Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so I understand the government has clearly committed to collaboration and consultation with existing bargaining agents such as the Union of Northern Workers during its work to modernize section 41 of the Public Service Act. The question is, for the Minister, does the government need consent or permission from the UNW in order to complete changes to this section of the Act? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, no, the government doesn't require consent or permission from other parties or -- including from the union to change the Public Service Act. That said, Mr. Speaker, as I indicated the union here certainly is more than merely a stakeholder, so certainly ensuring their involvement is quite important to making sure that we have a piece of legislation that is the best possible version of itself right now. And also, Mr. Speaker, there is certainly, I should make note, an expectation, an obligation on the government, a legal obligation on the government, in the current Public Service Act that there not be any changes to that Act which governs the relationships and governs the bargaining process when the parties go into bargaining, so once we have a notice to bargain. There is a provision in there where the parties can agree on consent to continue to work on changes such as what we might be contemplating here or as we have already done in the rest of the Public Service Act. But again -- so, again, Mr. Speaker, it's not consent or permission but certainly is one where we want to make sure that we are, you know, maintaining our relationship, maintaining fair bargaining, and maintaining our duty to engage in bargaining fairly and upholding the law as it is now in section 41. Mr. Speaker, I believe the timeline we're on and the relationships that we have will allow us to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in my email I got a response from the Minister of ECC regarding some caribou herd populations. I certainly was appreciative of the response. But my question, of course, that stirred the other question which was about wastage, and so I see some numbers and information, which I appreciate. My question, of course, being more specific, which is what is the department's strategy given the most recent news stories about caribou wastage? How are they dealing with this, and public education can only go so far, so they must be able to do other types of things to address these types of problems, because it seems to be a significant sin every time we hear about more caribou wastage. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of ECC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I also agree that, you know, it's very troubling to see the wastage of the caribou over the past season. In 2024, we had zero instances of wastage that were reported and in 2025, we currently have 11 investigations on the go. Our strategy is, you know, we put joint communiques out over the winter, engaging with the local Indigenous governments in a collaborative effort to ensure that we were messaging respectful harvesting. We've also recently engaged with Indigenous governments across the region to have meetings throughout the summer to address some of the challenges and concerns with the wastage and disrespectful harvesting on the winter road. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was kind of hoping I'd also hear some information regarding enforcement. Now, I wouldn't be asking for the spy trade techniques from enforcement officers, you know, the James Bond hiding behind a fake tree or something. But the truth be told is there must be some fundamental issues with meat wastage. In other words, why? Is there any time spent on trying to diagnose why is this such a problem or why are people choosing this approach as opposed to treating the animal with respect or, you know, finding a way to deal with it better, I guess is what I'm trying to say, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. You know, recently, in some meetings that I've been involved, a big part of our conversation with the Indigenous leaders was about respectful harvesting and ensuring that that traditional knowledge is passed down from generation to generation and that our elders are being recognized for that valuable information and that they're passing it down to the younger hunters and, you know, using the tools within their community to communicate the importance of the caribou, how it is part of our traditions and our heritage and really focus on the importance of that message. And certainly that is also happening through the engagements out on the -- in the land, you know, as part of how our officers interact with hunters as well as ensuring that we're recognizing that traditional knowledge is a big part of how we communicate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not to sound silly in in any way -- it's serious -- which is we're not born with a gun in our hand nor with the knowledge how to use it. It's a learnt skill, whether you'd call it that or not. You're not born with a knife in your hand. Again, similar. So when you look at caribou dressing and those types of things, can the department maybe look at holding community clinics, in other words, in regions and over the summer or in the fall, of saying this is how you do these types of things, and this is -- you know, more engagement in the sense of hands on showing people because, you know, maybe folks -- I'm not here to answer all the questions; that's your job. But I can't answer all the questions in the sense of my assumption is sometimes people just don't know what to do, and some people don't care. And it's the people we want to enforce on that don't care, but some people just don't have the skills. Is there a better way to get hands on through community clinics, engaging elders, engaging wildlife officers for a better relationship? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I agree very much with what the Member said. I think that that engagement with the communities and ensuring that, you know, those traditional practices, how to properly use a gun to hunt safely, to respect the animals, how to properly, you know, deal with the -- all of the useable parts of the animal, ensuring that that -- if you're -- as a harvester aren't using those particular components that, you know, you're sharing with other members of your communities and, you know, ensuring that that's happening. And a big part of that learning effort is also there are many programs that ECC has - Take a Family on the Land, Take a Kid Trapping. There's other different programs that support community hunts, etcetera, that are resources that the community and Indigenous governments can access to provide these opportunities across the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pursuant to Rule 7.27, I received follow-up information for the following oral questions from the first session of the 20th Assembly:
Oral Questions 428, 432, 433, 440, 449, 453, 466, 479, 485, 513, 514, 522, 526, 540, 541, 546, 549, 562, 567, 569, 571, 575, 576, 578, 612, 658, and 659.
Mr. Speaker, these follow-ups will be printed in full in today's Hansard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to written question asked by the Member for Range Lake on March 6th, 2025, regarding the productivity of operating rooms at Stanton Territorial Hospital.
Later today, at the appropriate time, I will table a document titled Operating Room Activities for Stanton Territorial Hospital.
The Member asked for the total number of scheduled surgeries and day procedures completed in 2024, broken down per month. There were a total of 2,053 surgeries completed at Stanton Territorial Hospital in 2024. The monthly breakdown of Operating Room activity is presented in Table 1 of the tabled document, which is titled Scheduled Surgeries and Day Procedures Completed in 2024.
The Member asked for the total hours worked by all surgical teams for the year 2024. A full time Operating Room Registered Nurse will work 1,950 hours per year. Each service is provided with an allocation of Operating Room days per week. For example, the types of surgeries are scheduled as follows:
Orthopedics surgeries are scheduled on Monday and Wednesday;
General surgeries are scheduled on Monday and Wednesday;
Gynecology surgeries are scheduled on Tuesday and Friday;
Ophthalmology surgeries are scheduled on Thursday;
Ears, Nose and Throat surgeries are scheduled on Wednesday and Friday; and
Urology surgeries are scheduled once per month on Tuesday and Wednesdays.
The Member asked for the number of surgeries and day procedures cancelled over the same period. In 2024, there were a total of 561 surgery cancellations. There are a variety of reasons for these cancellations. 210 were patient generated cancellations, 85 were cancelled by the Surgeon, and there were 81 no shows. In the tabled document, a summary of these reasons is given as well as a break down by month, in Table 2 titled Summary of Rationale for Surgery Cancellations, for 2024.
The Member asked for a full cost accounting of all scheduled surgeries and day procedures completed in 2024. The 2024-25 fiscal year revised operating budget for the operating room is $5,910,000. The 2024-25 revised operating budget for Day Procedures is $3,014,000. Expenses for the year are not due to be finalized until the end of June 2025.
The 2023-24 total expenditures for both Operating Room and Day Procedures was $7,877,643.
The Member asked for the average completed surgeries and day procedures vs. cancelled surgeries and day procedures over a 5-year period.
The breakdown of completed surgeries at Stanton Territorial Hospital for the previous five years is as follows:
607 surgeries completed from January 1 to April 31, 2025;
2,053 surgeries completed in 2024;
1,589 surgeries completed in 2023;
1,447 surgeries completed in 2022;
852 surgeries completed between July 1 and December 31, 2021; and there is no data available from January 1 to June 30, 2021.
*Due to the COVID-19 pandemic response and measures, there were fewer surgeries performed in 2021. There is no electronic data available prior to July 1, 2021.
Further, the total number of surgery cancellations at Stanton Territorial Hospital for the previous five years is as follows:
138 surgeries were cancelled from January 1 to April 31, 2025;
561 surgeries were cancelled in 2024;
507 surgeries were cancelled in 2023;
392 surgeries were cancelled in 2022; and
480 surgeries were cancelled in 2021; and there is no data available from January 1 to June 30, 2021.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic response and measures, there were more surgery cancellations in 2021. There is no electronic data available prior to July 1, 2021.
As indicated in Table 2: Summary of Rationale for Surgery Cancellations, for 2024, of the tabled document, there are a variety of reasons for cancellations that are often beyond Stanton Territorial Hospital’s control. Additionally, when cancellations occur, there is very little lost Operating Room time as same day surgical procedures are often scheduled. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
