Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, two out of five people will be diagnosed with cancer, and 30 percent of all cancers are lung, and 80 percent of those are caused by smoking. Obviously, this is a good reason to quit smoking. And I'd like to know what services are provided in the Northwest Territories by the Department of Health and Social Services to help Northerners do exactly that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Nothing further. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is there -- I appreciate where the Minister's coming from, and there's always going to be a push and pull between the -- or the demand for services versus what the government can realistically provide. But when we have our auditors telling us that take a look at how we're spending health dollars because it's unsustainable and it's, you know, causing the government -- the government's public accounts to teeter on a knife's edge, that's a problem that we need to solve.

So is the Minister willing to look at different models of governance for the authorities that would allow...

So in 20 -- the actuals from 2022-2023, the Commission had $3.9 million, and the clinics at 2.7, and now that suddenly inverted, now you see the kind of the opposite proportion, you see the clinics at $3.5 million and the Commission at $2.8 million. So I guess what does that change represent? Is it just a re-profiling of resources or are we moving more -- like, more to the panel itself rather than in-house staff? I can provide more detail if that's still unclear. But that's the change I'm trying to understand. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the electronic medical records system is now deployed in all communities in the Northwest Territories, which is good, but unfortunately it needs to be replaced, which is not so good. And I understand that the replacement cost is somewhere between 20 to $30 million. I know this is an issue because I was seeing my doctor recently and the terminal in the examine room wasn't working, and the system was down. So we had to actually go to his office and figure things out there. So this -- and it's causing an inability for services to be shared with other -- with Alberta...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further at this point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So one to two years, that's, what, 2026? So could the Minister commit to having -- phasing out agency nurses by 2026? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. How many of those could be redeployed to operate a wellness facility? Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was going to ask the Minister if she cares about obstetrics. Clearly, she does, so I appreciate that. So when's this going to kick in, right? Like, because it's -- it sounds like a plan. It sounds like we have the resources coming together. So when can we expect this new model to take over and the agency nurses to be relieved of their contracts? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It just -- and I appreciate that, and it was my sense. But it just seems like if we're trying to -- if we're closing this facility because it's under -- they're both underutilized and is going to save money that is going to help us achieve fiscal sustainability, creating an untested wellness centre that would require new staffing, new resources, new special areas of specialty that we don't have -- we don't have efficiencies around, so it would be piloting a lot of these things, it seems like we'd be replacing a less than optimal facility with an even more expensive...