Lesa Semmler

Mr. Speaker, you know, if this is a CFS -- if there are any CFS investigations, those are children that we are talking about. Those are highly confidential, sensitive investigations. If there are criminal -- you know, things that go forward, then they go to the RCMP and criminal charges would be filed, and those would be in the courts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member is referring to a current investigation, I cannot, you know, discuss any investigations publicly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure of how detailed, like, the vacancy -- the vacancy information that we have, but I can commit to providing the most recent vacancy information that we have. But I'd like to say, however, Mr. Speaker, that in doing exit interviews, you know, staff are choosing to leave due to many different issues in primary care. Many are departing for sick family members that live outside the NWT that they've disclosed or reasons related to family and child care. Mr. Speaker, there have been two NPs that have left primary care since the move -- or there have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with no added resources in primary care, the delivery model has been reorganized with the intent to deliver a more equitable access to service aligning the restructuring with the transition to Liwego'ati proved to be relatively a seamless process. The ten teams involved in the relocation would primarily be absorbed to fulfill the additional staffing requirements resulting in the potential dissolution of several teams. Blaming the way the reform and operation changes that are happening for all the negativity and reduced efficiency overlooks the historical...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: 2023-2024 Annual Report Director of Child and Family Services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this has come up many times in the House, and NTHSSA's policy was put in place to protect the health and safety of all staff. Under the Northwest Territories Safety Act, the employer is required to take all responsible measures to ensure the health and safety of their employees. And nurses in the health centre may do home care and home care assessments during the day that are scheduled, but they are not first responders, Mr. Speaker. They're not the ones that run out to the emergencies. They are trained to do services within their health centre with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, home care provides -- in all of our communities, we have home support workers and they provide bathing and making meals, nursing services for wound care and health checks, help with organization, and taking medication. In some communities, they provide palliative care for those who are dying and want to be close to home and family members. They loan out equipment, such as bathroom equipment and walkers. They do provide respite care to help out in the home so caregivers can get a break. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am unaware of how many children are on the waitlist in the Tlicho region. But what I can do is I can commit to getting those numbers. I also would like to highlight that, you know, the waitlist, yes -- however there is a waitlist, our speech and language pathologists that we do have are seeing -- and what they're doing is they're triaging so they're seeing youth under 5 and then youth between 16 -- 6 and 17 who have severe needs, so safety issues -- so speech-language is not just for speech but it's also for swallowing, so if there -- we're utilizing the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the actual numbers of how many speech-language pathologists that we have. But what I do know is that many of those positions that we do have across the Northwest Territories are vacant. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, diversity and inclusion training is available to all health and social services system staff, including specific workshops on the diversity, inclusion in the workplace training, 2SLGBTQQIA+ 101 inclusive workplace awareness training, mitigating unconscious bias training. They also have PDI that they can use for other training. There is other self-learning training if health and social services staff wish to take on, but these are the training that we do have through diversity inclusion. Thank you.