Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement today, I talked about the dental therapist program. It was an enjoyed program in the Northwest Territories. It even had schooling and training in Fort Smith, then it went to Saskatoon, and then it went the way of the dodo bird. They're trying to revive it and hence that's the theme of my Member's statement today, which is trying to be very friendly and remind people how important and critical it was to service this.
So my question for the Minister of Health and Social Services is what is she doing to help bring back this program to life so we can have dental therapists in our communities where we need them most. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, right now I believe the only place in Canada, since 2011, is in Saskatchewan. They have just revitalized a bachelor of dental therapy and began intake in 2023. What happened over the history of this was that the federal government quit funding it, and we in the Northwest Territories were a satellite to the program that was federally funded. And, yes, it was an amazing program and we had many graduates into our communities. I believe we still have a couple that are within the system. And the Minister of ECE and I have had these conversations and also have had a conversation with the president; however, I will continue to follow up with the Minister on that conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister provide me, and certainly this House, some information with respect to what infrastructure the department of health is going to be moving forward on this in partnership with the current dentist organizations here in the Northwest Territories? In other words, they can't do it all. Can we build some type of partnership and infrastructure to meet the needs of Northerners? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, at this time, where we are focusing on is during COVID, as many people know, that we ceased to be able to send dentists into the community. Those RFPs that went out to the private dentists who do provide that support in small communities, right now we are working with Indigenous Service Canada to be able to get that up and going, and we should be -- I believe we're ready to be putting out those RFPs soon so that dentists will be traveling back into the communities. We are not at the stage in health to be doing any of the training of that. That is a discussion that I can have with the Minister of ECE. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whatever follow-up the Minister can provide me would be greatly appreciated.
Mr. Speaker, my last question is about recruitment, retention, and certainly about training and incentives. Mr. Speaker, as we are aware, Saskatchewan is moving forward on this. Is there a way to create some incentives so we can hook our northern students who are taking science who might be interested in this career? Is there a way we can create incentives so they may follow through and, again, so they can help serve Northerners where we need them best. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, when we look at all of our health areas, we at NTHSSA do provide a bursary to those that are accessing health programs and, you know, this -- I would have to follow up to ensure that this one may fall under that area. However, you know, we do know that dental hygienists -- you know, we're looking at the option of dental hygienists because they do have a much more expanded scope now than they did years ago, and so we're looking at how to be able to implement dental hygienists into our system as well. Going forward, you know, I will continue to have those conversations with the college with the hopes that one day we may have a dental therapy program in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
