Mr. Speaker, we only have two obstetric units in the Northwest Territories. One is at Stanton, one is in Inuvik, and that is currently where they are. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that clarity.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm -- although I did hear her say a little bit about this in an earlier answer, so I'll reframe my question on the fly. Can the Minister confirm how local nurses are being able to be -- or will be able to be trained in labour and delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for this question. Currently, yes, nurses can train in the Northwest Territories to be obstetric nurses. How they do that, you know, there's multiple different ways. Back in the day when I trained, it was more of a mentorship, and you take certifications. Now it's a little bit more technical. So they do have to have hours. They do have to have a mentor. Currently, within our OBS, there are nurses receiving training and becoming fully competent in this specialized area. And as a result of this training, we have increased our capacity. And although the OBS unit still requires agency support to offset some of these vacancies, they're also allowing training of labour and delivery nurses in the need -- in this unit. So I just want to make sure that the Member knows that over the time that these nurses have been training as well is that the less and less we're becoming reliant on them in this unit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister. That's really great to hear. And to, you know, echo my colleague from Monfwi's statement earlier today, it's really good to hear that this Minister's supporting things over time and getting us there, and I hope she can get us there as quickly as possible. So to that end, is the Minister's department willing to invest further in training local NWT health care workers to increase their skill sets? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can confirm we have things in place already, and I think the more and more we are starting to utilizing them to fill and train specialized nursing, we have a specialized nursing training program. We have the Targeted Academic Support Program. We have professional development initiative funding, which can all be accessed by current staff who wish to gain their certification to work in more specialized areas. And as mentioned, any RN who is interested to being trained in a specialty area can submit their request in a few different ways by applying to the specialized nursing training program or can reach out to their supervisor. And I am hopeful that we can repeat our successes in other areas that we have been able to eliminate agency nurses in the main hospital. And over the past year, through interventions like specialized nursing transition programs, which as a combination of recruitment efforts, has allowed us to eliminate agency nurses in our operating room, in the medicine units, and effectively reducing overall agency nurses by half of what it was at this time last year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement on the drug addictions here, my question here is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister explain in short the types of funding available for addictions recovery. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker -- and I thank the Member for raising this concern. You know, the more and more we talk about this, the more and more it becomes normalized, and we're able to work together to try and find solutions.

The Department of Health and Social Services, two programs currently available. We have the community suicide prevention fund and the community wellness and addiction recovery fund, which is a fund that we actually, from recommendations last government, was asked to be put together and have less -- it's more flexible for Indigenous governments to access.

The community suicide prevention fund supports the delivery of culturally safe programs focusing on prevention of suicide and increasing community wellness, reducing stigma, and the development of implementation of suicide prevention strategy.

Within the community wellness and addiction recovery fund, prioritizes Indigenous governments and supports to the delivery of community-based mental wellness and addiction recovery programs that meet the unique needs of the respective communities. And as currently right now, we are currently accepting applications for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. And so I encourage, like, Members of this House to reach out to their Indigenous governments and Indigenous NGOs to access these dollars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to thank the Minister for making those funds known and available to support the problems we have. It's very -- still disturbs me today on the outcomes that I've seen on my last session in the Sahtu.

My next question is on the O and M side of operations and designing your efforts to bring resolution to the problem is, to me, in various parts. My next is there O and M funding to support the operations of an on-the-land treatment centre? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, the funding through the community wellness and addiction recovery fund is to support Indigenous governments to deliver community-based mental health and addiction recovery programs unique to their needs, and Indigenous governments may absolutely choose to use their funding for O and M and on-the-land programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks for the response to the Minister. Now let's move on to another little issue of supports here, employees, staffing.

Can the Minister elaborate or respond on support availability and into a secondment of counselling positions to assist the Sahtu Secretariat in designing and delivering this recovery program to address the drug and addictions issues they're facing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now I can't commit to a secondment but what I'm willing to do is work collaboratively with SSI and other Indigenous governments to implement programs to support mental wellness. I'm also committed to supporting Indigenous governments and communities advancing these wellness solutions that are grounded in cultural communities and their perspectives. I welcome the opportunity to learn more about the vision. And I know that the Member has got some work that they'll be doing next week in their region, and I look forward to hearing and seeing what's coming out of that. But I do want to say that this money under the community wellness addiction recovery fund, I said -- as I said, it was very flexible and so the -- if the SSI decided that they wanted to hire a counsellor with that money or they wanted to use it for on the land or they wanted to use it -- it's flexible for them to design their own way that they want it, and then the regional governments, and if they choose to, you know, there's even opportunities to go into multi-year funding agreements if they have a plan. But just to continue to work with our department, if you need more information. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Infrastructure. It's quite simple. Will the Minister of Infrastructure bring forward accessibility legislation for the NWT during the life of the 20th Assembly?

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the first things I asked the department to look at was building a building standards framework for the Northwest Territories. And that can certainly include an accessibility provision within it. That work's only just getting underway, obviously depending upon the passing of the budget, to determine what kind of ability our departments all have to conduct that work, but hopefully we will be in a position to achieve what's in our business plan which is a buildings standards framework and one that includes accessibility within its provisions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And just to get a bit of clarification, I believe the Minister said building standards framework. Is this going to be a Building Act, or are we talking about something different? Because I know the city of Yellowknife has been asking for a Building Act with accessibility standards built into it, so can the Minister provide some clarity on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my hope that it is a Building Act. Again, at this point, it's in our business plan. It's part of the work that would happen with the department, subject to where we land in terms of our budgets here. But if we are in a position, that is my intention, is that we'll move forward. We have a working group formed now and hoping to get started the process of developing what would go into a Building Act for the Northwest Territories, including what kind of accessibility legislation it would include. That would be what comes in the next fiscal year, or over the course of the next fiscal year, leading ultimately up to the process that builds towards that Act. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister able to give the Assembly a timeline for this? When can the Assembly expect a legislative proposal to come forward within reasonable time that the Assembly would be able to establish this new legislation within our -- the term of the 20th? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have my business plans open in front of me right now. I think for the next fiscal year is the part that I have in mind and the first step already having been achieved is a working group. The next step is the work plan to scope out what should or potentially should be included in a building standards or a Building Act. And that, really, would be the first set of deliverables. Once we know the scope of what would be included, for example, including accessibility, that can determine the size and scope and timeline required for a full Act. I would certainly hope that we could get to the point of an LP soon thereafter, whether it would get all the way to being passed this Assembly or not, again, will depend on the scope and size of the Act. But it was certainly, as I said, one of the first asks I made when I had the opportunity to take on this portfolio. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.

Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Justice.