Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from the Member, and I'm sure she's aware that this program is a federal government program from Indigenous Services Canada. They're the ones who decide on who gets medical travel or what conditions that require medical travel. That is not something that I have any say in. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the Member for her comment.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think the Member is talking about employer benefits. So the Government of Canada would have employer benefits for its staff. The GNWT has employer benefits for its staff. NIHB provides benefits to Indigenous people who are First Nations and Inuit. Metis health benefits are specifically for Metis beneficiaries. And then the rest of the population are just covered either covered by the basic hospital and physician services, which are provided free of charge to everyone or, in some cases, they don't have benefits at all. We know that there are at least...

Yes. I'm not sure where the money's going to come from. I don't think it'll come from the new tailored agreements. Tailored bilateral agreements, none of them speak to people who need supported living unless they're elderly and they need longterm care. So there's a question there about whether we can find an appropriate pot of funding from the federal government or whether we will be looking for an increase in the budget from the GNWT. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is no dashboard available that is equivalent to the kind that was maintained during COVID. But there is interest in launching one. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. The point of this page is for Indigenous governments and their partners to come up with programming for their communities. So if a community wanted to offer programming that was specifically targeted to men and their mental health needs, then that's something that they could apply for. There's no reason not to. These programs are not genderbased. They are communitybased. And so it's up to the community to decide what its priorities are. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we'll have to return to the Member with that information.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services doesn't license medical professionals who are nurses. They are licensed by the Registered Nurses Association of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. And each graduating nurse would work with that entity to ensure they submit the necessary documents to be licensed in the NWT, whatever duration, whether they plan to be here on a temporary basis or fulltime. So once they're licensed, they would be eligible for employment and to compete on longterm employment and competitions within the GNWT because they would be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I don't see that as practical. There is regional administration of the different health and social services authority, like the Tlicho Community Services Agency. But the department provides overall direction here in Yellowknife. I am not clear how it would work to have a few people in another location. Did you want to add on? The deputy minister would like to add on, please.

Yes, thank you. So the bed availability, that would be subject to triage like all of the health services. So if you have somebody detoxing from alcohol, that's a life and death situation. So the triage there, the triage score would be high versus somebody who would not be feeling the same effects of withdrawal.

I think that providing people with choices is the most important thing. When I toured the treatment centres in 2018, I came away having met people who were happy to be away from their community, their triggers, their you know, their colleagues who were kind of partners in misery. So I...