Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the commitment that the government will be spending $50 million on housing during each of the next three years is significant. We have been working towards this since the beginning of this Assembly. This wasn't something that we just came up with a few weeks ago. And we've been engaged in advocacy for housing both through our committees as Regular Members and in individual meetings with the Minister, that I know many of us have had, trying to figure out a practical path forward on this. So we're starting to see the fruits of those labours, and I am...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the health authority tracking the number of expected retirements of doctors and nurses over the next three years in order to target its recruitment and workforce planning efforts appropriately? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hopefully we still have some healthcare workers that have hung on and are continuing to watch because I would like to ask some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services around healthcare workforce planning.

So we know that there are almost 50 percent vacancy rates for local family physicians and specialists in the territory, and the health authority has been saying that that might not be a problem because maybe we don't need that many doctors if patients are sometimes better off seeing another practitioner instead such as a nurse.

My question, first, when...

Mr. Speaker, I don't have anything more to add. I'll just ask for a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I want to thank the Member for Monfwi for seconding the motion, and I want to thank the Member for Range Lake for coming up with the idea for this motion in the first place, as a way to show nurses and healthcare workers that we see their struggle. We see the pain that they endure amidst staff shortages and increased demands trying to keep our healthcare system afloat and do right by the patients that they try to help day after day after night after night.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot run a good quality healthcare system if the majority of our nurses and doctors...

Mr. Speaker, I cannot support a return to the old affirmative action policy. But I also cannot give me wholehearted endorsement of the new Indigenous employment policy because I do not believe it can achieve its intended objectives.

Mr. Speaker, if this motion is asking me to take a position on which one do I support, the affirmative action policy or the Indigenous employment policy, I will do neither because I believe we are having the wrong conversation entirely.

The few constituents who did reach out to me about the Indigenous employment policy expressed a common concern, and I think it was...

Mr. Speaker, collective bargaining often ends up being a big fight. It pits employer against employee. It's seen as a zero-sum game where one side wins and one side loses. It's assumed that what the employer wants, in this case the GNWT, is to pay its staff as little as possible and get away with treating them badly. This assumption results in a very adversarial and confrontational process of collective bargaining. But what if we didn't assume that what the GNWT wants and what employees want is so different or so far apart? What if the GNWT and staff both have strong common interests, like...

Mr. Speaker, today I want to pick up the ball on advocacy that was ongoing in the last two assemblies around reestablishing an adult day program for seniors with dementia. Many seniors at some stage of Alzheimer's or dementia want to continue living at home supported by a partner or family members, and we should be respectful of our elders' wishes. It also makes economic sense to support families to continue caring for their loved ones at home. It costs the territory much more to move elders into a long-term care facility. But many of us know firsthand how hard it is to care for a family...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wonder if the Minister could commit to come back to me or come back to this House with some information about how much funding the department had been willing to offer in the RFPs that it had previously put out for an adult day program and examine opportunities for that amount of funding to, you know, be added on perhaps to current programming in long-term care facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

As I spoke about in my Member's statement, organizations such as the Yellowknife Seniors' Society have been advocating strongly for the adult day program to be re-established in Yellowknife, particularly to support seniors with dementia and their caregivers. So what consultation has the department done specifically with organizations and families supporting seniors with dementia and Alzheimer's to assess the need for such an adult day program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.