Lesa Semmler

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 40, An Act to Amend the Vital Statistics Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this is an essential service to the residents of the Northwest Territories, it is where our most vulnerable are having to be moved from small communities to the regional centres, regional centres that need to have access in the capital, and to the southern -- to Alberta. Within this -- you know, I'd have to get back to the Member on how procurement is done. I am very familiar with a lot of the portfolios; however, procurement is not one of the things that I delve down into on a day-to-day basis. So I would have to get back to the back. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do receive these complaints but don't track the complaints specifically about which staff are -- through the office, like if it's temporary or permanent. They do record general complaints related to discrimination, but they don't identify, as I mentioned, whether they're temporary or permanent staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a culturally safe healthcare system does not only rely on culturally safe training. Workforce instability affects continuity in care of patients, and hiring people alone doesn't guarantee cultural safe care. Cultural safety must be built in to the whole system so everybody provider can deliver it, even temporary staff. Our new primary and community care framework puts cultural safety and anti-racism at the centre of the framework and a culturally safe system that will attract staff who share those values which will boost morale, which will reduce burnout...

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I can recall from the conversation yesterday that we were starting on this, I don't have all the details. What I do have is that from what was mentioned, we had in the old contract fixed costs that cushioned the price inflation and the volume in the numbers. The new contract had to address the new volumes, inflation, and the contract was based on volumes from ten years ago -- only the contract was based on volumes from ten years ago. So this new contract includes new planes that travel faster, can travel longer distance, less down time for planes and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so according to the BIP online, substantial levels means the contractor must show meaningful, not token, use of northern capacity; for example, through NWT registered subcontractors, local staff, and services delivered from the Northwest Territories. The goal is to maximize economic benefit for the Northwest Territories residents, support local jobs and skills, and recognize the higher cost of doing business in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have brought this back to NTHSSA and they have not brought back the -- a timeline but however we have had many conversations on what -- versus buying a program that's going to need to meet our OCIO standards for health information versus -- and that's not going to connect into our booking -- our EMR -- or EHR right now. So I will follow up with where we're at and if there is further discussions or options on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the conversation that all health Ministers across Canada are having right now and, you know, there's -- in every jurisdiction, there's a little bit different going on everywhere. And one of the issues -- and I don't want to take up the whole time to -- so I am going to be very -- when we have a -- we have a public healthcare system in Canada. That's the free system that's insured services. We're already constrained by the amount of, you know, healthcare staff that are provided. Private clinics are usually -- they can charge more, they can pay their staff more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those processes are already in place, and I -- you know, I am not sitting here saying that there's no problems within the system. There is, and I've acknowledged it, and we are going through the process to look at escorts for air ambulance. We are gathering the data. You know, those processes then go through our business plan process. So within the Office of Client Experience, they have a very nice report that they have, you know, taken a lot of the data and the complaints and, well, my office has documented any exception requests that have gotten through...