Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although the chief public health officer stated that the possibility of contracting HEP C, HEP B, and HIV is very low, to date have there been any confirmed cases within the Beaufort Delta? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the cohort of numbers are very low and they're specific to each -- like, the communities are so small, I am -- at this point, I'm not aware of how many of the residents that the Member is talking about have completed testing. And if there were any, you know, those are health -- private health medical records, and so that -- you know, I wouldn't be able to discuss those here freely on the floor of the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Informing the dental patients who may have been into one of these clinics, these specific dates is very crucial for their well-being and long-term health. What measures have been taken by the department or the health centres to ensure that all these patients have been notified and tested for these infections? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the chief public health officer -- you know, the reason why the alert came out was there is -- they were notified of this, and there is a current investigation ongoing right now, an investigation that -- you know, that it wouldn't be -- I would not be able to speak to in the House as it's ongoing. But the reason why the chief public health officer did go out and do an announcement publicly right away was to be able to put the information out there so people could -- they didn't -- you know, they wanted to ensure that -- not everybody is on social media, not everybody -- and because dental clinics are private businesses and NIHB does provide dollars for them to the GNWT, it's going to flow through to pay for the travel for them to go into the communities. They do all their own billing and scheduling, and so to be getting -- like, the list doesn't belong to the health and social services or the department of health or NTHSSA or the clinic. It belongs to the provider themselves. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This will be my final question. Will the department be looking at alternative locations to send dental patients in order to take the stress off the Yellowknife dentists and to better accommodate patients when they're travelling? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I did ask the NTHSSA to -- early when we -- you know, with the pressures that we were hearing of hotel rooms being full all the time, you know, that is impacting insured service patients that are flying down for doctors appointments because dental and everybody is flying into the capital, I did ask them to look at other options. That is currently being looked in right now. But clients who are NIHB can also work with NIHB directly if they can find appointments closer to home that's not here. And like I mentioned, in the Beaufort Delta a lot of our families travel to and from the Yukon. And those questions would be best directed to NIHB to see what they would be eligible if they were to drive and see a dentist and drive back, you know, so those -- those are out of the hands -- like, those are things that we don't -- we don't pay for. So -- but I have asked the department to see if there's a way that we could help and assist some work around. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. So while the government's strategies around early learning have focused in recent years on the establishment of junior kindergarten and child care programs, what has the department been doing to support literacy and language skills for children zero to five through supports to parents and families? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for their statement on the good work of the NWT Literacy Council.

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment really works closely and relies on the good work of NGOs and community organizations to do a lot of this work. And so approximately $900,000 in funding is provided to the NWT Literacy Council to support adult, youth, and family literacy initiatives, and a lot of these programs include capacity building and developing family centered community-based programs. In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, there's also the Community Learning Development Fund which is approximately $770,000, and this funding is directed at community organizations to promote and increase literacy skills as well. So those are two of our key components there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that. Does the government have any programs to help support parents on their own literacy skills so that they can feel more comfortable reading to their kids, supporting their kids' language development, and engaging with teachers in schools? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's the programs that I've mentioned that are funded through the literacy council. There's also work that's done through Aurora College on the adult literacy and basic education skills program, and ECE also funds the college to make sure that they're maintaining that curriculum. There's also indirect funding through other departments. For example, health has funded family cooking activities and such, and those have an indirect literacy involvement as well. People are coming together, they're reading recipes together. And so there are also indirect activities like that. And then many of the schools in the territory also work to host literacy events. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How does the department support early child care workers to ensure that they develop the skills necessary not just to look after kids but to support early brain development and language development? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is certainly a cornerstone of the new federal agreement that is really focusing on ensuring that we're offering, in the Northwest Territories, quality child care that involves best practices and also includes professional development for the people providing those programs so that they have that toolbox behind them. So right now, ECE has developed the fundamentals of early learning and child care workshops. These will be available online starting in 2025, and they include early brain development and language learning as well as the best practices for early childhood development. Thank you.

Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And finally, does the department see further opportunities to involve traditional knowledge experts and Indigenous language experts in developing and delivering these early language programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, absolutely. So, first of all, I think this is a good place to remind the House that the bulk of the dollars received from the federal government for Indigenous languages flow through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment right to Indigenous governments for language programming. ECE is also actively partnering with four education bodies across the territory to pilot the Indigenous languages instructor employment program. And the aim of this program is to recruit and develop Indigenous language instructors for the JK to 12 age group, and this is both for Indigenous second language but also Indigenous immersion programs. And there's also flexible funding that is afforded to all education bodies to be able to hire elders, traditional knowledge experts, as well as Indigenous language experts from communities, and to support early learning and child care programs. And then there's as well, Mr. Speaker, literacy funding from the literacy council that does support an increase in information sharing within Indigenous language communities as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on July 20th in 1900, the Treaty 8 was signed. And one of the things they mentioned in there was the spirit of intent to the treaty: As long as the sun shines, river flows, and grass grows. Treaty 8 talks about the medicine chest. It's also recognized in section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.

Mr. Speaker, the Dene Nation is calling for the health care task force that could be established to review the current health care administration system and Denedeh and develop strategies to ensure that there's more responses with the Dene people and their needs.

My question to the Minister of health is will the Minister agree to striking a task force comprised of leading health care practitioners and community members and elders, and can they be accomplished within the next year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have an amazing team called the cultural safety and antiracism unit. That unit is staffed with all Indigenous highly, highly intelligent group of individuals that are all Indigenous from the Northwest Territories, and they are guided by the Indigenous advisory body that are appointed to that by the Indigenous governments from the Northwest Territories, and they are the ones that, you know, tackle a lot of the work in our health care system on making sure that all of our policies, our programs. They do the anti -- cultural safety and antiracism training with all health care practitioners. So, you know, I would hate to take away any of that work, but I would look to work with the Member to see what this department is not, you know, doing maybe. Maybe they can do a presentation to the Dene Nation on all of the work that they're doing and hear from them themselves to see if there's anything that they may add to the work that they're doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. That was -- I really appreciate that. And it would be great if the health -- you, as a Minister, could work with the -- this work, working group, and also with the Dene Nation so that we all come on side and -- because it's an issue that was been brought up, and I've been hearing about it, so I just want to see if there's a way we could work together on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, you know, I -- as the Minister, you know, I have met with the unit. I have -- we have actually done a presentation to standing committee. You know, if the Member wants me to meet with him and if he wants to invite me to meet with him and the Dene Nation together to hear from them on what their thoughts are, you know I would be more than glad to. Thank you.