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.
