Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community health representative in the regions, along with the regional wellness councils, the staff within that community, we don't audit what they do because the health promotion activities are driven from the community that they represent, and so we don't want to set, you know, things in motion that necessarily are dictated by somebody that's, you know, sitting somewhere in the region or in the capital to -- especially in the small communities. So we encourage that autonomy in those communities. So if there CHRs in those community, they can work within the community, they can see what's going on in the community, and then they can use the tools that we have developed within the health and social services, public health, you know, Office of the Chief Public Health officer, many of those things, and if they're having issues, then they should raise those issues with their COOs so that way, like, if -- then we know how to support them to get the information to them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What formats such as radio, pamphlets, posters, are used in health promotion campaigns to target different demographics, such as youth and elders? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that question and, again, as I've travelled through -- you know, and I'll take an example in Fort McPherson, because I know they are very active on their radio, so any member can go in in Tsiigehtchic. The CHR goes on the radio and talks about things that the community, that she's seeing, you know, and stuff like that. So any CHR with the information that they have that's supporting -- you know, that we can provide them, if they need more information from the NTHSSA or within the department, you know, to raise that, you know, recently. And thank you to the MLA as well is highlighting the need for some education on toxic drugs, and that is now publicly on the website so that any CHR can use that information to do community presentations. And, again, it's encouraged that they are autonomous to be able to do the things that are needed in their community in all kinds of means. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister what areas of health promotion are prioritized in small communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, there are -- you know, it's based on the community, again, but there are CHRs that are more comfortable doing different age groups and so, you know, sometimes you'll see CHRs that might be more comfortable being in the schools or working with elders and less comfortable talking about sexually, you know, transmitted diseases. But those are things that if the community is needing those things, they should raise them within -- you know, with the CHR, with the health centre that they live in, with the regional council -- regional wellness councils. There's members throughout all of our communities. And then that way, the community can develop and support what needs to be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. NIHB is a federal program. The GNWT health department can administer -- sorry, can the Minister explain what the rules make it difficult for eligible NWT residents to access NIHB when they are sick or injured outside the NWT, and does she provide this feedback for the federal government as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for raising this issue. This issue has come up with residents who are using the non-insured health benefits program. The non-insured health benefits program, as you said, is a federal program, so we, on behalf of the federal government, administer parts of their program. Part of the program that we do administer is supporting First Nations and Inuit with medical travel when it's beginning from the Northwest Territories out, and then there's a process that gives them an approval for escorts through that same process when they're leaving the territory as if there is a medical need to leave the territory.
The issue that the Member is raising, and this has been raised in the House, is when people leave the Northwest Territories and they go into another province or a territory, every province and territory has a different agreement with the federal government. Some provinces may not even administer medical -- non-insured health benefits and, therefore, individuals who have status numbers or Inuit N numbers have to deal directly with NIHB and their office -- you know, their federal office.
So when they're leaving, it's very complicated. We try our best to ensure that our staff are very familiar, but I am raising this at every point in every issue, and I'm actually working on a -- because now we have an Indigenous federal minister and, you know, my hope is is that she has the struggles that we all had with NIHB as an Indigenous person from a smaller community, that we will be able to have more fulsome conversations as the understanding of the greater necessity that it should be being able to wherever you are to access NIHB across Canada, that you get the same type of benefits. And so we are continuing to work -- I am continuing to push that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding that the medical travel process is NIHB application, and since the medical travel program modernization is underway, will the new medical travel program include ways of making NIHB more accessible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to -- first, I want to say yes, that is part of the process. The second piece that I just want to explain a little bit more is that one of the things that we struggle with, and this is what usually ends up being the biggest issue that comes to my office when it is an NIHB client, is when the escort is being requested as an exception because it doesn't meet the criteria that the federal government lays out for a non-medical escort, is that we don't have the authority to approve that exception. That exception has to be sent to the federal government, and our staff have to wait on that approval. And they do not work, you know, around the clock like our staff do from 7 to 11 seven days a week, our medical travel staff work. They work the regular office hours in Ottawa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the short-term, will the Minister work closely with MLAs to sort out constituents who are struggling with NIHB applications when we flag these issues to her office so we can solve the problem faster? Also, Mr. Speaker, is that proper posting and also medical travel insurance is much needed. Can you maybe help explain that or to your constituents? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think when this issue comes up, what I can say is I'm always willing to work with Members when they bring these issues forward, and I think my office has, you know, even on weekends and everything, has tried to ensure that they are doing their due diligence to turn this issue around. However, sometimes when it's out of our control because it's in a different jurisdiction, then we have no leverage on if they're in a different province. So that means that they have to access the services in that province if they've travelled there on their own, and that's why I think this is important for everybody in the Northwest Territories, you know, especially those who tend to just, you know, weekend trips -- and I know I've said this in the House before, but getting medical travel insurance through -- you know, there's banks and different ways that you can get it. Some credit cards have them. It is vital so that way when you have peace of mind when you're travelling. If you get sick, you know, there's things in those travel things that will help you and support you and support your family while you're there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too am going to join in on the question regarding the DEAs in this Fort Simpson and the DDC in the -- DDEC in the region, Mr. Speaker. So for those listening, Mr. Speaker, just to clarify, of course, this problem applies equally across the NWT to all elected authorities and councils, so it isn't just a Fort Simpson issue. It's a Yellowknife issue. It's a Smith issue. It's a Tu Nedhe issue. It's a territory issue.
So, Mr. Speaker, my question here, to be very focused here, is strictly built around this simple premise and clarification that's needed. The elected officials and the community are telling me they feel like a puppet advisory board and feel they are not in charge of their one employee and, as such, there's great confusion. So in other words, this is leaving everyone wondering are they a management board or an advisory board which ultimately is run and controlled by ECE. Would the Minister clarify what the elected people for the people on these boards is really doing there? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our district education authorities and our district education councils do have a governance role. Within the Northwest Territories, we do have a decentralized system. The governance roles within those boards are setting mission, vision, goals, objectives, developing and reviewing policies, procedures, providing guidance and direction to administration, developing strategic plans, monitoring and evaluating implementation plans and procedures, allocating funds and resources, training members, ensuring effective risk management policies are in place, making sure federal/territorial/municipal laws are followed, hire supervisors and evaluates the superintendent. That's the role of the DECs. And there is quite a lengthy manual that does review roles, responsibilities, of these DECs and DEAs, and yes, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, governance roles is not necessarily authority roles. So my question now is can ECE, or is it the superintendent, dissolve the boards when they don't like what they want to hear or don't like what the ECE -- sorry, DEC or other types of councils and advisory board want to say to them? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, superintendents do not have the authority to dissolve a DEA or a DEC. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard from words in the community, so I'm going to thread this needle carefully of course, that there's concerns that they -- the board may be dissolved or the authority may be dissolved based on the fact that they don't like the position the board has taken.
Mr. Speaker, is the department putting pressure through the superintendent with this particular position, and if the board wanted to address the superintendent, who is really in charge; is it ECE, or is it the board? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was two questions there. So to the first question, the answer is no.
To the second question who is in charge, so the DEC has the responsibility of hiring and selecting and working with the superintendent. And within the legislation, there is also a concert and it works in concert with our Public Service Act and the collective agreement under the NWTTA. So that's an important thing to consider there as well, is that there are considerations under that too. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So earlier today we heard the Minister of ITI give an update on work towards increasing labour mobility, but my questions are actually for the Minister of Health and Social Services on a similar topic. So our Medical Professions Act allows us to register and license physicians in the NWT so they can practice medicine here, either they're living here or they work here as locums, but there are some barriers that unnecessarily prevent some doctors coming from elsewhere from being able to work here, particularly specialists.
So the first question is around -- so the NWT requires a specialist position to have a Royal College exam and designation whereas this is not required in some other jurisdictions, such as Alberta or Ontario. So is the Minister looking at changing our requirements so that we're more in line with other jurisdictions so we can welcome more specialist doctors currently working in other provinces to be able to work here too? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate this question. Within the last week, we've been talking a lot about -- myself and with the leadership of both the department and the NTHSSA on the struggles that we're hearing, not just from physicians, it's from MLAs that have raised issues on behalf of them, locums have brought forward to the senior physicians, like the territorial medical director. And so what we're looking at is we're finding that the general practitioners, you know, when they get their two letters of reference and they've got their letter of good standing, that process takes about two to three days, and then that was the -- that is kind of where we ended. And then most recently, the issue about this came up. So I did follow up with the department and that it was something that was done, and then it was waived for a while, and then it was put back, and I think right now it is -- under my understanding is that this will be waived again. So hopefully that will help streamline to be in it line with the rest of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Okay, that's great news. Thank you to the Minister for that. Is there other changes the department is working on to the Medical Professions Act that would further reduce barriers to labour mobility, and what are the timelines on those kinds of changes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is actually a lot of work going on at the national level, and so there is -- at the health Minister meetings, this was a hot topic of all Ministers, that we all raised this issue that there needed to be more -- the physicians to be able to move freely within the -- or within Canada so that way that they could assist in other areas when needed a lot more easily. And then -- but so where we are right now is, you know, with the new health Minister, I'm hoping that I'll be able -- as I said, we're planning meetings with the new Ministers. One session has concluded. That we will -- and this will be on the radar as to what the topics -- like, what are the highlights of the new Minister of health, and, you know, bringing forward this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Premier's sessional statement, he celebrated the new emergency room plan as being codeveloped, and yet I hear very different from the frontline. The Minister of Health and Social Services explained what went into the co-development. Was it sitting down with doctors, nurses, and other staff to figure out what it needs; like an interest-based negotiation and build a cohesive plan, or was it we listened to the presentations to the standing committee from the doctors and we implement their recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Mr. Premier.
Sorry, Minister of Health and Social Services. Sorry about that. Oh, sorry. Can you repeat the question, Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. My apologies. It was in the Premier's sessional statement, but it is the responsibility of the Minister of Health and Social Services. Will she explain to the House how she codeveloped the ER plan with staff, doctors, nurses, everyone else who works to support the emergency department. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From what the information that I have on file is that this was work of the working group, the emergency room working group that initiated and recommended these changes so that we would change from four physicians working throughout the day versus the three physicians plus a general -- like, a general practitioner which would help because of the specialization of the emergency room specialty, that this will help, you know, flow of patients, and it would also, from the understanding from the working group, that this could help promote recruitment and retention in the emergency department for physicians. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Well, I hope it does because adding a shift without the doctors to fill it seems to be a problem here.
Mr. Speaker, are all the shifts, these four -- there's four shifts in the ER now. Are all the shifts currently scheduled covered through June to August of this year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have information up until June, and what I have until June is that the shifts are covered. So I don't have the other information. So I can get back to the Members with that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I could get ahead of the Minister on this one. I do have some of the information until August. I recognize it's still being developed, but at least 22 days have only one doctor, and there are four days with zero doctors. So how is the Minister assessing whether or not this new program -- this new thing is actually working? Because these new shifts are not filling up. So what is she going to do to fill these shifts urgently? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I would like to say is that with the new locum rates that are being -- we are already getting an uptake of people contacting to come to work, and so the department -- like, the OMAC, the office of medical credentialing, is working with those and working with NTHSSA as well as Hay River health authority, to look at their staffing levels within the health authority, and a lot of times staffing schedules are done in increments. And this is something that is not new and so as the -- as we get locums, you know, people apply, and then we fill up the positions. And usually, even in nursing, like, some nursing in the past would be on a six-week schedule. So there would be nothing after that six-week schedule until two weeks before when that schedule is done. That is -- there's different scheduling that has been put in place for -- and so with physicians, what we do is we go as far as we -- you know, a month or two, and then we fill them as we need because, you know, historically, the Northwest Territories has been around 50 percent physicians so we rely a lot on locum physicians, and that's not new to this territory as well. This has been happening in the whole 20 some years that I've been part of this system, and so those -- as we continue to recruit, this keeps going, we'll fill those. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services further to my colleague's questions.
Is there a mechanism or a thought of the Department of Health and Social Services to work with other jurisdictions to create a cross-border agreement with other provinces and territories to ensure residents get care when they need -- when and where and can be transported home if needed? And this is looking at a new way to do business, to support our residents that may need emergency travel or emergency health care in other jurisdictions, if needed. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.
