Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure why they would have to. I've had that conversation with Premier Smith. I've had that conversation with the Prime Minister. I've had that conversation with the Minister of Indigenous Affairs in Alberta just last week. I've said that Alberta needs to -- and I've said this to the Premier Smith as well. Alberta needs to come to the Northwest Territories, speak with the Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories, because water is -- water and caribou, those are two issues that are non-negotiable. Those are the hills we're going to die on, Mr. Speaker, and we need to ensure that the people of the territory are informed and on board with decisions that are going to affect those resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. What supports are in place for the mental health and well-being of child and family service social workers, and how is the department making sure these supports are accessible? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for supports for social workers or any government employee, we do currently have the employee family assistance program that you can access virtually online to telephone. We do have critical incident debriefs for when there's situations that arise and Teams meetings for support for social workers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. What immediate and long-term steps is the Minister taking to bring caseloads down to a safe level, especially when some social workers are carrying double the expected workload? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now they're reviewing historical charts right now, and I think what's -- one of the things that the department has told me is that they're looking at inactive files and making sure that they've been reviewed, and then they're closing them. So that way there's not -- you know, there's no need to making sure that they're being followed up. The prioritizing of cases, hiring, jurisdictional scan, as I mentioned that they're doing right now, right now they're currently in the process of looking into a float team to be able to go around and support areas that are having high needs and high vacancy rates, as well as a peer support team. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from the Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to working directly with front line social workers to identify what they need to do -- what they need to do to do their jobs safely and effectively? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that my department is doing the review, and then I said that they'll be reaching out to staff and they'll have some -- a template of that work that's been going on by December. But I also would like to say that I've also told them that they could establish a town hall for myself and front line child and family service workers with some of the leads that we have so that they can bring forward these issues as we did within the health system. But I want to specifically target it for front line child and family service workers so that we can try to get these solutions directly from them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Continuing with the statement that I made earlier today, Mr. Speaker, and considering the various issues with the current funding formula, has the Minister considered reviewing and updating the school funding formula to close the gaps identified by school boards who manage their own facilities and staffing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my time as Minister, I've definitely treated the school funding formula as a living formula, making updates when we can. Even as recently as this past main estimates, we've made increases to the school funding formula, and that includes expansion of the school-based mental health and wellness funding, significant increases to senior secondary small schools funding, targeted inclusive schooling, and operational supports, including schools in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that those changes were brought forward; however, the school boards are still struggling -- still struggling with the fact that they are unique in having to deliver their own facilities and staffing. So, again, I would just ask, Mr. Speaker, is the Minister -- will the Minister adjust the funding formula to respond to mid-year changes to staffing and support needs associated with inclusive schooling? Mr. Speaker, I am asking how can we make our funding more adaptive. Thank you.

Thank you ver much, Mr. Speaker. So Mr. Speaker, yes, this work is one of the deliverables from the inclusive schooling review, and so starting in the fall, along with education partners, one of the first pieces of work that education partners will open up is a review of the inclusive schooling formula itself, making sure that it can be responsive and adaptive, understanding that students do move from school to school in the Northwest Territories and that there are mid year pressures that occur as well. Especially as we go into early screening, there may be pressures that arise in the middle of a year that educators are finding out about. And so we need to make sure that we're working alongside educators to find out what a formula could look like in order to be responsive to that but still making sure that we can fund for that on -- within the House here when we pass our appropriations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, finally, Mr. Speaker, I note that in the answer to my first question, the Minister listed a bunch of changes that had been made. What I was asking is, will the Minister commit to meeting with the school boards and adjusting the formula as necessary to meet the current needs that they're bringing to us today? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I meet with the education bodies themselves on a regular basis. Some of the changes that we do see in the main estimates that were passed in March of this year were directly responsive to what I heard at the education leaders' table. And those, for example, are the school-based mental health and wellness expansion. And including, Mr. Speaker, we continue to -- not just as Yellowknife MLAs, but as MLAs from across this territory, have the opportunity to sit down with educators, and certainly, the expansion of the inclusive schooling, along with the review is part of those conversations. And so my answer to the Member is absolutely, yes, I will continue to make sure I have close relationships and the opportunity to hear from educators. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to continue my questions on the electronic health records system to the Minister of health. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me what privacy risks were assessed prior to the RFP being released and how the OCIO or the health authorities propose to mitigate all of these risks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, privacy risks were identified during the early planning and requirements gathering before the RFP was issued. These risks include unauthorized access to personal health information, privacy breaches, weak access controls, and securing sharing of information across systems and jurisdictions. To reduce these risks, strong privacy and security requirements are built directly into the RFP, including encryption, access controls, audit logging, and compliance with territorial privacy laws. Privacy impact assessments and threat risk assessments will be completed and updated throughout procurement and implementation, and the selected vendor will be required to meet these requirements and address any additional risks identified before and during system rollout. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister comment on whether connectivity issues in small community health cabins can be mitigated appropriately for the new electronic health records system so that we can finally say goodbye to fax machines, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the procurement process includes a proof-of-concept stage to confirm the system will work in the Northwest Territories, including in small and remote community health cabins. While the use of the fax machine is expected to decrease, faxing remains a common method for sharing information across Canada between jurisdictions. As a result, faxing is expected to continue to play a role for the foreseeable future, particularly where connectivity and limitation exists. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.