Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after a proponent is selected, the project will include several testing stages such as configuration, user acceptance testing, health authority staff, including clinical administrative users as well as GNWT technical staff will take part in this testing. This testing will help confirm that the system works properly in real world NWT health care environments. The procurement process also includes proof of concept stage to confirm the system will function within the GNWT's technical environment. And under the control of the proponent, it will be responsible for fixing any problem found during testing, including software bugs, performance issues, and other deficiencies before the system is fully rolled out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a formal governance structure will oversee the day-to-day management of the new electronic health record system. Governance committees will include representatives from all three health authorities including physicians, clinical staff, health leadership, department officials, technical experts, and these bodies will be responsible for guiding decisions and addressing the system if it's found to have technical, privacy, usable, or operational concerns. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given that 75 percent of frontline social workers exceed the 11 case cap and nearly carry half -- sorry, nearly double and sometimes triple the workload, which I consider unsafe working conditions, can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain why the department has never done an assessment of their total resourcing needs required to support their operations in the social services space. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the child and family services department, within NTHSSA, they -- I believe that the assessments that have been done and then they do the -- you know, when they do the business process and put forward for additional positions, that within 2018 until 2026, they did put forward a number of positions forward because of the assessments that were done. I believe that there was 56 additional positions put into child and family services to support the system. However, with the shortages and the vacancies right now, I believe that there is ongoing work internally to analyze internally and also they're going to be doing an assessment and working with and reaching out to staff right now before December. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And even with -- I was around for those 56 positions. You know, even with those 56 positions, the assessment was never done. So now we're hearing it will come in December. I hope the Minister will -- well, I hope we will see those numbers because we need to see them. Mr. Speaker, I talked about a number of initiatives other jurisdictions have taken. So let's talk about mandatory caseload caps on new social workers to ease them into the job. This is done in many other jurisdictions to great success. Why has the Minister not looked at practical solutions like that that support social workers, keep them from being burnt out, and keep them from immediately being saddled with caseloads that are unsafe, as I said earlier. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the department right now is currently in the process of doing this jurisdictional scan and it should be available for -- it's going to be completed by October 2026. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, don't do the scan. Just get it in place. That's what we're asking for today. We're asking for some immediate action. That's the question, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister make that commitment today to put safeguards and safe -- safety guards around social workers who are coming into the profession so we can keep them from burning out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in discussions that I've been just having with the department of child and family services at the department level, there is a proposed float team approach right now to try and relieve some pressures in areas where there's larger vacancies. They're initiating some peer support and debriefing teams. We're looking right now at mentorships and part of onboarding training processes as this has been identified by staff, and all of this will be, you know -- and clinical and supervisor training for this summer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My concerns are really about systematic deterioration. Well, at least my first question is about that.

Given that the Minister has held the health portfolio for 909 days and during the Minister's tenure, her department's failure rate regarding children in care has actively worsened from the already catastrophic 88 percent to 91. Mr. Speaker, the question really is, is does the Minister finally accept statutory responsibility for this decline, or will she continue to blame the systematic failure remains the fault of her predecessors or even just the process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've already stood up, I've already said that we accept -- I accept, and I accept that there is still work to do. I understand that I've been here for 909 days, as the Member has stated, but the system that was developed, that is where we're currently sitting now, didn't happen in 909 days and I, as the Minister, am continuing to work in this department and continuing to show improvements. As the OAG has stated, there has been improvement since the 2018 report. There are things that were highlighted that, you know, that we've had 79 percent improvement with supervision of workers out of territory placement. We've had increased improvements of more consistent of key foster caregiver documents. The previous reports were with an 81 -- like a 70 percent increase. So where we were and where we are now, yeah, it's not done. The work is not done. I still have lots of work to do, and the Minister after me will continue to have this work to do because the system was set up. It wasn't set up with Indigenous people. It is -- you know, it is Indigenous kids in the system. It hasn't had -- until we had Bill C-92, that's why we have the legislation moving forward so that we can work with Indigenous governments because it will be in our legislation to say that this is what you have to do to make care plans to care for these children, to move them into a better place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It sure sounds like it's the system's fault, if you listen carefully, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, Minister is the sole corporate trustee and legal guardian of these children under the territorial law. She has possessed the clear documentation and the knowledge and experience, Mr. Speaker, on this challenge so the question really comes down to is, because you continue to operate at 14 to 34 percent frontline vacancies of social workers to be our champions and heroes of this job, with three-quarters of a billion dollar budget, Mr. Speaker, why do you continue to fail this industry when we need to entice them to stay and bring new ones in? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, any Indigenous or any non-Indigenous or any social workers that are, you know, wanting to come into this work, you know, this is where we are. We have the advertisements. You know, we have recruitment going out this summer to the universities. You know, Aurora College is transitioning into having the social work diploma program graduates within the next, you know, two years or three years. And so there is still work that we need to do to improve the recruitment of, you know, Indigenous social workers and all social workers within the system. However, you know, in the last year we've increased, you know, where social workers were able to get the market labour supplement because, you know, they were left out the first round and that was negotiated in for them to be able to try and recruit more because of the cost of living in some of these communities. And we will continue to do the work that we need to do. That's why staff has said they need support, they need training. We are creating those pieces, and there is some restructuring going on. And there is also duplication of paperwork where we know that we can streamline some of that. And we're also utilizing some of our other staff that can do some of the work that are not needed by the social workers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, it's clearly not money is the issue here and certainly cancelling the social worker program wasn't the solution either. But thankfully bringing it back. So, Mr. Speaker, by law, the department of health must assess children within 24 hours yet the files prove that some wait as late as 16 days.

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister accept that allowing her department, her system, her system that she has fought against, to violate their statutory regulations and deadlines? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I can say is that within that -- you know, it's not acceptable, and that's why we currently have put in place since -- the audit was done between a certain time period and since that, since I became Minister, there has been things put in place that the department is screening the quarterly audits and providing those to managers to make sure that everybody's -- you know, making sure that everybody's meeting the standard statutory obligations within this. And we're also reviewing many of these things across jurisdictional to see where -- you know, where all of our standards meet to make sure that, you know, we are making sure that our standards are able to meet the Canadian standards and in the territory that how do we create the system that we're going to be able to action those things within that time frame. And so that work is currently going on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will go a little slow to give my colleague, the Minister of health, a chance to catch her breath. Seems like she's the only one answering questions today.

Mr. Speaker, following up on my Member's statement regarding the long-term care facility in Inuvik, you know, I went back to the history of what's been happening. So I understand the Department of Health and Social Services has been anticipating updated long-term care bed projections. Can the Minister please tell us what we can expect to hear about those projections and what they will mean for long-term care in our community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.