Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on February 6th in Committee of the Whole, the health Minister's staff clarified that health system investment funding was being repurposed to explore traditional birth works. Can the Minister expand on that for the Assembly and help us better understand the planned use of this funding? Will it be used to help expand midwifery services in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, My department is working with ISC to look at repurposing the funding to explore traditional birth works, and this could potentially include traditional knowledge healing, Indigenous birth work education, and perinatal resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister just be -- the Minister gave a fairly broad response there. Can the Minister be a bit more clear? I mean, will the funding be used to explore -- sorry, I don't want to ask the same question twice. But will the funding be used towards looking into whether midwifery can be expanded in the territory? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, midwifery within the Northwest Territories, as the Member is aware, is in Hay River and Fort Smith. The two programs there, Fort Smith is fully staffed right now; Hay River still have, I think, vacancies there; however, they're being filled with casuals in ensuring that that program is sustained. So where we are working right now is the work plan. The work that's being done on the birth works is more of the Indigenous perspective on Indigenous birth midwifery and being able to provide resources in the smaller communities for perinatal and getting that traditional knowledge in that area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I am happy to hear that from the Minister. And just on behalf of my constituents, I would note that midwives are a great resource for doing the work that she just referenced.
So, Mr. Speaker, in answer to questions about midwifery recently, the Minister mentioned that there has been difficulty staffing physicians in communities. Many births these days are high risks and might not be able to be done within a community. Is the health department investigating how midwifery services could be incorporated into our system, considering these challenges? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the areas -- so to that question, the work that's going on is we have a working group. So between the -- like, there's an advisory committee, and they're working together for this work plan. One of the areas is the programs foundation to midwifery care in the territory must be supported to ensure that they can meet the community needs but also remain attractive workplaces for midwives. The other thing in a lot of these smaller communities is midwives need to be able to have so many births a year, like to be able to -- and the majority of the people coming from these small communities are choosing to travel into the birthing centres. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
