Julie Green

I can have that conversation.

Generally, Ulukhaktok has two dental visits a year, so at this point, they would have missed two. My hope is that that's all they are going to miss. There will be two more dental visits in the next fiscal year. I want to just correct the perception that it's only big communities with dental services. The Fort Providence health centre, the Fort Simpson Health Centre, the Fort Resolution Health Centre, the Norman Wells health centre, and the Aklavik Health Centre have all had dental visits within the last two months. Thank you.

At the Department of Health and Social Services, we really prioritize the safety of our patients. Where facilities were not meeting infection control and ventilation requirements, work could not be done in those facilities. This is not a long-term ban on dental services in these communities, but it's my understanding that teams are now working through potential solutions. The Member has mentioned a couple of potential solutions and maybe they are solutions, but nothing is going to happen with putting portable buildings into Ulukhaktok at this time of year. What is going to happen is that there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to voice my commitment as Minister of Health and Social Services, as a Member of this Legislative Assembly, and as a resident of the Northwest Territories to address racism in all its forms in the NWT Health and Social Services system. Throughout the Northwest Territories, the Health and Social Services system works to provide quality services for all NWT residents: care that is respectful, responsive, and accessible. However, research shows that Indigenous peoples experience a disproportionate amount of negative health and social outcomes in comparison to...

The staff at Stanton would like to put this issue behind them, but unfortunately, this is historically a recurring problem that is most often occurring in April and May and aligns with the spring melt and the difference in the water chemistry. It has turned out to be a very unpredictable problem. It will appear and disappear, making it very difficult to investigate the root causes as much as we would also like to do that. What we have done, though, in preparation for this year's spring melt, is taken measures to mitigate potential future occurrences with the purchase of new equipment for the...

At the time the sterilizer had to be shut down, there were 124 pending surgeries. They have now all been completed except for those people who asked for later dates in the spring. One thing that Stanton has done to address elective surgeries on the wait list, okay. I have to just start the sentence again. There came a point where they were not taking any more people onto the wait list because they had no idea when they could get through it, so there are an unknown number, unknown to me at this point, people who would have liked to have had surgery but did not get onto the wait list. What is...

I do not have that information at hand, but I can find it.

I can't make that commitment at this point. I can say that, of course, we are interested in helping people to have the best liver health that they can have, and our current efforts are really all focused around the alcohol strategy. I know the Member is talking about liver disease that is not alcohol-related, but we are dealing now with the issues that are alcohol-related because we see them as such big drivers of poor health in our territory. Thank you.

The Department of Health and Social Services does not conduct research in this area. If somebody who is a researcher comes to us and asks to partner with us, then we certainly would look at that proposal. We would consider offering things like in-kind services, letters of support, contributions of data, staff time, and so on. We are not the initiator of the research, but we are willing participants where we can be.

I recognize this is a difficult time for the Member to have a death, not only in his community, but in his family. It is not my job to decide which hotel rooms are paid for and in what circumstances. That's the job of the Premier as the lead on the COVID Secretariat.