Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize some pages that we've had here from Hay River for the week. Natalie Boucher from Hay River North, as well as Kennedy Bolt and Malikai Beaulieu from Hay River South. We're always happy to have the youth in the chamber, and I hope they learned something. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Hay River North. Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery. Member from Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would also like to welcome members of the International Association of Firefighters Union and the Yellowknife firefighters into the chambers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to your chambers. We thank you very much for allowing us 19 people to represent the Northwest Territories, even if it is only for a short-term of four years. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It's always nice to see people in the gallery.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement today, I talked about the dental therapist program. It was an enjoyed program in the Northwest Territories. It even had schooling and training in Fort Smith, then it went to Saskatoon, and then it went the way of the dodo bird. They're trying to revive it and hence that's the theme of my Member's statement today, which is trying to be very friendly and remind people how important and critical it was to service this.

So my question for the Minister of Health and Social Services is what is she doing to help bring back this program to life so we can have dental therapists in our communities where we need them most. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, right now I believe the only place in Canada, since 2011, is in Saskatchewan. They have just revitalized a bachelor of dental therapy and began intake in 2023. What happened over the history of this was that the federal government quit funding it, and we in the Northwest Territories were a satellite to the program that was federally funded. And, yes, it was an amazing program and we had many graduates into our communities. I believe we still have a couple that are within the system. And the Minister of ECE and I have had these conversations and also have had a conversation with the president; however, I will continue to follow up with the Minister on that conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister provide me, and certainly this House, some information with respect to what infrastructure the department of health is going to be moving forward on this in partnership with the current dentist organizations here in the Northwest Territories? In other words, they can't do it all. Can we build some type of partnership and infrastructure to meet the needs of Northerners? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, where we are focusing on is during COVID, as many people know, that we ceased to be able to send dentists into the community. Those RFPs that went out to the private dentists who do provide that support in small communities, right now we are working with Indigenous Service Canada to be able to get that up and going, and we should be -- I believe we're ready to be putting out those RFPs soon so that dentists will be traveling back into the communities. We are not at the stage in health to be doing any of the training of that. That is a discussion that I can have with the Minister of ECE. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whatever follow-up the Minister can provide me would be greatly appreciated.

Mr. Speaker, my last question is about recruitment, retention, and certainly about training and incentives. Mr. Speaker, as we are aware, Saskatchewan is moving forward on this. Is there a way to create some incentives so we can hook our northern students who are taking science who might be interested in this career? Is there a way we can create incentives so they may follow through and, again, so they can help serve Northerners where we need them best. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, when we look at all of our health areas, we at NTHSSA do provide a bursary to those that are accessing health programs and, you know, this -- I would have to follow up to ensure that this one may fall under that area. However, you know, we do know that dental hygienists -- you know, we're looking at the option of dental hygienists because they do have a much more expanded scope now than they did years ago, and so we're looking at how to be able to implement dental hygienists into our system as well. Going forward, you know, I will continue to have those conversations with the college with the hopes that one day we may have a dental therapy program in the Northwest Territories. 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 statement, and questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

My first question: What immediate relief and support measures can the Minister commit to providing the Norman Wells and Sahtu region to address the educational and economic impacts of the Imperial Oil closure as well as the Jordan's Principle gaps? Thank you.

Thank you, Sahtu. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has a suite of workforce development tools, working with existing employers to help do things like retrain, support through wage subsidies, and also ensure that we're helping businesses kind of shift their existing practice. In addition to that, industry, tourism and investment also has funding programs for people who want to start up businesses or who want to expand the existing practices and knowledge base through networking and skill development as well through the SEED program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very glad that I am getting some supports here. As my statement had mentioned on March 16th on the SEED, business side impacts by the ESSO closure, I am more specific to the students and the school impacts.

My second question there, Mr. Speaker, is what specific actions the Minister is taking to work with the federal government to restore or protect Jordan's Principles in the Sahtu region. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by saying that Norman Wells residents can rest assured that the delivery of junior kindergarten to grade 12 education in Norman Wells will remain, will be uninterrupted, and that access to high school programming will remain in the community. So that is not at jeopardy.

In regards to Jordan's Principle, we continue to advocate, not just myself as education Minister but also as a Cabinet, given the impact does absolutely have an all-of-government impact and all-of-Northwest Territories resident impact. In addition to that, I continue to work with education Ministers from across the territory given that we know the territories are absolutely built different and have a different ability to react and absorb changes to the Jordan's Principle program. With the announcement that happened yesterday, both from a political level and a departmental level, we've reached into the federal government to find out exactly what this announcement means, if they're changing criteria, if they're going to go back to working directly with schools, and how we can make sure that northern families are served by this announcement as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for the reassuring potential of the incoming funding.

Mr. Speaker, situations like this needs more than three questions. But my last question is will the Minister commit to joining me and Norman Wells for a town hall to address the Imperial closures in the community underneath the portfolio of ITI and at the same time at a town hall to address the impacts of our education system, particularly our school and children and the teachers that come on in delivering education security. We need some supports from the Minister saying yes, I will come, but we'll iron out the logistics. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is absolutely right. Conversations like this take absolutely more than three questions and also making sure that the residents that we are trying to speak to are at the table is incredibly important, and I would be more than happy to travel to the Member's constituency and specifically Norman Wells. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from the Dehcho.