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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time our efforts are being currently focused on bringing current regulated professionals under the Health Professions Act so not -- we are not considering counsellors and psychotherapists at this time. Psychologists are being brought under the Health and Social Services Professions Act. However, this is not an issue specific to the Northwest Territories. From the information that -- you know, that I've gotten from my team is that nationally there is a consistent -- there is not one consistent approach to regulating counsellors; however, for our counsellors that are employed by health and social services' community counselling program, we do have program standards that state that if they're able to be registered with a professional body that they should do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just following up on that response, I heard a "should" but that doesn't sound like a requirement to me. So can -- first of all, can the Minister just clarify for the House about that; is that a requirement or is it simply a recommendation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. He'd have to be more clear when my response of what -- which part of my -- that I said "should". Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope that this is simply a clarification of the second question as opposed to my third. But I simply say that the Minister said that -- something along the lines of counsellors under one of their programs -- I can't exactly remember which one off the fly -- but should register with a regulatory body. I was trying to determine if that is a requirement or simply a suggestion. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. And I'm going to say it's a clarification. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And sorry, yes, it does say "should", and that means that we encourage all our staff. And, like, there are different ways that they can, under their -- like, with their -- the difference pieces in Canada, the Canadian association, some can register through that, but then there are some social workers that are professional counsellors and so they would be under the Health and Social Services Profession Act. So there are some clinical counsellors that are being regulated under Health Professions Act, and that being social workers, but if they're not social workers and they're just clinical counsellors -- and this is a -- this is the area where, you know, we have many different levels of social work, so this is something that I would be considered to have more discussions with the Member and -- you know, and to kind of find a way to move forward with the things that he's looking for. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final Supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, and I appreciate your indulgence, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister has highlighted exactly the problem that I'm trying to raise today, and that is that we do not have a regulated counsellor and psychotherapist under the Health and Social Services Professions Act. Will the Minister commit to investigating the potential for regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists and report back to the Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would only be -- as I said before, what we are focused on are currently bringing in regulated professionals under the Health Professions Act at this time, and so that would be -- you know, at this time I'm not going to be considering that, but it's something that we can discuss further in the future. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and it's with respect to vaccinations.

Recently, Yellowknife had an outbreak, had to close the school through the community network, making sure that the messages got out there so parents didn't drop their kids off at school and hence the measle outbreak happened, and it went through the process, and we all know measles can be very dangerous and as well, lastly, Mr. Speaker, there are requirements for, for example, school-aged children to get their vaccinations, but the question is more -- I'm going towards is focusing in on teachers and administration and employees.

Mr. Speaker, given the recent event and potential risk that could be applied to our loved ones, is the department willing to consider a vaccination mandate; in other words, a must requirement for staff and administration at educational facilities that, again, take care of our loved ones? Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not currently a vaccination mandate for teachers outside of, you know, when we went through COVID and there was expectations around that. That was under the direction of the CPHO, the chief public health officer. And so our education bodies and our schools work very closely with the chief public health officer in events like this, and we ultimately follow the direction of the chief public health officer to ensure that we are aligned to protect residents and children. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the risks that can happen with, for example, measles and given the most recent example of what's happened by shutting a school down, Mr. Speaker, why wouldn't the department look at considering the option of legally requiring staff to -- staff and teachers to be vaccinated? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this would be, you know, a much larger conversation. I'm certainly happy always to take conversations like this back. I would also say that -- you know, recommend that people reach out to health and do their vaccinations, and then we can work together to avoid situations like this. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

You know, I appreciate the shout-out to public health. You know, they do a great job, and they certainly help ensure that people are ready. But, Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the department of health -- or sorry, department of education, not the department of health and, furthermore, we're talking about schools, not that. So I would be curious on what the Minister meant by some type of conversation. Is she willing to take it back to her department to look at is this something we could do, is this something -- how could it roll out and how could it be envisioned and certainly in the sense of timing. Because, I mean, I wouldn't expect something like this to be done before the end of May, and I would say something like this does require a fair bit of thinking and transition as well as acceptance if it was part of a process that the government ended up moving forward. So what could that look like, if the Minister would be willing to take that back to her department to evaluate or consider? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, obviously there are many other factors here. First of all, I would need to speak with the Department of Justice to find out if something like this -- you know, where the limits are. This is also a question for the public service and to find out kind of what the limits and expectations for public service. At this point, Mr. Speaker, outside of a public health emergency being declared, neither the Department of Education, Culture and Employment nor education bodies can mandate vaccinations or proof of vaccination for school staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's been some very high profile reporting on information breache,s related to this government recently. You look in old filing cabinets, old desks, and find names, dates of birth, addresses, contact information, employment history, financial and credit card information, and health care numbers. So - and, also, we hear other reports of staff snooping in medical records. The state of our information, our records system, our management of this information, seems to be in disarray.

Can the Minister of Justice, who has the access and privacy office within his department, explain why this is continuing to happen? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a very sensitive area, and I'm unable to respond to the Member at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I know it's sensitive which is why I'm concerned about it and, certainly, the Information and Privacy Commissioner is concerned about it as well. So there's been a number of recommendations in these reports, including a clean desk policy when these things get done. Is the Minister working on implementing the recommendations of the privacy commissioner and implement things like clean desk policies, so this does not happen in the future? Thank you.