Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the main part of -- you know, and other Members have stressed this, was we -- the main part was for the public administrator to ensure that what messaging was coming from this government through our priorities was being actioned within the NTHSSA. And with that direct line, we've now been able to focus on areas where we -- and I've said in this House, we have been focusing on not just on small communities, on the high priority, the areas that are most important to the residents, which is that first contact. And within that, the priorities -- the other piece...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in December, myself, the public administrator, the deputy minister, we briefed committee on the public -- the Minister's work plan. There, however -- so there are many areas that the public administrator has been directed to work on. There are some things that are -- some deliverables that have had extended timelines due to certain aspects, but I don't agree with the comment that there are many -- there are many of the things that are in progress. There are a lot that have been completed. There is still some work that, you know, is delayed. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the health authority's preference is to bring specialists to the Northwest Territories; however, all the specialists are not always available to travel to the Northwest Territories as they service Alberta residents at the same time. So within access to care, we provide them with the travel to Alberta for that care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my deputy minister and the public administrator are working on this, you know, and I believe that they will be coming forward to me with this information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we do have for the Inuvik region, which services all of the communities, is we do have an Indigenous patient health navigator. However, within our health services and all our health centres, anyone needing information around the services that they can -- they do provide and how to access those services should be readily available by any health centre. So if there's information that the Member is wanting exactly, you know, feel free to reach out to my office so we can have -- you know, we can send out to the health centres specifically some information...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work that's being done, the analysis that's being done on the out-of-territory physician services, is in the -- the analysis is being completed within the health sustainability unit team. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I would like to say on that is that, you know, in this House, you know, we've heard time and time again how it's impacted within education; however, a lot of these supports are -- you know, I think -- we know we don't have enough positions or whatever in ECE -- in the schools. You know, we're bound by what our budget is. We're bound to be able to provide the services, and we try to reallocate as much to the programs as we can. Within health and social services, it's the same area. Jordan's Principle has been supporting health and social services as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the mental health and speech-language, both -- for years, both the education and I think when -- and within health have had separate budgets, so the K to 12 I can't speak to that. That can go to the Minister. But where the health authority lies is when those children have needs for speech and those can -- those referrals are made to the speech pathology through a referral process. And they can be self-referral from families, from physicians, from the schools. And we provide those services; however, you know, right now we're challenged with a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, there are timelines. And like any other year we have, we ended up having delays. You know, there was the Dehcho journey that was part of this mapping of -- you know, with medical travel. That was one piece that was delayed. There are many different parts that are going on. And the Member's statement was people strategy. Well, when we went out and we heard from the -- myself, the public administrator, the deputy administrator, and the CEO went out and heard from staff, there was a lot more outside of the health and social services NTHSSA area so we had...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the years there's been many different ways to try and analyze this and right now, what this government has done is we have highlighted the medical travel piece, which also includes out-of-territory physician services, which is being analyzed right now by the health sustainability unit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.