Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that level of detail with me, but I can get back to the Member with those numbers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we will be publishing right shortly is the people strategy which goes into detail on our updated plan for recruitment and retention that's guided by feedback from staff and residents. I'm looking forward to being able to brief standing committee on that strategy. While the success of this strategy is -- will not be seen instantly, it aims for this as to be continuous improvement and feedback from the staff. So one of the things with part of the question is assessing the progress in small and remote communities, so one of the key areas that we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Ms. Denise McKee, the executive director of the NWT Disability Council who is joining us here today in the gallery. As we begin National Accessibility Week today, I want to acknowledge and commend her leadership and the council's partnership with GNWT which continues to advance inclusion and support for people with disabilities across our territories. Welcome to the House, Ms. McKee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned -- and I don't want to keep going but it -- you know, with youth under 18, if they are looking for top surgeries, that is the route that we are looking at right now, if that is an insured services that Canada does provide, we will find the routes to do that and the department has been directed to begin looking at that.

One thing I would like to say, though, is although, you know, there is direction from the government, it is the health care people that actually are on the floor of -- you know, when our residents do, it's the nurses. We have nurses that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the support that we have from Alberta, we have physicians here in the Northwest Territories that do provide this care. It's kind of like MAID. We have some physicians that do provide MAID. We have some physicians that do provide transgender care; that's a safe care for them to access. And with their practitioner, they work with their practitioner on how they move through the system. Alberta currently -- there are no surgeries done in Alberta currently so bottom surgeries and things that are done, there's only one place in Canada that those are done, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when any Northwest Territories resident arrives to any health facility, they are triaged. And especially in the emergency, there is the triage, the CTAST that every patient is triaged. And so based on their -- what their complaints are and what they're coming in for, then that is what designates their priority. If like their symptoms or something changed while they're waiting to -- they're encouraged to go back to the registrar and have a nurse reassess them. There are -- you know, and I think the thing what I would like to say is that the staff that are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, first of all I'd like to say, like, you know this type of feedback is the valued feedback that we have received and that we are examining ways to increase professional development support. With right now what we have is the PDI, which is a fixed current funding envelope for all health care staff, however, allocating more to the nurse practitioners in this right now would actually decrease it to the health practitioners that are in this. The program is -- it's actually related to their jurisdiction. So whether you live in Yellowknife, you may get $2,000...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If Mr. Speaker would be kind enough to let me respond to this one, so I might need a little bit more time but if not, you can let me know. Because I think a lot of these answers, to fully understand how nurses are regulated are going to take a lot more time than I have left. So what I will say is that nurse practitioners are regulated through CAN. The nurse practitioner scope of practice is defined by legislation and applies to standards of practice through CAN. Operationally, nurse practice is aligned with the role for which they are hired. So, example, a nurse...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do provide mental health counselling across the Northwest Territories; however, there are some vacancies in some regions and that we continue to struggle with as many of our counsellors within our program, as the Member has said, you know, they are clinical counsellors and they should have -- be able to register, and we encourage them to register as soon as they are hired on under that, which also then, like the Member says, provides a barrier. Some of the people that have been working in our system for years. But we do provide virtual telephone counselling and fly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while there's limited access to care in small communities, patients often have to travel elsewhere. And with our limited, you know -- Members of this House have brought up many times other alternative measures that we are looking at right now as virtual care and also with the public administrator going into each of the regions to see what is actually needed and what can be implemented as soon as possible in those small communities that could help promote the health of the people in those communities while reducing their need to always have to travel into...