Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I'm glad I know there's a kind of a couple different systems operating and they don't always speak to each other the best, so I think this is a good opportunity, although it will probably be a very, very expensive one, to look at all of our systems.

As part of that project team looking at this, is it on their agenda a patient online portal. COVID has really pushed this to the forefront, and in many jurisdictions you can log in and you can just see all of your vaccination statuses. You can see outstanding lab test. And you know if we had something like that during...

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm wondering if the Minister can provide a little bit more on the needs assessment. I get some of the point of conflict is based on these kind of arguments of well, you can go get, you know, federal money for that, or perhaps you don't need a brand new pool, or you know, things like that. Can the Minister just speak to work we're doing to kind of reevaluate what proper infrastructure looks like for a community.

I guess in the larger context, this is a very big conversation happening across Canada. Most of our municipalities are in just terrible fiscal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe this is a number of things the department is doing to provide further virtual care to our residents. I just want to thank the Minister for bringing this forward.

During COVID, we made many steps in this direction, and now there seems to be a bit of a catchup to change some of the regulations, adopt the software, and really be a leader in this area. So I will gladly support this bill on second reading.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I recognize there's some work being done to revisit the formula, which will then give us a new number, but I'm wondering right now what we quantify the gap being. I know we have a mandate commitment to reduce it by $5 million. I know we've made a lot of progress on the operations side and some on the environmental. I believe this is the largest part of the municipal funding gap according to the current formula we've agreed to. Can I just get a numerical figure of how short it is right now?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just doing some onthefly math, I believe there was 90 Yellowknife residents. I know there was some Nunavut residents who were also affected. But 90 times $12,500 is $1,125,000. Can I just get a clarification on that $12,500 statistic? Is that the cost of all the medical travel and the accommodations, and does it include I believe if we send someone to birth in Edmonton, Alberta Health Services is going to bill us back for those services. Does it include that number and if not, what would that be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker  Madam Chair. I appreciate  I don't get a lot of yeses out of MACA so I'll cherish them.

I guess I'm a little frustrated that this number is actually going down. We added two and a half million dollars to the municipal funding gap last capital budget, and now it's not here. Can I get an updated figure of what, according to our own policy, the municipal funding gap for capital is at.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I appreciate her informing this House previously that we have a 26.3 percent vacancy rate in nursing positions and this is a 10 percent increase since 2020. However I was hoping the Minister could help me quantify what that means at Stanton specifically where the OBS unit has closed. Can the Minister tell us currently how many positions are funded at Stanton Territorial Hospital, and how many of them are not actually filled. Thank you. Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know the territory spends  I believe it's upwards of $20 million on outofterritory services, and we have many residents with kinds of very complex needs and longterm care in Alberta. Can the Minister just speak to whether any of these longterm care beds would be able to repatriate those people. I know some have complex needs and services beyond what we're planning to build here, but I'm just wondering if any of these additional beds will bring people home from Alberta. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to echo some of the comments made by my colleague from Kam Lake of the importance of fibre redundancy. Even before COVID, we all know the world was quickly moving online but I think, as we have seen with any emergency, access to the internet is essential for communication and the continued efforts of essential services.

Mr. Speaker, right now if there's a forest fire or some idiot shoots the fibre line, we run out of internet. The creation of a fibre redundancy loop allows us, and the communities around the lake, to have a secondary point of access. As already...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I  you know, committee has reviewed the longterm care strategy and the work, and there's been some various needs assessments. But I guess there's 136 beds here in the capital budget. Do we have a rough estimate of what that then costs to operate in the O and M budget, or can the Minister just speak to some of the O and M costing that each of these beds puts on the budget. Thank you.