Julie Green

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, it's easy to secondguess spending by a big department by Health and Social Services. And if the Member has ideas, then certainly we're open to hearing from them.

NTHSSA is now one entity. So it's a whole system approach to understanding what the cost drivers are and what to do about them. So examples of initiatives underway now are

Improvements to inventory controls and purchasing;

Process improvements to improve billing and collection of accounts receivable for chargeable services;

Improvements to processes used for managing facilities and fleet;

Processes...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the six facilities, now five, that we contracted was the result of an RFP process. What we were looking for was variety in the possibilities that we could offer. And I believe those contracts were for three years, so they have about a year and a half to go. So this is a process that is renewed from time to time. And we can certainly test any options that the Member might want to bring to our attention at that time. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. We did a comprehensive addictions survey about a year and a half ago, and that collected a lot of valuable feedback about what people experienced in treatment and what they wanted for aftercare. One of the requests there was to have treatment closer to home, and that's something that we are having conversations with the Indigenous governments about. I want to note that when it was time to set the priorities for this Legislative Assembly, nobody asked for a treatment centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, with us today we have Avery Parle, who is the vicepresident of the Northern Territories Federation of Labour, and my old friend David Wasylciw, who doesn't live in my riding. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following four documents: Tlicho Community Services Agency Health and Social Services Agency Annual Report 20212022; the 20222023 Health and Social Services Authority Budgets; Hay River Health and Social Services Authority Annual Report 20212022; and, the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority 20212022 Annual Report. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Yes, thank you. So this is a threetier process. We are currently in tier one, which looks at internal controls and cost containment initiatives. Some of the things that we've done relate to the supplementary health benefits that I mentioned yesterday, so that's offering generics instead of biologic drugs, changing the dispensing fee regimen so that meds are dispensed 100 days at a time rather than every 30 days. And those are some specific examples of things that we're trying to do to contain costs. But at the end of the day, we are underfunded and the demand for additional services is...

Thank you. This is part of the trajectory of health needs to do more and more and more without any additional money. So this program is funded from within. What we can afford to do is 25 students at this point.

I want to say, however, that this bursary is not the only bursary or way to receive additional funds for education. If people in the nursing program go to the bursary section of the Aurora College website, they'll see some additional ways that they can apply for funding. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. My information is that there are a total of 121 people enrolled in the nursing program, and 29 of them are first year. And between 24 and 28 typically are Northern or Indigenous. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, we have a territorial specialist of chronic disease management who has been in the position since May of 2019. It's that person's job to research and provide recommendations on patient care standards related to chronic disease management services. The focus is on providing culturally appropriate and standardized diabetes programming by working with all of the communitybased dieticians to ensure that that's the case. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I also would like to congratulate the Arctic Energy Alliance for 25 years of service to the NWT in saving energy and introduce four members of the staff who are residents of Yellowknife Centre Faye MacDonald, Dharshan Maheswaran, Taylor Arsenault, and Mark Heyck. Thank you very much for coming.