Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in order to keep the emergency room doors from closing, a shift bidding process was brought forward by the health authority, which was very successful, and we were able to recruit the locum doctors we needed to prevent that from happening. At the time, it was said this process would be retired but it would inform future decisions. Can the Minister relay to the House how this successful strategy will change staffing retention and recruitment in the future for NTHSSA? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
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 seeing more vacancies for our Christmas and next summer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, that seems to be a change in plan. So I must be mistaken in that this was going to be abandoned and they were going to move to a more sustainable model of staffing. So what is the plan for -- not for doctors but for nurses and the allied medical professionals who work in the ERs? Because they need to be compensated as well. They're working very hard, and they're as frustrated with their working conditions as any doctor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the physicians are contracted to the NTHSSA through their own bargaining process, the nurses and other allied health professionals, they do their bargaining through the collective agreement currently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. So it sounds like the Minister is saying that because of that collective agreement, we can't offer any kind of labour market supplement or wage -- or shift premium or something like that. What options does the Minister have available to her that she could work with the union to bring this forward? It must be possible because we've been having these discussions about health care. We saw what happened during COVID. We have a Private Member's bill that we've been debating as well. Clearly, this is an issue that needs to get fixed. We need to compensate nurses. When's the Minister going to do it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
