Lesa Semmler

I could let Minister of housing answer, but I don't know if he'll get the answer he wants. Sorry, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, you know, the North the NTHSSA uses agency nurses as a last resort. This is not something that we want to do but when it comes to closing beds, closing units, you know, we seen this happen two years ago when the obstetrics you know, that you know, and we raised it in this House. It was raised in this House that, you know, the costs of the twomonth closure and the impact on all of those families that had to travel due to the closure, you know, if we're talking about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in any one of our hospitals, not just in Stanton, but in any one of our hospitals, so Inuvik and Hay River, you know, the thing is they all have a manager, they all have someone that they have level of acuity. So any given day it's not the same every day. And so the beginning of every shift, you know  and if we're going to get down into operations, the beginning of every shift there is a level of care that's needed for those patients. I mean, I can talk about this all day. I don't know if the Speaker will give it to me but what I can say is that, you know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I think that the problem  like, this is an issue and this is an ongoing issue because even though we are the Northwest Territories and we do referral service to Alberta health, their practitioners are not able to  and the Member has stated  are not allowed to  like, you can't take their requisition because they're not licensed in our territory to go in and do the blood work here. And I know that there's back and forth. It's the same thing. Like, we can't take ours and take it down there and get blood work. So you know, there's a lot of work going...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, and a review has been done. I think it was a recommendation from the 19th Assembly that a review be done on this, and there was a review done. It was finalized late in the end of the last Assembly and so the department right now is working the department of health is working with NTHSSA and the Department of Finance to review and analyze the report and its recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, last week we announced two significant bilateral agreements with the Government of Canada. These agreements secured two federal investments totaling $36.38 million and demonstrate a shared commitment to both improving health care services for NWT residents, generally, and to enhancing the supports for NWT seniors and elders to stay at home longer as they age with dignity, close to their loved ones and community.

Of that total investment, $24.18 million will be provided over three years, under the Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians Agreement, to help strengthen...

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

Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I want to answer that as best as I can but I might you might cut me off. So I'll highlight some of the areas. And I want to be clear that, you know, it's important to note that the use of agency nurses is always the last resort. It's aimed at preventing unit or health care health centre closures and to increase to keep adequate staffing levels, you know, and we've seen that we've had to close areas in our health care before. And right now and I you know, I'll continue to repeat it because it is across Canada that we're having a health care shortage of all...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear. There seems to be confusion around this, and there so within this announcement, I guess what happened was that there is COVID funding that is ending at the end of this fiscal year but there is no layoffs in the NTHSSA as a result of this sunsetting funding. It's important to understand that many positions that were added in this with this funding were never we were never able to staff them, so we were using what we used as casuals. We used float. We used relief workers in a lot of these positions to make sure that these extra...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, it is my intent to share this review with to share this review publicly. I think right now what we're doing as a department is taking the review and reviewing it with different pieces with the recommendations that have been provided, and then we'll be sharing that publicly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in I think when like the Member said, in 2016, I think we transferred into the territorial NTHSSA, and they are governed by the leadership council. So the leadership council Board of Management is made up of regional wellness council chairs. So every region in the Northwest Territories that used to have a board or an authority amalgamated into the NTHSSA, and then they created regional wellness councils. So the regional wellness councils are basically the advisory council for that region but their chair is the member that sits at the leadership council...