Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier. When I was first elected, I quickly realized how little I knew in the context of government policy and process, and it's certainly a long journey. But since coming back to this Assembly, I notice there seems to be a theme which is Members are asked, either by Ministers or Minister assistants, to supply questions in advance. I'm asking the Premier specifically, is it a mandate position or an expectation in the Simpson government that Members would supply questions in advance to the Ministers? Thank you.

Colleagues, before the Premier answers, it's the Government of the Northwest Territories, it's not specific persons/individuals. So please rely on the Government of the Northwest Territories for future questioning.

Thank you. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And no, that is not the policy. It is just the way that we like to do business is by cooperating and communicating. And for the past eight years as I've been an MLA, that has been common practice. In the last government, the Regular Members would actually share the -- at least the titles of their Member's statements and their questions with Cabinet early in the morning. So it's just we're just all trying to get along here, and we want to make sure that when Members have questions that, as Cabinet, we can provide good answers. We don't know everything, all the ins and outs of all of our departments. It's not all on the tip of our tongue or at the top of our mind. Sometimes we'll need to go and read a briefing note to refresh our memory about something that maybe we haven't dealt with in a couple weeks or a couple months. And so the rationale behind asking a Member, hey, what are you going to be asking me today, is so that we can come back, do our homework, and give good answers for the Members and for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And hearing the Premier's answer, which I thank him for, because I didn't give him notice I was asking these questions, but that said it sounds like there's an expectation that Members are here to set Ministers up so they look really good. Is that a fact? Or are Ministers expected to know their departments with some fullness of effort? Thank you.

Thank you. And I'm not sure what the Member was listening to, but I never said that the Members are here to set us up to make us look good. There is an expectation that Ministers do know their portfolios. Here in the Northwest Territories, we have a relatively small Cabinet yet we still are expected to deliver all of the programs and services in all of the same areas that they do in other places in Canada where they might have 10, 20, or 30 Cabinet Ministers. I personally, in the last government, I think I had 14 or 15 different FPT tables that I sat at - that's federal, provincial, and territorial tables, whereas that's pretty uncommon across Canada. In the smaller jurisdictions, it is a bit more common but there is a lot to know. And while there is an expectation that Cabinet does have a good grasp on their portfolio, I don't think it's reasonable to expect the Ministers to have a photographic memory for each of their policies, each of the pieces of legislation that they're responsible for, every staff that the department produces. And so if the Members don't want to provide questions, that's their right. I've never hounded any Member for their questions. If a Member says I'm not going to let you know what my questions are, that's fine. We come to the House, and we give the best answers that we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, questions are to illuminate information, probe concerns, and chase down individual details, and there's a reasonable expectation that certain information cannot be at the tip of the Ministers' fingers. So, Mr. Speaker, I just want to clarify one more time on the record, is there any type of informal impression that the government will take if a Member -- not informal -- or actually now I'm trying to qualify this in a way -- is there any sort of backlash or negative response or attitude from the government if a Member chooses not to proceed that -- because sometimes questions come on the fly, and initiatives need to be raised in the context they're presented, so I just want to make sure Members are not prejudiced in some form. If the Premier could clarify that in some way. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's no hard feelings if Members don't want to provide questions in advance or give Ministers a heads up about what they might be speaking about. Since my very first day as an MLA, I've been very strong on the topic of MLA independence. As a Regular Member or as an MLA representing my constituents, I don't allow anyone to tell me what to do except my constituents. And I'm not telling the Regular Members what to do, and if I tried I wouldn't expect them to listen to me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Oral questions. Colleagues, looking at the time, we will have a brief recess to give our translators a break, and then we'll come back to continue our business. Thank you.

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Written questions. Member from Range Lake.

Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

1. How many agency nurse contracts have been utilized since 2021 by individual nurse;
2. How many agency nurse contracts have been utilized since 2021 by contracting agency;
3. How many agency nurse contracts have been utilized to support community health centres and Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority operations outside of hospitals in Yellowknife, Inuvik, and Hay River since 2021; and
4. How many individual agency nurse contracts are represented by the $4.4 million expenditure on agency nurses in fiscal year 2023-2024?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Replies to the Commissioner's address. Petitions. Reports of committees on the review of bills. Reports of standing and special committees. Tabling of documents. Minister of Finance.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Report on Departmental Indigenous Employment Plans Results 2022/2023. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Tabling of documents. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 59-20(1): Retention Strategies for Health Care Professionals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Tabling of documents. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table a document. It's called Advocates for the Persons with Disabilities Act. It's from the province of Alberta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Tabling of documents.

I have two documents to table. Pursuant to section 4(4) of the Legislative Assembly Retiring Allowance Act; and, section 2.1(1) of the Supplementary Retirement Allowance Act, I wish to table the NWT Legislative Assembly's Pension Plan Annual Report at March 31st, 2023.

In accordance with section 21(1) of the Retiring Allowance Act and section 11.1 of the Supplementary Retirement Allowance Act, I hereby table the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly's Pension Administration Report Retiring Allowance Act and Supplementary Retiring Allowance Act at March 31st, 2023.

Tabling of documents. Notices of motion. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Consideration for elders and seniors in debt elimination. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, June 4th, 2024, I will move the following motion:

Now therefore I move, seconded by the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, that the Government of the Northwest Territories revise the Financial Administration Manual and related policies on the elimination of debt to provide specific provisions for forgiveness of debt owed to the Government of the Northwest Territories or public agency for elders and seniors who are 60 years of age and older;

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories review and revise the Financial Administration Manual and policies to define how it will measure and assess unreasonable or unjust financial hardship on elders and seniors;

And furthermore, that the Government of the Northwest Territories review and revise the Financial Administration Manual and policies to ensure that elders and seniors who are on fixed incomes are not forced into undue financial hardship to pay debt to the Government of the Northwest Territories;

And furthermore, that the government respond to this motion within 120 days.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Notices of motion. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Notices of motion. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, June 5th, 2024, I will move the following motion:

Now therefore I move, second by the Member for Yellowknife North, that the Government of the Northwest Territories immediately provide funding grants to Indigenous governments that wish to complete home inspections in their region;

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide financial support to Indigenous governments to assist in data collection to support opportunities to leverage federal government funding;

And furthermore, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide the funding to the Indigenous governments in alignment with the mandate of the 20th Assembly to secure sustainable financial resources for housing programs and projects;

And furthermore, to facilitate this financial support, the Government of the Northwest Territories enter into a Memoranda of Understanding with all interested Indigenous governments and bring forward necessary appropriations by the end of the 2024-2025 fiscal year;

And furthermore, that the Government of the Northwest Territories respond to this motion within 120 days.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.