Julie Green

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying that I recognize the importance of morale and solid organizational culture. We've just been through a very intense period of that in this building. And of course, it happens in other places as well. But the end result is that we want to build a strong and satisfied public service. So there are a variety of tools available to us, including employment engagement and satisfaction surveys. I talked about those last week with my colleague from Kam Lake. There are surveys attached to the accreditation, and there is currently a...

Yes, thank you. I'm very pleased that the Member has taken note of our recruitment efforts. And those are ongoing of course. We want to make sure that we have the full component of staff. And as I said earlier, we are not anticipating any more closures at the hospital. We have, through a variety of people foregoing holidays, working extra shifts, locums, and so on, we have enough staff to provide the excellent services that residents are used to. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Health and Social Services Authority and the Department of Finance are working together to review options through the labour market adjustment process which would deal with some of our pressing staffing concerns among nurses. We have no indication that additional money is coming from the federal government. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I actually haven't heard which budget this is coming out of so I will ask Mr. Heath for that. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say I hope this is a oneoff that I never have to stand here and talk about the obstetrics unit being closed again.

In terms of adding an additional staff, I don't know where those discussions are at within the hospital. I do know that the number of births that Stanton has been declining over the last three or four years. I also know that they have a large number of vacancies at this point so I'm not sure that adding another position is actually going to bring them another body, because we are, you know, in the midst of recruiting for...

Yes, the two things that drove the change in the Hay River bed count was, first of all, an understanding that Fort Smith needed more beds than they had and were projected to need more into the future. And so instead of having people come in to Hay River from Fort Smith, it made more sense to look at building a longterm care facility in Fort Smith to meet that priority of helping people to age in place, although they might not be in their own homes, they would be in their own communities. So that was definitely a factor.

The other is what I just mentioned about the international assessment tool...

It's  I haven't heard that it's  that it's finalized, but we're going to have to finalize it soon if we haven't already because we have to apply for a permit to the city. So we can't do that on the basis without having an affirmed location. I'll ask Mr. Heath to confirm where we're at with the site selection.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have an answer for the Member, but I want to say at the beginning that any recruiting efforts we are successful with right now will likely take a few weeks to implement, especially if the person needs to relocate to Yellowknife from another place.

To the costs of sending the patients to Edmonton, it's our estimate that it will be approximately $12,500 for the patient and her escort to go to Edmonton and stay there for 28 days, or four weeks. This cost includes flights, accommodation, transportation, and meals for the traveler and her escort. And those...

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for that question. Yes, at the same time that we're doing this planning for longterm care, we've also been doing planning for changes to home and community care. Just before this Assembly began, there was a comprehensive review of home and community care and some recommendations about how the program could be strengthened.

One easy example I'll give you is that the hours needed to be more flexible, that home care was primarily being offered only during work hours, 9 to 5, and that there was a need for home care in other hours. There's also a need for...

Thank you. Please address the question to Mr. Elkin.