Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the safety concerns that I've heard about, I'm assuming the department is aware of them. Is there any update at this point on how they plan to improve safety conditions along the highway? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is not unknown to legislatures or to government systems in Canada that independent reviews will contain recommendations that governments disagree with. Often when they agree with recommendations, there will be so many caveats that it might as well be a disagreement. In this case, there are 35 recommendations. One recommendation was not agreed with, and that is the recommendation to create a dedicated emergency management agency.

Many times in our parliamentary procedures here in the House, we will disagree with the government's disagreement and encourage...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the largest cost driver for these deficits is the medical travel system. I've been told by constituents that they're being scheduled on multiple trips for procedures that could be grouped together into one trip; so you could have all four done instead of being spread out. And what they're being told is well, people like it this way. So are we letting the personal preference of medical travel clients dictate our spending efficiencies, or are we actually applying some policy here to make sure we're providing the most cost effective use of taxpayer dollars...

Thank you. So it sounds like the Minister is saying that because of that collective agreement, we can't offer any kind of labour market supplement or wage -- or shift premium or something like that. What options does the Minister have available to her that she could work with the union to bring this forward? It must be possible because we've been having these discussions about health care. We saw what happened during COVID. We have a Private Member's bill that we've been debating as well. Clearly, this is an issue that needs to get fixed. We need to compensate nurses. When's the Minister going...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in order to keep the emergency room doors from closing, a shift bidding process was brought forward by the health authority, which was very successful, and we were able to recruit the locum doctors we needed to prevent that from happening. At the time, it was said this process would be retired but it would inform future decisions. Can the Minister relay to the House how this successful strategy will change staffing retention and recruitment in the future for NTHSSA? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of a complaint that I received, the patient actually pushed back and said please book it all at once so I don't have to do four trips. They didn't want this. So will the Minister commit today to end this waste that's going on in the system and ensure that we streamline appointments so they're all happening at the same time; will she commit to fix that in the medical travel policy today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the health care sustainability unit has determined that we pay just about double for health care in the Northwest Territories. Health care funding is a quarter of our budget and the deficit is expected to be $350 million, which is consistent with deficits that have been climbing over the years. That's why we have the unit. The question is, what is the public administrator doing to curb this deficit, to bring sustainability to the unit. We know how much it costs now. What is he doing to bring those costs down? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, that seems to be a change in plan. So I must be mistaken in that this was going to be abandoned and they were going to move to a more sustainable model of staffing. So what is the plan for -- not for doctors but for nurses and the allied medical professionals who work in the ERs? Because they need to be compensated as well. They're working very hard, and they're as frustrated with their working conditions as any doctor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, if our economy needs a red alert, well, our health care system, it needs a blue alert, Mr. Speaker. It's an exceptional state of affairs here in the North where we need both a public administrator and a health care sustainability unit who have been working for a year with little to show for it, seemingly, at least to my constituents and patients and nurses and doctors in my riding. Extraordinary times have called for extraordinary measures, but while we continue to expect this government to take decisive action, the action they must take to connect Northerners to the health care...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. So I mean, I don't have the benefit of the substantiations here but neither does the public, I think, at any time. So for this $39.5 million, can the Minister speak to the nature of the funding? Like, is the -- she listed a number of items there that might impact future expenditures, multi-year contracts or contracts related to fire suppression. So what does this $39 million represent in terms of fire suppression activities? Thank you.