Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll give the Minister of ECE a break. We'll go to the Minister of housing. In my statement, I did mention the long-term care facility that's been on the books in Inuvik for quite some time, since 2015, so around nine years. So I'd like to ask my colleague from Inuvik, and the Honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, what the current plan is for the long-term facility in Inuvik? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment -- Health and Social Services. Try and give you a promotion there today -- or demotion, whatever. Back to you, Health and Social Services. There we go.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll keep this one. And thank you to the Member. I think this project has been discussed in our community for, as he mentioned, way back from 2015. And I know in 2020, there was a reevaluation of long-term care beds needs, and one of the impact that happened was that we as a government wanted to put more investment into seniors aging in place with dignity. So that means supporting seniors in their homes as long as they can and not -- and moving away from these centralized areas where we would end up having to send them. So what the current plan is right now is we just -- I think the geotechnical analysis has just been complete. And so now they are, hopefully for the fall, they'll be going out to RFP for schematic design phase. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. That is excellent news. It's a little overdue, but certainly I'm happy to hear that work is being done on it.

Given the impact in our community, and obviously the jobs that this would create as well, both long-term positions and short-term positions in the construction, has the department considered working with the Indigenous governments as proposed or similar to as proposed in 2018? I know that's a few years ago, but are they looking at working with Indigenous governments on this project, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that the plan -- where the plan was before. And I know the Member was very involved in that plan. And I agree that the facility itself, you know, with what he's saying, with the RFP going out, you know, I would encourage if there -- when the RFP goes out, or encourage that if Indigenous governments are, you know, wanting to look into this area, you know, those are discussions that, you know, we can have. But at this point I guess the RFP will go out for the schematic design and, you know, later to come back with a plan to build, so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, again, for that answer. One of the things in the proposal that was proposed was working with an existing participant in the industry, whether that be Avens for example or different industry that do that work. One of the abilities of having an Indigenous government run the organization would be to allow them to then look at contracting that out with a sunset clause to eventually train people, work with Aurora College, and eventually have local people trained to do that work at first with a contractor and, again, have a sunset clause - 4, 8, 12 years.

Has the department considered working with existing contractors, such as Avens, or working with other, I guess, industry professionals to come in and do that work?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just to answer the Member's question, no. But, you know, I think where we are and the service that it's going to provide, you know, we'd always consider all of the different options that are out there. But no, we haven't. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I encourage the department to certainly look at that. I have no other questions other than to say thank you. I appreciate that it's still on the books and still looking to happen. Thank you.

Member, not a question. Thank you. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to put the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment back on the hot seat here. Has the Minister considered the implications for the NWT of both the 2012 Supreme Court decision that recognized that learning to read is a basic human right and the Ontario Human Rights Commission's public inquiry into the right to read? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in March of 2022 I delivered a similar Member's statement on the -- sorry, reading being a privilege, and -- or sorry, not being a privilege and being a human right. Jeez, I need to focus here, sorry. And so yes, Mr. Speaker, I've considered the importance of literacy, and I share the Member's concerns.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad that we're on the same page here. Can the Minister explain whether the NWT inclusive schooling directive or handbook recognizes that learning to read is a basic human right and therefore a top priority goal for all students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the ministerial directive calls on all students to have access to quality education programs within a common learning environment in the community in which the student resides, including being able to access instructional and support strategies that remove barriers to learning. Mr. Speaker, when demonstrating a need for extra support, a student support plan with focused supports for difficulty in reading is created to provide supports and reduce barriers in conjunction with the school team and the parent or guardian. ECE offers funding to education bodies for assistive technologies to support the learning goals of students. But I think it's also important that we acknowledge that the demands of teachers have changed over the last few years as have the number of students that are needing access to services. And I think this is also a good point to also talk about the need to ensure that we're getting students to class so that they have access to those supports from their teachers and from their education bodies. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So yesterday the Minister told us that when we look at the achievement tests over the years that have been implemented through Alberta curriculum, things are not seeming to get better; things are not improving.

Can the Minister commit to ensure that our education system is well funded enough to provide the necessary supports and interventions to ensure all students can learn to read? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECE allots funding to each education body using the school funding framework. This framework allocates funding equitably and, outside of prescribed funds, allows flexibility to accommodate local decision-making. I will say, Mr. Speaker, there is absolutely more and more demand for dollars within our education system and one of the tasks that's been afforded to me this term is to work on the Education Act, along with our partners, and the school funding formula will be a part of that work. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To drill down to one item that I mentioned in my statement, will the Minister commit to ensuring that all students who require one, will be able to access a speech language pathologist in order to learn to communicate effectively? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this might take me a little bit longer than 30 seconds to answer.

I wish I could say yes to this, but it's not even a million-dollar question; it's a much more than a million-dollar question. It was something that Education, Culture and Employment saw as a need in schools, and so they put together a territorial-based support team with the dream of being able to bring rehabilitation services to schools. That team was originally put in place in Yellowknife with a dream of one day having regional-based territorial support teams so that all schools would have access to the supports that it needs so that students can even begin to access education. That team has never been able to be fully staffed despite the great efforts of Education, Culture and Employment. I know that Health and Social Services also has vacancies within their rehabilitative services team that have been ongoing and chronic vacancies. And so while I would love to say yes to this, and I know that many parents and many students across the territory would love me to say yes to this, it is an effort that we have tried to fill and have not been able to. That said, I see this as a big deal, and I think that it is a gap that we need to fill and as such, the Minister of Health and Social Services and I, along with each of our teams, have already sat down and started discussions about how we address the need for rehabilitative services in schools. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke about E-scooters in my Member's statement. And, really, the primary issue is about safety for the public and certainly safety for the people using the E-scooters. I mean, their safety matters too. And I know one size doesn't fit all, Mr. Speaker, so I'm not assuming what policy in Yellowknife would fit Wrigley because that just doesn't make sense. We have to be practical.

So my question for the Minister of Infrastructure, who oversees the Motor Vehicle Act, is what can she do to bring in E-scooters into some form of regulation? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like any other new matter, item, concern, question, safety issue, or otherwise, the process would be the same. Obviously, departments would consider often what's happening in other jurisdictions, could consult locally with municipalities, jurisdictions, regional governments to see what needs there may be.

In this particular instance there is, in fact, quite a number of jurisdictions who are struggling with the question of what to do appropriately to balance considerations for E-scooters. And so the Canadian Council of Motor Transportation Administers and Transportation Canada have, in fact, struck a task force to look at this very question. And I can assure this House that the Northwest Territories will be participating. Thank you.