Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those town halls are internal meetings with staff. Those are considered staff meetings. We did highlight in the -- so that way that they could freely speak to leadership. We have highlighted in the letter, and we have shared with committee, you know, the highlights of these and we will continue to work with staff through the public administrator as this is the operation of this arm. And right now, some of the things that he's doing is -- you know, as soon as he got off the ground, he and the CEO have travelled into the Deh Cho and they are looking at mapping through the Deh Cho the client experience. They also have had multiple, multiple meetings, and they continue to have multiple meetings with the NWT MA and with the CEO with the public administrator, and those meetings have -- you know, the PA has stated publicly that he's committed to continuing that work with the physicians. Right now, they have spent the last couple of days looking and meeting with regional wellness councils, the public, the community, the staff in Fort Smith, and I think we're -- they're planning -- their next region is the Sahtu and they will be -- you know, they'll be meeting in Sahtu to meet with the regional wellness council, the public, with staff. And then, you know, they'll -- they're continuing on that mapping journey of the client experience and so that way, not only are they doing that in their regions and the communities, but they are continuingly working with what's going on with the regional -- you know, Yellowknife region. You know, we've heard many of the things that have happened, and they continue to work with the staff at Stanton.

So the implementation of new things, most of the new implementation dollars for staffing in the last year have all gone into Stanton. All of the new initiatives that are going on that have been rolling out have been improving the services and funding the services in the capital to ensure that, you know, that there are funded services that we need to ensure that the capital is stable so that way we can continue to work, you know, in the regions and in the small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And certainly, I'm not looking for, you know, confidential information but in the Minister's press release, she did state that she had heard from frontline workers about the need to enhance workplace safety as another example. So can the Minister explain what actions are underway to try to address any common workplace safety challenges that she's hearing about? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we did the town halls throughout the territory, one of the themes was safety. You know, the safety of the frontline staff in all of our regions, our small communities, you know, they're -- in the health centres, you know, they go and the nurses have to go in. Sometimes they're there; they have to call in an extra staff member to be with them at night. We've heard from Hay River the concerns from the Hay River region. We've heard from the Tlicho. We've heard from the Stanton. And I would like to let the Members know -- and I can follow up with further -- but Stanton is actually getting recognized for some of the work that they've been doing on safety within the hospital there. That's working with the COO and with the staff and the improvements. We've had -- I had a lot of emails from constituents on safety, you know, and I've even had an email most recently that said they actually checked -- they went and they made sure that they checked that all of the things that I said that were happening at Stanton are happening, and then they responded and said thank you, because that's the feedback that they got.

So there is a lot of work going on throughout the territory but there's still -- there was still concerns raised, and I think we're taking a territorial approach to work with each and individual. And I know, like within Hay River, one of the areas there is they have their own work plan on -- and they've even had -- they have recommendations, and they're looking forward to moving those recommendations forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Minister mentioned just now that Stanton is being recognized for some of the work that it's doing on workplace safety. So I'm not aware of that. I wonder if the Minister could explain what is the recognition that's happening, what are the improvements or steps forward that's being done at Stanton, if it's something that can be publicly sort of recognized; can you explain more so we understand more about it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will get the full details of that, and I will be glad to share that with the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, on court day in small communities, the one that I've seen -- and I'm sure it's the same in other communities as well -- you know, we see a lot of young people, and it's mostly young boys, they are lining up to see legal counsel to seek legal advice. And this is on court day, okay? So it's not just happening in my region; it's happening in all the small communities. And it's a very busy day at that time. So with that in mind, Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister how many designated outreach lawyers does legal aid currently employ? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the outreach office currently has one lawyer and one court worker on staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That's good; that's good to know. We do need more than that; we know that, so.

Do outreach lawyers travel to small communities, or is advice provided over the phone? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Legal Aid Commission also has other lawyers that provide legal services and advice for folks that, you know, don't have resources or that need support. So this is also part of the outreach and with the intent, you know, is in January of 2025, we made some changes to the schedule to allow the lawyers that are travelling to communities to be available in those communities for longer periods of time, and also went in the direction of trying to make sure that, when possible, we were getting consistent representation, so the same lawyer was going back to the same community whenever possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.

Thank you. That's not what I heard from others, so it's good. But does legal aid track the effectiveness of the outreach program by noting how many inquiries lead to files being opened or matters being resolved for residents? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that specific information available with me today. But happy to report that the 2023-2024 annual audit of the Legal Aid Commission will be tabled later in this session, and it will have, you know, a lot of the information that the Member's interested in and will provide further details on the work at the Legal Aid Commission. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the House is aware, I spoke to workforce development and, specifically, coordination earlier today. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister or department of ITI considered the growing need for workforce coordination and what the government could do to address this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Speaker. So absolutely, and luckily I hold both the hats of ITI and education, culture and employment, and so this really is one that I've been able to kind of straddle with both of those hats on, and, to be honest, more so the education, culture and employment.

One of the concerns that I do share with the Member is we do have multiple different projects on the go, and sometimes a project doesn't span one employer necessarily or one opportunity and so how can we bring those together. And there are conversations on the go in regards to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And what I'm looking for is maybe some more detail about those conversations. So would the Minister specifically consider establishing a division or agency within one of those departments specifically tasked with this role as a part of our work to address workforce development? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this fits really nicely over within our workforce development and labour section over in education, culture and employment, and so I don't think we need to go and create a new division, per se, or hire more people. I think there's an opportunity for us to look at the programs that we already have and figure out ways to structure them. An example of that is I've been working closely with some of our Indigenous development corporations and working to figure out how we at the department can better support their workforce development and training efforts that they have underway, and those are some of the conversations that are specifically taking place as our Indigenous development corporations continue to grow and continue to really work with residents and membership in their community and how can we play a support role in that success story. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate that answer from the Minister. Certainly, I'm fine with doing work with the staff that we've got. But what I would emphasize is that it seems that there is a need for a one-stop shop of sorts, a coordinating, centralized agency that could help to coordinate the process of connecting projects with workers and vice versa. And so that currently doesn't exist, so can the Minister look at developing perhaps a program or something that would serve that kind of role within the department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.