Clause 16, does committee agree?

Clause 17, does committee agree?

Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Day Care Act, is now ready for third reading?

Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that this concludes consideration of Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Day Care Act?

Thank you, Minister, and thank you to the witnesses. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.

We will now consider Tabled Document 694-19(2), Northwest Territories Coroner Service 2021-2022 Early Release of Suicide Data. I will now open the floor for comments. MLA for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, after the coroner's report was publicly released in September and then was tabled here in the House, committee wanted to immediately move it into Committee of the Whole to have the opportunity to discuss it at a later date if needed because committee wanted to be able to give attention to this very, very serious concern. The coroner themselves were quoted in local media as releasing this report for the purpose of drawing attention to it and to the increase in suicide in the Northwest Territories so that the government would have the opportunity to make immediate action. And the Standing Committee on Social Development wanted the opportunity to advocate for that same action to the Government of the Northwest Territories. So that was the purpose of moving this into Committee of the Whole. Since then in -- at the earliest possible time, in the fall sitting, the Standing Committee on Social Development tabled a suicide prevention motion. The response to that motion was received into the House during this sitting, and then this week the Standing Committee on Social Development continued that conversation by tabling a suicide prevention report, which we will also have the opportunity to speak to in Committee of the Whole this week as well.

What I wanted to point out here, Madam Chair, is that the coroner's report has some information that committee -- or sorry, the coroner's report could have some information that committee feels would be helpful in further and future reporting of suicide in the territories so that the GNWT can be a lot more targeted and strategic in suicide prevention going forward.

The coroner's report currently doesn't have any information on race or ethnicity or on regional distinction of suicide either. The information that committee has on who is being harmed by suicide in the territory was just from who we know in the territory as MLAs because the territory is a very small territory and we are all connected at the end of the day.

And so I'll leave this at that, and we'll have the opportunity as committee to further discuss the work of committee when we discuss the suicide prevention report that committee tabled. But I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the coroner for publishing their interim report and for pointing out and raising the alarm bells as far as suicide in the territory.

I think it's worth pointing out and giving credit to the coroner where credit is due, that until this interim report from the coroner was released, it was never validated that there was a mental health crisis in the Northwest Territories. And following the release of the coroner's report, the government validated what it had been hearing from members of the public, that there was a mental health -- there was and is a mental health crisis in the Northwest Territories. So thank you to the coroner for that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are there any further comments? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And to follow up further on what my colleague said I also do want to thank the coroner for raising this alarm. However, it speaks volumes to me that it took getting this report out early for the government to pay any attention to the fact that we were in a mental health crisis and continue to be so and had been for quite a while I think before the end of 2022.

We wrote to the Minister, we had made people aware, we raised the issue at early as 2020 that there were increasing numbers of people that were having suicidal ideation, that people who had not previously shown to have mental health issues were now identifying themselves as needing help and finding very much that the help was lacking. To me, there's nothing more appalling and shameful as a government that when somebody is asking for help, whether it be in our addictions and our suicide rates, in anything, that they don't get the help that they need. And I can't tell you the number of stories that I hear of people showing up at the hospital under some sort of emergency situation from a mental health perspective and being turned away. In fact, the government has flown people to Yellowknife to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and then just release them with nothing and sent them back home to their home community. To me, again, very appalling. I think that this government and the lack of response from the Department of Health and Social Services to the increasing alarms of the mental health problems as early as 2020, that a lot of this is on them and that they are responsible for what has happened here. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you. Any further comments? Committee, do you agree that you've concluded consideration of Tabled Document 694-19(2), Northwest Territories Coroner Service 2021-2022 Early Release of Suicide Data?

Thank you, committee. Committee, we've agreed to consider Committee Report 50-19(2), Strengthening Community Supports, Lifting Youth Voices: Recommendations on Suicide Prevention. I will go to the chair of Standing Committee on Social Development for any opening comments. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the committee's report was read into the record on March 27, 2023. In October 2022, the Office of the Chief Coroner released the 2021-2022 early release of suicide data to raise alarms on the upsurge of deaths to suicide in the Northwest Territories. According to the Office of the Chief Coroner, the majority of those impacted were males between the age of 20 and 29 in the Beaufort Delta and North Slave regions of the NWT.

In response to the loss of life among youth to suicide, the committee prioritized speaking to youth on the topic of suicide prevention efforts and advocating for accessible resources and supports.
I would like to thank the youth who shared recommendations and also their lived experiences courageously with the committee. From you, we learn and we take your lead.

In this report, Members will see that youth were clear in their responses. Youth know what they want. It is up to this Assembly to hold the government to account to provide what youth need for suicide prevention strategies.

The recommendations in this report are in direct response to what committee heard from the youth of the Northwest Territories. Madam Chair, youth need action taken now, not tomorrow, and not in 120 days.

Madam Chair, I'd also like to thank committee. Committee members all live in the Northwest Territories, and every single one of us are either directly or indirectly impacted by suicide in the Northwest Territories. And this was incredibly heavy work that committee waded into. But committee also made commitments to the people that they serve to step in to heavy work without delay on behalf of the residents of the Northwest Territories. So with that, I would also like to thank staff.

We have Indigenous staff who work with us at the Legislative Assembly as well who agree up in small communities outside of Yellowknife, in some cases know some of the people that we were speaking to when we were speaking to people who lost their life to suicide last year. And so this was very heavy and very difficult work that the staff followed us into wholeheartedly and participated in. So I also want to thank staff who partook in this. So thank you. Thank you, both.

Madam Chair, individual committee members might have comments at this time. Thank you.

Thank you. Now I'll open the floor to general comments on Committee Report 50-19(2). Do any Members have general comments? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I too just wanted to thank -- to take a moment to specifically thank or staff and anybody that did contribute to this report and the work that we've done. It was very weighty work and very heavy work at times and not only I think for us listening but for people who have to actually come in and share trauma. And it's known that people having to relive and over and over telling their stories that that in itself at times can be very traumatizing. So I do really want to thank the staff particularly because I think there was a real -- sorry, I'm a bit out of breath, Madam Chair. A little bit -- there was a real insight and wisdom I thought that was provided to us that -- to help us do this job in a much better and respectful manner. And I don't know that I would have had the insight or some of the thoughts necessarily to have carried it out in the manner that was suggested to us. And I just can't say thank you enough for that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are there any further general comments? Seeing no further comments. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services provide financial and human resources support to youth-led non-governmental organizations to host a territorial youth conference on mental health and wellness before the end of the 19th Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, why this motion is important, not only just for the obvious reasons that it's great and we need to have our youth gathering and allow them to have these opportunities, but the reason that we specifically need to highlight this is that a lot of the funding that is provided in the suicide prevention or for youth is limited in the amount of funding that each project or event could apply for. And I believe that's a $45,000 cap. But when we look at some of the recent events that were put on by youth in the territory, some of those were up into the lines of about $100,000, and particularly if we want to bring in youth from other communities, have them liaise with youth in the sister territories of Nunavut and Yukon. So to me, this was very important to not only ensure that there's the financial supports for it but also the human resource supports, but also I think it's really important that it will show youth that our government actually cares. Thank you, Madam Chair.