Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to -- who wants to give more detail? Can I pass it over to Mr. Clarke. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a lot of work that is going on. The public administrator over this past year has, one of the most important things is that he had to go out and he had to attend and hear from the regional wellness councils. He attended all of the regions. We highlighted some of the areas where we've seen he's been working alongside with the NWT Medical Association. There is an ongoing process that's going on right now. The last budget that they tabled actually decreased, I think it was $20 million out of the current -- it would have been a deficit. And throughout the year, they...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we lease space and we make accommodations, those accommodations are at our cost with approval from the leaser or the leasee. We're the leaser, sorry. And if the lease expires and we leave the facility because we have something -- or somewhere else to go or programs change, then those renovations just remain where they're at. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we are aware of the changes that have been done in Yukon, and Yukon's approach is unique and reflects its own priorities but it's helpful for us to look at. At this time, I'm not aware that the health sustainability unit is actively reviewing the Yukon model, but it's something that we can, you know, explore in the future. I know that they are reviewing the out of territory services, so we'll certainly look at what other jurisdictions are doing, including Yukon, to see what lessons we can learn from them, and this will be done in partnership with the...

We are going out to RFP for the schematic and designs, and if we can get that done quick, if it comes back quicker, then hopefully we can have it on the plan for next year. But I can't guarantee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right now, as it stands it would be open to nine beds, and we would be operating it as we did before. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we just agreed on a new collective agreement which increased more than nurses -- it increased all the nurses -- sorry, labour market supplement. It increased social workers. It added other health care providers in this collective agreement. So we have done that. Finance and the NTHSSA, through bargaining, did increase all those labour market supplements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The way our process works is we allocated those funds last -- the last budget for the planning phase. We're still in that planning phase. At this point, I think the RFP is to go out for design and schematics. There was a delay because what ended up happening is that they went and took a bigger look at the facility. I believe that because of the age of the building, it was due for midlife retrogrades and so to be able to go forward to do all of that -- because in adding on to the hospital, it's going to need to expand heating, kitchen, laundry, those types of things...

Yes, it's the same building. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the health authority, alongside with the physicians, came up with a solution to deal with the vacancies that were in the summer. Right now we're continuing on to -- I think look forward to the intraspace bargaining with the physicians as part of ways to work with our recruitment. I know that at this time we are looking at possibly this -- you know, to utilize this in times when we see areas of high needs. And so that is -- since the successful over the summer, we will look at it possibly if that situation comes up for -- or if we start to notice that we're...