Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services about nurse practitioners.

So I've heard from many nurse practitioners in the NWT who report not being able to practice to their full scope and, certainly, we had a lot of gaps in our system that we need filled, and there might be potential for nurse practitioners to fill some of those roles. So my first question is what is the NTHSSA or health and social services doing to ensure that nurse practitioners can practice to their full scope and ability? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll take the opportunity, I wanted to ask for the $528,000 that is to be allocated to Aurora College to support the delivery of the practical nurse program, my understanding -- and I could be mistaken on this -- but that the nurse practitioner program at the college was suspended in 2016. It was more formally cut in 2019. But then just recently, in the fall of 2024, formally reinstated.

Can the Minister or the witnesses explain why this amount is coming forward as a supplementary appropriation? Does it have to do with additional money that's required to get this program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to present Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So earlier today we heard the Minister of ITI give an update on work towards increasing labour mobility, but my questions are actually for the Minister of Health and Social Services on a similar topic. So our Medical Professions Act allows us to register and license physicians in the NWT so they can practice medicine here, either they're living here or they work here as locums, but there are some barriers that unnecessarily prevent some doctors coming from elsewhere from being able to work here, particularly specialists.

So the first question is around -- so the NWT...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as the Minister alluded, you know, work has already begun and, in fact, the GNWT's already commissioned four independent analyses and completed extensive research, so couldn't the Public Utilities Board simply use the existing research to speed up its policy development, or does the PUB have to start all over again with its own research; can the Minister clarify? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to take the opportunity to recognize one of our pages - who's just left the room a second ago. Sam MacKay is a Yellowknife North constituent, and I want to thank all the other pages as well here today from St. Pat's High School, which is also in my riding. And I believe Sam's parents were up in the bleachers a few minutes ago but are no longer but wanted to welcome Bill MacKay and Sarah Flaherty to the House as well. Thanks for being here and for being Sam's parents.

Okay, that's great news. Thank you to the Minister for that. Is there other changes the department is working on to the Medical Professions Act that would further reduce barriers to labour mobility, and what are the timelines on those kinds of changes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I wonder if the Minister could provide us with a revised timeline that's sooner than within five years and perhaps even prioritize some of the directives to be completed sooner, especially the ones communities have been asking for, such as the policy on independent power producers or the overly restrictive cap on community generation of renewable energy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board. So on April 16th, the Minister sent directives to the Public Utilities Board on 11 kinds of policy changes that need to be made to allow for the growth of renewable energy generation in the territory. The Minister stated in a subsequent letter to the government operations committee that it's expected to take five years before the policies are fully in effect, but it's hard to see how we can achieve the goals in our 2030 Energy Strategy if we don't even have policies in place before then.

So my...

Mr. Speaker, at the end of March, I attended the Renewables in Remote Communities conference in Whitehorse, and today I'd like to share a few of my takeaways, especially around promising renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives being led by northern and remote communities. One thing that may be of interest is that Arctic Energy Alliance has produced some brand-new mini books and flashcards with words and terms related to energy that are translated into several Indigenous languages. Hopefully, we can get those books to our interpreters here at the ledge.

It became clear that out of all...