Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From what the information that I have on file is that this was work of the working group, the emergency room working group that initiated and recommended these changes so that we would change from four physicians working throughout the day versus the three physicians plus a general -- like, a general practitioner which would help because of the specialization of the emergency room specialty, that this will help, you know, flow of patients, and it would also, from the understanding from the working group, that this could help promote recruitment and retention in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to ask that this House respect that the public administrator's position is the public administrator, and that we honour that. We don't -- you know, we don't call each other names in here, and we shouldn't call people that we have working for us different terms.

Point of Order

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate this question. Within the last week, we've been talking a lot about -- myself and with the leadership of both the department and the NTHSSA on the struggles that we're hearing, not just from physicians, it's from MLAs that have raised issues on behalf of them, locums have brought forward to the senior physicians, like the territorial medical director. And so what we're looking at is we're finding that the general practitioners, you know, when they get their two letters of reference and they've got their letter of good standing, that process...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to -- first, I want to say yes, that is part of the process. The second piece that I just want to explain a little bit more is that one of the things that we struggle with, and this is what usually ends up being the biggest issue that comes to my office when it is an NIHB client, is when the escort is being requested as an exception because it doesn't meet the criteria that the federal government lays out for a non-medical escort, is that we don't have the authority to approve that exception. That exception has to be sent to the federal government, and our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, there are -- you know, it's based on the community, again, but there are CHRs that are more comfortable doing different age groups and so, you know, sometimes you'll see CHRs that might be more comfortable being in the schools or working with elders and less comfortable talking about sexually, you know, transmitted diseases. But those are things that if the community is needing those things, they should raise them within -- you know, with the CHR, with the health centre that they live in, with the regional council -- regional wellness councils. There's members...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community health representative in the regions, along with the regional wellness councils, the staff within that community, we don't audit what they do because the health promotion activities are driven from the community that they represent, and so we don't want to set, you know, things in motion that necessarily are dictated by somebody that's, you know, sitting somewhere in the region or in the capital to -- especially in the small communities. So we encourage that autonomy in those communities. So if there CHRs in those community, they can work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate this question, yes, and non-seniors, because there is no income threshold on -- or sorry, seniors, there's no income threshold so those just automatically renew every year. Because the extended health program is based on income, there is an annual CRA that needs to be added to their application. However, I've directed my department to put in clearer processes as this -- you know, we're hearing this, that there's vacancies -- or there's gaps in people that are applying. So we'll take that back, and we'll look at how we can streamline that process better or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the public administrator is working full-time. They're travelling around throughout the territories. I'm not going to release publicly where he is at every given moment. I don't keep track of that. He's got a responsibility to work full-time and report back to me. And as long as the objectives are being met and I'm meeting with him regularly, weekly, myself, then, you know, I will ensure that the work is continuing and that there's changes that are happening. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned previously, that NIHB is done differently in every region and what I -- what I mean differently is that even in Nunatsiavut, they have drawn down -- with their Indigenous government has drawn down the -- to implement the NIHB -- administer the administration. So even in -- and I raised this even with Newfoundland health Minister that they don't even deal with it because it's dealt with their Indigenous government. So every jurisdiction is different. BC has a First Nation health, and that's who administers, and so if you're Inuit in BC, you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I committed in standing committee -- in the public standing committee, we will -- as the public meetings of the public administrator, we will release those publicly. Thank you.