Julie Green

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I heard the Member say in his statement that our health was at risk, and I would just like to say that, in fact, we have the resources to cope with the health care demand as it exists now, both at Stanton and in the regional centres. We have protocols in place that enable us to surge with staff and beds to meet the needs of patients and also to assist the telehealth medical professionals in the regional centres and in the health care centres to treat the residents who come their way. So at this point, while our resources are thin, we do believe that we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, my thanks to the Member for highlighting this area. Yes, indeed, we are keen to recruit and retain healthcare professionals. We have developed a health human resources workforce plan, which will be made public next month. It's a threeyear plan that looks at a variety of measures to bring to bring healthcare professionals to the Northwest Territories and to have them to have them live here over the long term.

Not only that, Mr. Speaker, I have been successful in persuading my federal colleagues at the FPT health ministers' table to create a national health human...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in the gallery is my partner Janice McKenna, and her eldest brother Peter McKenna from Calgary. I'd like to welcome them to the House. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've had versions of this question recently, and I would like to confirm that medical travel only is paid when the patient has been referred by an NWTbased physician for additional care. And so somebody who decides to jump in their vehicle and drive to Edmonton for a diagnostic or treatment services would be doing so at their own expense. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have conducted or the nurses association has conducted a couple of surveys to find out why it is that people are not coming here and not staying here. And certainly, we have heard the cost of living here is an issue; separation from family in the south is an issue; the burnout, which we've all heard about in the healthcare professions, is an issue. The labour pool is smaller than it was. And we've also heard that while we have been a generous employer in the past, the gap between what we offer and what's offered in the south has closed in the last...

Yeah, I neglected also to introduce Ms. Jeanette Demerse who is visiting us in the House today. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Yes, I believe, Mr. Chair, that that is a safe assumption. One of one of the purposes of the senior strategy is to do a gap analysis and to come up with solutions to those gaps. So many of the priorities that are listed in this section of enabling seniors to age in place with dignity do represent gaps. So I would expect to see some version of them in the senior strategy when it's complete. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community health nurses adhere to clinical practice guidelines for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer. They will assess for symptoms and taking into account family history, age, risk factors, and other circumstances. And once again, this would be for screening.

So this is to not to make a diagnosis but to on a general basis, offer people the opportunity to be screened in or out of the risk of cancer based on their health indicators. Nurses are offered frequent professional development opportunities and we do have, as I mentioned previously, a...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we treat Avens as one of our own, if you will, where we've provided them with additional funding to manage the stresses and strains of COVID. We're assisting them with evergreening their equipment and so on. So it's not a stretch to think that if their staff wanted training that we were providing that we would consider doing that. Thank you.