or raised up. So what we need is somebody in the community to actually, you know, take a look at those reports and those contradictions and figure out if we have to do a reassessment with either report.

So, Mr. Speaker, I think it's important that MACA realizes that it's very important to have somebody on the ground come this spring. Not just the Pathfinders. We need somebody there that can actually make decisions. And, you know, right now, you know the person I think -- people that do it are in Yellowknife, but we need somebody on the ground in Hay River.

So, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister, prior to this summer construction season, commit his staff to holding a public meeting in Hay River to update and discuss remediation efforts and MACA processes with residents? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I got 25 minutes and I can talk for 25 minutes. No. The answer is yes, we will early in March. And I have to again thank the Members from Hay River South, Hay River North, and Deh Cho, for reaching out and doing a good job for their constituents. So we will be getting there in early March. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank the Aboriginal Sports Circle for this weekend and doing the traditional Dene games here in the City of Yellowknife and seeing all our youth coming from the outlying communities.

Mr. Speaker, that being said, the support of Indigenous sporting events and stuff like that, the funding, the monies where it comes from, would the Minister in spirit of the TRC Call to Action, 90(1), what kind of negotiation is the GNWT involved in with the federal government to secure federal funding for sports for youth in the Beaufort Delta and Nunakput and all that riding? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister responsible for MACA.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the NWT there are no programs that we fund that are exclusively for ancestry. In other words, we don't recognize Inuit. We recognize all residents. When we provide funding through that, the pots, we work for all residents of the Northwest Territories. However, Municipal and Community Affairs has during engagement with the SPAR framework which will govern how MACA invests lottery dollars in the NWT. MACA will seek feedback on the type of specific action stakeholders want to do so that will be one of the opportunities to look at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we have to go a little bit -- sorry, do a little bit better than that. I think what the Minister has to do is talk to the federal Minister and hold TRC and that claim accountable for the funding that they're doing for Aboriginal students. Not only Aboriginal students - everybody who lives up in the Delta. I mean, right from the Beaufort Delta in Nunakput, the cost of travel, everything that comes into play with that, Mr. Speaker. Something has to be done. We're not getting -- the youth are not getting out travelling. They need help. We have to help them. Where's the money? Would the Minister back it up in regards to talking to the federal government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's a good segue to actually I'm going to be meeting with the federal Minister this weekend. I'll bring it up with her there. But right now what our department has been doing, through the lottery dollars and through the BDSRA, we do provide funding for the youth, an opportunity to participate in that there. Again, it's with the organization. I know there's a group that's doing a hockey tournament, sort of kind of interchanging between communities up in the Beaufort Delta and they're organizing that right now. So that money is -- some of that's happening there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, how much money does MACA allocate for the youth of Nunakput and the Beaufort Delta on a yearly basis? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, $250,756. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's not good enough. Prices, especially if our carbon tax goes up, at least need a million dollars for the Beaufort Delta and Nunakput communities to provide service to the youth in our traditional -- like I always said before, the tournaments that would happen in Aklavik, Inuvik, and Tuk and, you know, bringing the communities from Sachs and Paulatuk. Would the Minister go forward and meet -- when he meets with the federal Minister this weekend and ask her, increase and ask to take action in regards to the TRC. Take action, give us a million dollars for the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that amount of money that I talked to you about, it was a quarter million, there's also programs out there through contribution agreements that the communities are able to access that there. But as the Member said, I can have those conversations with the federal Minister to see what funding help the federal government is available to give to our jurisdictions. The biggest challenge is when we talk to the federal government, it's about Canada as a whole, how the NGOs work. And when we talk about some of the challenges that we face, that's where we have to work with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I had said that I'll be asking the Minister for clear and decisive action on the overdue improvements to the healthcare system here in the Northwest Territories. We are year three and a half into our mandate here already, and my question would be to the Minister. Earlier today I mentioned a series of healthcare recommendations issued by the Canadian Medical Association in August of last year. What action has the Minister of Health and Social Services taken in response to these recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I haven't seen those recommendations so I can't comment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure, you know, you'd just have to look online. I'm sure you'd be able to find that.

Moving forward, though, Mr. Speaker, last week in Ottawa Trudeau announced a pitch to probably about $196.1 billion over ten years to all the provinces and territories, additional $46.2 billion for the provinces and territories as well. So outside the CMA recommendation, what action or strategies to date have been taken and employed by the Minister's department to tackle the ongoing healthcare crisis here in the Northwest Territories? And if she could maybe just elaborate a little bit more about the money that's coming from Ottawa and maybe if you could help break that down and how can that help the healthcare system moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the federal government has offered a package of different kinds of money, CHT, CHT top up, escalator, tailored bilaterals, and so on. I'm not at liberty to discuss the details at this point.

I can say, however, that the federal government is focused on supporting territories and provinces in four specific areas. They are data, primary care reform, mental health and substance abuse, and aging with dignity as well as health human resources. As the Member, I am sure is aware, we introduced a health human resources plan in June of last year which was with medium- and long-term aims to increase our resident workforce, and we followed that up in August with some short-term incentives; that is, incentives that would work in the short-term to bring more staff to us. In May, we completed our data strategy. This is what we are reporting on and to whom. And the Member can find the results of our reports on the Canadian Institute of Health Information website. They follow metrics for every province and territory and compare them to national averages. Mental health and substance use is a priority area for us. These are all priority areas. And we continue to invest in helping people regain their health by both services available in the territory and those that are available in the south.

In terms of primary healthcare, which is an effort to create teams to help patients rather than everybody being attached to a single healthcare provider, which is proving difficult to sustain, we have used federal money to create a primary healthcare pilot program which has not been used in the Member's home community of Fort Resolution but, which nonetheless, exists and which we are working on expanding because it has been very successful.

So those are some of the things that we're working on, and we feel that we are aligned with those federal priorities that were outlined in their plan last week and we look forward to developing action plans which will then release the money to us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister, for your answer. And I appreciate that. It seems that it's clear that many of the issues in the healthcare system are systematic in nature.

Will the Minister commit to a full operation review of the healthcare services in the Northwest Territories so that the findings of such review can inform necessary reforms and prepare the next Assembly to get ahead of this problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, both the department of health and the NTHSSA are part of the government renewal initiative. Phase 1 was to do an inventory of programs. Phase 2 is to look at how those programs are funded. So we're participating in that process and look forward to working with the results. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final short supplementary. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. Just part of the review that you probably are going to look at, can we also take a look at the medical travel review policy that's outdated and inflexible to improve the access to healthcare for those residing in small communities here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.