Thank you for your both kindness and generosity, Mr. Speaker. Good Speaker. Greatest Speaker. Best Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I got some information with respect to the speech and language pathologists back, and I am curious if the Minister can talk about the challenges of how many young people time out of speech and language support given the fact that there's an age limit and then they get kicked to ECE for responses. Because the challenge, of course, is always to help young people early when it comes to speech and language pathology therapy. Thank you.
Thank you, Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when there's people on the waitlist, whether they're children, adults, you know, from birth to end of life, they are triaged as to the need. And so the waitlists, they will remain on there and be seen based on availability and where they are triaged on the list. So they don't get kicked off the list. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister speak to the fact that Northerners, they're triaged out of the system based on the government servicing Nunavut clients first? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that Nunavut has a contract with the Northwest Territories to be able to provide those services; however, I do believe that we prioritize, you know, all of the -- everyone that's coming into the system, but I'd have to take that back and get more detail on how that would work. But I do believe that if we weren't able to meet the needs, you know -- like, I don't have that level of detail here in the House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer, who will get back to me on that particular thing. I just want to return for clarity.
When a young person is being served between the ages of one and four and they time out of support and services, then they're timed out. That means their time is gone. Just like question period at the end of it.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is, is if they're on the list and approved to get supports but supports aren't available, can the Minister change the policy to make sure that those young people aren't lost in the system because the system is unable to rise to the need or is just incapable. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I said before, they would just -- everybody would remain on the list to be seen and assessed based on their assessment. I believe that we work collaboratively with doing the assessments and then within the schools, they might make recommendations, if the support is being provided in the school what those supports will continue to need. However, as I stated before, that with the staffing levels that we have and the vacancies that we have, we continue to try to manage all of our waitlists within the Northwest Territories. We pull from the different regions and so if there's a higher need, we may send our speech to a region that may need them. However, we will continue to, you know, triage the list. So those that are higher needs, swallowing and things like that, will be assessed first. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
