Lesa Semmler

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to acknowledge the recent finalization of master service agreements with Alberta Health Services. This is an important milestone. These agreements modernize our partnership, strengthening accountability for the essential supports and services delivered to Northwest Territories residents and funded by the GNWT.

For many years, the GNWT's collaboration with Alberta Health Services has been based on informal arrangements that evolve over time. The new master service agreements formalize this relationship, help reduce legal risks, clarify funding responsibilities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NTHSSA, along with I think -- I can't confirm, I know that we're having conversations with the information privacy -- is there's -- with the cross jurisdictional information sharing, there is none like this in Canada right now and so there's legislative -- not on our part but on their part that -- to be able to do this. That's why there's -- there's a whole working group, I think, within Canada on sharing of health information. However, we are looking at trying to find some quick, shorter solutions, and that is where my -- like, NTHSSA and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, at that level of detail I would have to get back to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all I can say is right now they are collaborating with Alberta to try -- with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, the department is trying to collaborate with Alberta to see what we can do. So once we have the information as what we can do, then we can kind of come up with a timeline of when that can happen. And once we have that, I'll let the Members know. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member has stated, this is an important piece. We have been in the process of compiling what needs to be done working, I think, with procurement to be able to put out the RFP. There are some things that are -- there are challenges within our system, and this is an urgent thing and we're hoping that with the delay that we're working -- we're working with the finance Minister's department to be able to move this forward a little faster. At this time, I think we're looking at the procurement within 2026, early 2026, but I can't confirm that to be exact right now...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have that level of detail. I'll have to get back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in the first response, the NTHSSA has engaged with the staff within the Deh Cho region, and this piece of it is now following the journey of the patients as I mentioned in my Minister's statement. Part of that is going to be seeing the successes through that there are the -- the things that we are doing good, so we don't disturb those things and then the gaps. And part of that will be the analysis afterwards is how do we work with our health professionals and our residents in the region to help fill those gaps. And it has to be driven. And...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as NTHSSA is -- you know, I can bring that back to the health authority. The contract is with the health authority, and the health authority is the one that will be negotiating with them on the new contract, and I'm sure that those discussions are happening in regards to standards and best practices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time I can say that the -- I don't have the exact details, but I will get back to the Member. But what I will say is that the extended health -- or the extended care moved over to the Liwego'ati from the old Stanton -- from the Stanton hospital, the new Stanton hospital back to the old Stanton hospital, and then we just most recently opened up one house of the long-term care beds, and it is kind of a phased approach over the two floors there, so. But I can commit to getting the numbers of how many beds we have available right now and how many are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize a constituent of mine, Lorraine Greenland. Thank you for being here today. And as well as Georgie and Sonny and Grace, Annie. It's just nice to have people in the audience. And I see Kurt and Todd there too, so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.