Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to join my colleagues in welcoming the grade 6 class from William MacDonald School to the House. Thanks for attending, and I met with them very briefly in the chamber earlier, and it was nice to meet them. Thank you.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can't have a teacher in the gallery without recognizing them. That's teacher Hannah Fournier. And I also want to make sure that Tanner is not the only one that is recognized. We also have with us today Jarrett, Natalie, Serenity, Harmony, Achiles, Jasmine, Sawyer, Arizona, Mia, Murray, Jane, Kayla, Aspen, Mia -- second Mia, so two Mias in one class -- Olivia, Carson, Emmett, Hannah, Nathaniel, Colby, Sahia, and Cameron. And so welcome to the gallery today.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to pile on here, I also wanted to welcome the class from William Mac school who I had the pleasure to speak with earlier today and hear from them, hear some of their ideas and questions and to remind them -- I know there's many Yellowknife North students in the class as well -- that they are, in fact, our bosses, and they should remember that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to take a moment to recognize Kate Wilson. She was one of my most favourite former neighbours. She is a guiding light in this city. She's an inspirational woman, and so many people in the North look up to her not only for her mentorship but her kindness. She is a lovely person, and I'm so grateful to call her a friend. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're lucky enough to have some representatives from the YWCA with us in the gallery today. So I wanted to recognize director Adaeze Nwoba; associate director Kate Wilson; housing director Noma Khumalo; and Meaghan Brackenbury, advocacy coordinator. And I want to thank them for all the work they've done, and I want to join in and welcome Ms. Hannah and her grade 6 class to the ledge as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Hay River North. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am -- although I won't name all of them, I'm pretty sure there's some Yellowknife South residents sitting up in the gallery. I also had the chance to speak with the class from William MacDonald and had some very good questions from them. Also happy to say, Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier in my Member's statement, I have three Yellowknife South residents who all happen to be in the gallery at this moment, Quinn Foster, Shanli Carlson, and Savannah Gostlin, all acting as pages this week. Thank you.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we have missed anyone in the gallery, welcome. Thank you very much for allowing us 19 Members to serve you as the people of the Northwest Territories. I hope you enjoy the proceedings. It is always nice to see people in the gallery.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Minister will likely answer my question with the colleges independent. They have a mandate, yada, yada, yada. But, Mr. Speaker, when you're the $34 million contributor, you'd think that they'd be very open to suggestions and guidance. So, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister create a special contribution agreement, a stand-alone or some type of thorough mandate agreement, that will help target and make programs that make training accessible for certification in wood management appliances? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we do have a mandate agreement already with Aurora College, and within that mandate agreement it asks that the college look at programming that is relevant to the needs, the labour market needs of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that's not a yes or no. So just to clarify, the Arctic Energy Alliance has created a -- we'll call it an ad hoc program to meet the needs of communities and Northerners. Mr. Speaker, would she help guide the college in that direction to ensure that they're relevant and meeting the retail needs of citizens of the Northwest Territories through that type of certification and support? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can definitely bring the Member's statement from today to the chair of Aurora College and make sure that he's aware of it, make sure that he's aware of the program that the Arctic Energy Alliance has put in place. But, ultimately, the operational direction of the college and what courses they are prioritizing is up to them. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister provides the money and the target, and the legislature provides the $34 million. Mr. Speaker, WETT training is only offered in the south. Would the Minister draw that attention to the Aurora College to see what they could do to bring programs here in the North so we put our community learning centres that are mothballed to work and Northerners trained so we can have safe homes and certainly accessible training programs? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said, I would definitely raise this with the chair of Aurora College and am happy to do so. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So further to my statement, I wanted to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services more questions about what paramedics are intended to do or not do in small remote communities. So, some of the demand for paramedics in the small remote communities is because of the sense that they'll be able to do things that community health nurses are not allowed to do due to all those health authority rules.
My first question is, are paramedics contracted by the health authority working in these small communities allowed or even expected to leave the health centre and treat patients in their homes or elsewhere? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member has stated, you know, the work that is going to happen over the next couple of years is to analyze if it's possible for -- and how we could implement paramedics into supporting the current model as we need more -- we need to increase the capacity in the health centre. But as for the question, no, NTHSSA does not -- they're not going to be going out of the health centre. Their role would be in the health centre facility. And based on, you know, the outcome of the work that's going to happen over the assessment, there are different levels of paramedics. There's primary care paramedics. You know, there's advance -- so in the capital, you know, for the city, those paramedics that work, work for the city, and those are emergency responding advanced practice. There's the ones that work with the air ambulance. Those are advanced practice. They have -- they sometimes have more skills than the nurses do. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for clarifying. I think I heard clarification that currently that is not the practice, that paramedics are expected to leave the health centre.
So my second question is, is the health authority prepared to contract paramedics to work in health cabins where there is no nurse stationed and there's often no RCMP presence? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as of right now, the work that we are doing in health cabins is to train the community wellness workers to be able to correspond and work with the nurse practitioners that are assigned to the health cabins. And so that work is ongoing right now, but paramedics aren't included in that system at this moment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Member from Yellowknife North. Final supplementary.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that clarification. And finally, are the paramedics contracted by the health authority required to follow health authority rules and protocols, or do they get to just follow some other set of protocols? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the paramedics that work currently in our facilities when there is -- you know, if there is a critical level of staffing, so if they are to work in, say, emergency to support the emergency department, they will work within the guidelines and the policies that are created based on their scope of practice and what they're registered and what their training is. And that's how they would recruit that level of paramedic.
If they're working in the health centre, it's the same. There's guidelines and policies that they have to work with under. And the paramedics are -- you know, they're regulated through, yes, a -- if they're trained in Alberta and they're regulated through the regulatory body through Alberta, there's still an expectation that they are self-regulating and to keep their license and keep active and to be able to work, that they have to stay within their scope that they're trained to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral Questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to know that the health recruitment unit is continuing to do good work for the Northwest Territories. I've been reviewing the Minister's statement that she provided to the House. 12 percent increase is great, but I notice it's not called the health care retention unit, and the thing that's been challenging for filling the nurse vacancy is keeping nurses on the payroll. Many call it a revolving door. 94 percent of nurses have reported burnout.
So can the Minister clarify, of that 12 percent increase in indeterminate staff, how many of those are being retained year on year? So we know when we hire these folks, they are actually staying, they're learning local knowledge, learning how to care for people, and gaining that kind of northern nuance that you need to be successful in providing health care, especially in small communities. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I heard the start of the question, I started trying to pull up data. I do have that data. We do maintain those -- that kind of information. I don't have the data at my fingertips. I did state yesterday, it is accurate that the percentage quota done in terms of the recruitment does not necessarily account for retention. So there is certainly some turnover loss within that percentage in terms of the overall hiring. I am happy to provide those numbers to the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that would be useful to report publicly. So when it comes to the performance of this unit, can the -- currently, my understanding is that they measure their performance by time to fill a position rather than how long the employee lasts in the position. So would the Minister consider either changing the metric of success to that, how long the employee stays, or at least reporting on how long the employee stays? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, perhaps what I'd suggest is that we add it. I think it is certainly beneficial to know overall what percentages we're hitting in terms of our ability to recruit. It allows us to ensure that the recruitment packages remain as supportive as possible but certainly happy to add some other metrics in terms of looking at different ways that we can track the work that is happening within this unit. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Amazing, Thank you. That's exactly what we need to see, because we need transparency. You could say we're recruiting lots of nurses but if we don't know the need, if we don't know how long they're staying, it's not a really good metric. So what is the Minister doing to do the retention piece? Can we change the name to the health recruitment and retention unit, HRRU? Because that is a key piece that we need to do a better job. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, this is a combined effort now. The retention piece does fall not solely within the Department of Finance but also within the Department of Health and Social Services and with the authorities. So absolutely, I want to acknowledge that there's a lot to be done in terms of morale across public service and morale in health care specifically so, again, happy to perhaps provide a longer response, written follow-up response, to the House, detailing some of the efforts between the Department of Finance with our employment satisfaction but also with the Department of Health and Social Services. Because I agree it's an important conversation, and the public service should hear us say it, that we want to make sure they're staying and serving their residents. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of ECE.
To the Minister, the question is, why is her department denying support to elders for contributing to the culture, programs, and revitalizing their language by using the small income and per diems they earn to disqualify them from income support? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I am going to start off by saying that the experience and education that elders bring to, for example, schools and to communities is invaluable.
Mr. Speaker, the income assistance program is set up to meet the monthly needs of residents of the Northwest Territories. It does that by looking at what those basic needs are, to make sure that residents can meet their basic needs. It minuses from that any income that they might need. It adds to that the income exemptions that are available and then determines what the financial needs are from the Government of the Northwest Territories. It's not intended to be a universal basic income. It is set up to meet the monthly needs of a resident of the territory and to ensure that they have access to the finances that they require to do that. And so if somebody is able to do some work and earn some income on their own, then there is a certain amount of that that they can keep. And we were able, in the life of this Assembly, to increase the amount of money that a resident of the territory can earn and can keep without seeing that, you know, come off their monthly income from income assistance. But even so, we want to ensure that we are meeting residents' monthly needs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question is, why is the Minister counting transfers from constituents' bands intended to support treatment and aftercare and travel home as income, disqualifying them from income assistance, when they are the most vulnerable at that point? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would want to be able to follow up particularly with the Member's constituency. It sounds like an instance that's specific to an individual. But if somebody, you know, has support, for example, to travel to and from treatment, income assistance does still support them with their monthly needs while they are away. In addition to that, income assistance exempts income from self-government agreements, treaty agreements, land claim agreements, as well as impact benefit agreements, compensation from residential school settlements, Indian day school settlements, and 60s Scoop settlements, agriculture benefits, and other unearned monies from Indigenous governments as well, and also excludes income that's intended for children.
I have had residents and constituents myself who have gone away to treatment, so if there is a specific issue the Member would like to discuss I am happy to do so. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
