Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a great pleasure supporting a motion like this. I think it's in -- I think it's key to some of the mandate many of us has been running on, and I would certainly say, you know, I feel like saying hi, my name is Robert, I'm a healthcare supporter. It's been 560 days since my last election, and I've been fighting for better health care. It's 859 days until my next election, and I'll still be fighting for healthcare improvements, Mr. Speaker. You know, it's just this ongoing fight but, you know what, I promise to be relentless to the end. Actually, that's one of my mottos, being relentless, and I won't give up. And to move the dial or the needle a little further on this particular issue, I think my colleague from Range Lake had pointed out, you know, perfect is the enemy of good. We'll take any improvement we can get, and then we'll build on it. I'm a believer of success begets success, Mr. Speaker. So, yeah, we don't need the perfect solution.
As the clouds clearly are going over the NWT Assembly right now, the tone had changed, it kind of feels similarly or akin to how the gray clouds over health care is. And we continue to raise these things not because it's a bad system, but it needs improvement. And I want to thank the many voices that give us the strength to talk about the issues. And I want to stress that because the strength of their issues are our issues. I mean, when the Member for Range Lake brings forward an issue, it's not just because he's got nothing better to do. But then again, you can clarify that with him. But the thing is the community of the health professionals are saying to him, you know, we need help. When the community you're telling my good colleague from Tu Nedhe about how their community health services are struggling, I mean, he's not just doing it because, again, he's got nothing better to do. He's hearing crisis, and they want their voice echoed in this chamber.
So when we hear about people working together, trying to do this, this is exactly what we're talking about. This is a collaborative approach making positive suggestions on how we can improve this. I mean, if you're looking for failure in here, I don't -- like, in the sense of a bad message, there's not a piece in here. There's not a line saying give me someone's head. There's not a line in here saying, you know, bring them before us on their knees. There's nothing like this. This is all about working together. You know, when we -- that highlights about trying to get the two unions together on the same page, absolutely.
Now, I can appreciate my colleague down the road here as concerns maybe about the wording of the messaging of this but, you know, we must empower groups to work together. And if these two unions are willing to work with the government, we could almost do anything. How exciting that is.
Mr. Speaker, wanting to work together is exactly what the working group concept is and being part of the solution. I mean, how many times does the House hear me talk about or bemoan about the fact that Members are often thought of as an afterthought? We want to be part of the solution. We want to be part of the progressiveness of these communities. Again, we're here to help too. But it's been a little bit of a process here since I've been in this 560 days about, you know, we have all the power and we get to do it all ourselves and we'll tell you when the solution's ready but we'll tell you, and we'll tell you when to vote for it.
Members want to be part of the solution, Mr. Speaker.
Now, I recognize as well some of my community colleagues may be voting for this because they appreciate the file and I hear other community colleagues saying well, this is a Yellowknife issue. I wish you'd see beyond that. This is a healthcare system issue. Yellowknife issues are the same but different than regional issues, and regional issues are the same but different than community issues. And hence everyone has their own dynamics. But it doesn't mean you have to ignore Yellowknife to fix a Deline issue. We can work on them differently at the same time. You know, a solution in Norman Wells may be a solution in Fort Smith and Fort Simpson that is slightly different than Yellowknife. Yeah, work on them all at the same time. We have so many people working on different facets. You know, I hate this frustration of somehow embedding or characterizing this is a Yellowknife only solution or a Yellowknife only motion. This is a territory-wide problem.
Mr. Speaker, some of the -- I'm going to run through these very quickly. You know, for example, locum contracts and we want to talk about them in a public release. Actually, I think that would be a good thing. It's kind of like the sunshine list of our contracts. They're out there, we're honest about what we're paying people, and we're showing people. What better way to be more competitive and transparent. Mr. Speaker, there's no shame in that by saying these are the base pays of what we offer. They may come with benefits, but the reality is these are the base fee. By the way, we do that for most of our employees anyway now so why would we keep this area super secret just because we call the work contract instead of employed?
Mr. Speaker, the reason we -- you know, we want to instill -- very important essence to the agency nurse problem. When we see people coming here, being paid more, leaving and whatnot, it causes frustration. And hence we also see people here, and we've been told stories by the nursing community where folks have just said well, wait a minute, if I quit and I move to California -- and I even heard a lady point out an individual from Australia comes all the way here. I mean, it's hard to imagine that those costs are being picked up. So you have all the glory of living wherever you want in the world and someone picks up all your costs. I mean, these are the type of dynamics that we want to see closing those gaps. Will there ever be a time that there's zero agency nurses? I don't know. But we can work towards it. And we certainly should work with that attitude trying to close that gap to zero. And it's things like that change the retention attitude on how nursing and other types of healthcare workers feel.
As far as pay incentives, Mr. Speaker, I mean I heard the other day about -- from the Minister, you know, like, they have a contract and sort of a way her response being as, you know, we can't do that. I never, ever, ever heard someone saying they wouldn't take more money than their contract currently prescribes. I mean, it would be really nice if people were like that, but the truth is is that if we're going to pay healthcare workers more, who is going to say no? Oh my goodness, you're paying my 10 more dollars an hour; that's a breach of your contract. Like, they're not going to dig it.
You know, and the fact about pay is you know what, it's about money too. I mean, what's wrong with leading the country? And I hate the repetitive story I hear everyone's competing for these people. Who cares? Let's show them we're leading and make them sweat bullets when they find out how much we pay them and show them how much we take care about -- care for them, and how much we're willing to go. I mean, if the Minister wants to bring forward through the Finance Minister clearly, but if the Minister of health wants to push forward a supp of another 20 percent on her budget, I mean I'll support it. Because health care matters. And as a matter of fact, every door you knock on, whether you're in Lutselk'e, whether you're in Deline, health care matters.
Mr. Speaker, it's funny when we talk about the negotiated physician licensing sharing. Actually, it's kind of like a -- the trade barrier is broken down, you know. A license is good here as a license is good there. And I think things like that are extraordinary opportunities. You know, and when we look at, for example, technologies, I would actually extend that for my opinion of saying, like, online bookings. I was listening to something Wab Kinew was talking about the other day, how he was holding up his cell phone -- I won't use it because it's technically a prop -- but he was holding up his cell phone and showing people in Manitoba, you want an appointment, here, book one in the night. Oh, book one on the weekend. You know, like, the attitude of doing things is so much different. I really like that guy, by the way. Shout out to Wab Kinew because he's pretty cool. I really wish he was here at Western Premiers. He was the guy I wanted to meet because he's real. That's why. He's not robotic. He's sincere, but he's in touch with some of the challenges. And I really feel that he cares about the passion of these particular issues. And that's not saying the health Minister doesn't, but I'm just saying he has a way of communicating that passion. And I think Manitoba's quite lucky to have him.
Mr. Speaker, when I hear about emerging technologies, it's not emerging. Booking online, it's not emerging. Transferring your file, e-file to Alberta when you need a specialist to look at you, and it's not an emerging technology being able to dial in and find your own file like you can in other jurisdictions. These are literally catching up to the modern age. We're not even advancing progressiveness in health care; these are catching up.
Mr. Speaker, I want to speak of a little frustration given the chance here is that doctors will be frustrated. We've seen the statistics. We've pulled them. We talked about 50 percent rates, challenges of staffing our specialists, hearing about some who have left, some who are planning to leave. And, you know, often we hear things like from the doctors directly themselves, would you just let us schedule our own stuff. Let us schedule our own files. Let us manage our own schedules. Let us arrange our own surgeries. We will work with each other and cover each other. And you see that loyalty from the medical community. So I say what type of -- you know, what larger bell do we need to ring to acknowledge there's a crisis here? Things are falling down. Things are challenging. It's true things are working but things I think are getting by on the thinnest of possibilities in hope that they're struggling, they're losing.
Mr. Speaker, when you hear about the challenges the medical association has brought forward just to keep the emergency room open, was that the bell of crisis that no one was listening to?
Mr. Speaker, again, I just want to circle back as I want to close here, and I would talk about the risk. Many of the professionals have put great -- I'll say personal risk in jeopardy by coming forward and talking to us, talking to others. They're concerned that the public administrator isn't the right fit or they're not seeing it through the right communities in the sense of community conversations that is. They're not hearing their concerns. They're bringing them to us. And, you know, they've reached the point of saying they don't care anymore; they're willing to risk it. And to me, that speaks passion, that speaks volumes about how important this matter is to these people, that they must feel that they put it all on the line to make sure it doesn't crumble.
Mr. Speaker, I want to finish by -- I'll finish-finish by saying I'm very grateful for the healthcare system we have. I have not been the product of it, but I have certainly been a user of the system very much my whole life. In other words, I wasn't born here but I was certainly -- I've had the pleasure of getting excellent service. Like so many of us here, I doubt any of us would deny that they offer nothing but gold standard. And we are just trying to show them the same type of respect that they give every one of those patients who walks through the door and says, hey, I need some help. And now they're coming to us and saying hey, we need help too. And I can't stress enough this isn't a teardown motion; this is a build-up motion. And I need that that -- ensure that that's loud and clear. This is a build-up the system, collaborative approach, welcoming approach, trying to be a friend of the system and trying to be part of the solution. So if you heard something else, give me a call, I'll walk you through it and show you that we mean well and we want this endeavour to succeed.
So, Mr. Speaker, I'll do it for my good colleague just in case, I know he'll be asking for a recorded vote, so I'll make sure that that gets noted on the record now so it doesn't get forgotten. So anyway, thank you, colleagues, for listening and to our healthcare workers, we need every one of you, please don't leave. Thank you.
The Member from Range Lake. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. The Member for Monfwi. The Member for Frame Lake. The Member for Great Slave. The Member for Yellowknife North. The Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. The Member for Sahtu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand.
The Member for Thebacha. The Member for Yellowknife South. The Member for Kam Lake. The Member for Hay River North. The Member for Hay River South. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The Member for Nunakput.
Colleagues, all in favour, 9. Opposed, zero. Abstentions, 7. Motion has carried.
---Carried
Motions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, colleagues. This was a good discussion. I want to respond to a bit of what I heard today.
The motion I've provided is discrete in the sense that we are looking at our current practice in this House and whether it is something that we would like to consider for the online forum, how we do business as Members. Yeah, it is not about infringing on the freedom of speech in any other fashion.
The broadness of this motion allows the committee to study and recommend actions which are for the public's knowledge which are then voted on by all Members. There is no final decision being made here today. There are several checks and balances before or if any, indeed, changes are made to the code of conduct.
Having respect for each other in this House doesn't mean we need to agree. It means we debate policy, not personalities. I feel that if you can't appropriately argue the content of debate without attacking someone's intent or character, in the rules of our House that's something that the Speaker would rule on. Being honourable means respecting your colleagues. Both our elders and our youth are watching us here and outside of these walls. I also think of the principles of consensus. We're not here to defeat or discredit or lie about each other. If impugning motive to Members is unacceptable in this House, my question, I suppose, with this motion is why should it be acceptable online?
Consistent behaviour strongly contributes to perceptions of integrity and encouraging Members to behave consistently in all and public contexts helps build trust and confidence in individual Members and the Assembly as a whole. I would like for standing committee to investigate what other jurisdictions have done to encourage civil and truthful discourse amongst their Members online. And regardless of the outcome of the vote, I really do honestly thank Members for an open and frank conversation here today. Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you.
The Member for Great Slave. The Member for Yellowknife North. The Member for Thebacha. The Member for Yellowknife South. The Member for Kam Lake. The Member for Hay River North. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The Member for Nunakput. The Member for Frame Lake.
All those opposed, please stand.
The Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. The Member for Yellowknife Centre. The Member for Range Lake. The Member for Monfwi.
All those abstaining, please stand.
The Member for Hay River South.
Colleagues, all in favour, 9. Opposed, 4. Abstentions, 1. Motion has carried.
---Carried
