Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of health only because they're great questions, and I look forward to her answer.
Mr. Speaker, many parents will tell me that they're concerned that they need the speech and language pathology services, and they're worried about positions not filled and their loved ones, their children, not being seen. And, of course, Mr. Speaker, the last point is they're worried this government is more interested in servicing the other regions in Canada, Nunavut, over our children and our loved ones, Mr. Speaker. So let's get it on the record. How many positions do we have that are specifically designated for speech-language and pathology and how many of them are actually filled currently? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not know the actuals, but I do -- I don't have them at my desk here. But I do know that we do have vacancies, and we've had chronic vacancies throughout the territory in these positions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many parents will say they're worried other regions are more important than their children in this region, Mr. Speaker. I hope that isn't the case.
Mr. Speaker, my next question is built around service response time.
Mr. Speaker, when someone puts in an application and gets the support measures in place saying this child needs help, is there a service standard that we are tied to in some type of legal or regulatory framework that says in other words this child must be seen within 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, etcetera? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the health and social services, because of the chronic shortages, what's happening is that there -- just like in an emergency room, every referral that comes in is triaged and those that have -- like, within the speech, you know, if there's swallowing issues, if there's -- you know, type of issues that are higher triage then those ones will be seen sooner. But I would like to say that this is something that the Minister of ECE and myself are working on because it's been raised, and we -- we're currently working on a solution how to utilize, you know, both of the funding that we get and both of our -- and our budgets for supporting children, especially children in -- school-aged children. So that information, we're still waiting on that from our department so that we can have a plan to move forward with it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, the formative years of a young person are so critical to get positive response. It may not cure them fully, but yet it changes the dignity and the life that they may be able to fulfill in a positive way.
Mr. Speaker, does the department in any way assess looking back on overall a continuum over the last, say, 5 to 10 years on their types of response and assessment times? In other words, have they been able to say they've serviced 90 percent of the young people within six months, that type of assessment. Have they or are they able to do that type of assessment to show they're responding to the needs of Northerners?
Mr. Speaker, I don't have that level of detail here today. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
