Kate Reid

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister speak to whether his Cabinet will be using the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework again in this Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'd be happy to talk to the Minister more fulsomely about this with suggestions. I hope he comes to committee and chats with us about it. But I really, really, really stress that, you know, in the scoping of how you want to go out on an RFP for this that you really take a really careful look at that report, talk to your communicators, find out what's working first before you spend a whole heck ton of money and time on something that will probably give you the same results. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister. That's really great to hear. And to, you know, echo my colleague from Monfwi's statement earlier today, it's really good to hear that this Minister's supporting things over time and getting us there, and I hope she can get us there as quickly as possible. So to that end, is the Minister's department willing to invest further in training local NWT health care workers to increase their skill sets? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Wow, okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are also for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Could the Minister please confirm if the majority of need for agency nurses is in obstetrics? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, really, more a comment than a question well, actually, I'll put a question in there just for kicks. That's good to hear. But fundamentally I think it would give some comfort and understanding on this side of the House of how you wish to strategize generally. If there is not a document to be tabled, perhaps a briefing could be arranged with AOC. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is more of, again, a business plan question. On page 22 no, that's not true. That's not the entire 89 of the business plan, it speaks to EIA's federal engagement approach. I'm curious what work intergovernmental affairs has done thus far on the federal engagement approach for the 20th Assembly and what timelines we're looking at to see that here in this House? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in EIA's business plan under departmental highlights page 87, there is a piece around the communications functional review. So the description of this review is almost identical to the last one done in 2014, which was known as the likely report. And I'm going to argue here today that, you know, the reason that communications doesn't get better is no one really wants to fully implement the recommendations that are in that report, and departments want to continue to do what they are doing, namely, preferring to keep control of their message. And so we continue to ask, we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that clarity.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm although I did hear her say a little bit about this in an earlier answer, so I'll reframe my question on the fly. Can the Minister confirm how local nurses are being able to be or will be able to be trained in labour and delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in a very real way, people are our health care system, and how the dedicated professionals who make up the system are compensated and treated is a major factor in the NWT's health care crisis. I stand with nurses and all workers to have fair and sustainable wages and benefits. To have a resourceful, sustainable, and thriving community, we need to be healthy, and we desperately need health care workers to be proud to work in the NWT health care system that treats them with respect and values their contributions. Nurses, and all our health care workers, are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. I realize these are last minute questions, and I appreciate that. I hope she can get back to me on maybe some of the history of what the department has done to talk to Indigenous midwives.

My next question is why have midwives not been considered in the recruitment and retention strategies that have been applied to nurses and physicians? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.