Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had a chance to talk with the Minister of health for a bit, and she said she'd be willing to take some questions. So these are pretty straightforward. Can the Minister of health tell me why Hay River is consistently without a full complement of physicians or always a limited number of physicians. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, Indigenous representation of public sector in 13 communities in declining. Will the Minister tell me how will the department turn this around? Would decentralization of some positions be part of the solution? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, statistics going back to 1985, when the native employment policy was first used, confirms that the affirmative action policy has done little to move the needle beyond the 30 percent Indigenous participation in the public sector.

Mr. Speaker, the current definition of Indigenous person in the current affirmative action policy, in part, includes Aboriginal persons resident at birth pursuant to section 23 of the Vital Statistics Act, and any Canadian Aboriginal persons who have lived more than half their life in the Northwest Territories. Now this group is...

Thank you. Yeah, and the rest of the roads, like, for Good Hope and Colville as well, what are they what condition are they in and are they getting in their supplies? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Hopefully this is the right place to ask this, but. My medical for my driver's license expires next month. I'm just wondering if I can get an extension? No.

Actually, I want to talk about and I'm hoping it's the right place is the EVL books for log books.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too, you know, agree with this motion and support it fully. You know, in the past years the federal government, you know, they've got to take responsibility for some of this. This government has to take some responsibility as well. And, you know, and I've been around long enough that and worked with people and went to meetings with them and seeing, you know, the lack of understanding of agreements being signed and what they are getting themselves into. You know, we do have legislation out there that allows this government to look at all these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the other day the Minister said something along the lines of you know, when I asked her could Hay River I guess she said could Hay River do better, I guess, at hiring doctors than the NTH SSA. Well, I know we couldn't do any worse because we just don't have the full complement of doctors. We don't have enough. So I think it's you know, we have an opportunity. I hear the agreement is coming up between the NTH SSA and Hay River. And I'm just wondering if the Minister's willing to discuss moving physician recruitment to the Hay River's SSA and try it out...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister when physicians are hired through NTH SSA, what is the priority for determining where they will be located, and how is location determined. Are they given a choice, I guess, to go to Hay River or Yellowknife or Inuvik or Fort Smith, or is it just kind of they just say that, you want to stay in Yellowknife, or do we encourage them to stay in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one bright spot, if we can see it as that, is that Indigenous representation in senior management has reached its highest level since 2013 and currently stands at a whopping 19.7 percent. Can the Minister tell me what may have contributed to this little increase and can we expect to see exponential increases going forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Indigenous representation of public sector is at an all time low right now, at around the 29 percent. Can the Minister tell me what may be contributing to this as we have had a policy in place for some 30 plus years? Thank you.