Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start by honouring all of the artists who gave me permission to purchase and honour their work in this House. Mr. Speaker, I stand in front of you today wearing the same earrings that I wore my first day in this House. These earrings are vintage beads set one by one in tanned moose hide by local artist Jessie Lafferty. Jessie's work is pristine, with focused and deliberate skill. In every design, stitch, and finished piece, she carries the mastery of her great grandmother who passed her skills to Jessie. Art is beautiful, but it is far more than a thing of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my parting Member's statement is a gift to interpreters. It is going to be both slowly spoken, and it is going to be brief.

To the next Assembly, I wish you a long and uncomfortable priority setting exercise because that will hopefully mean that you land with less priorities than this and previous Assemblies. We often get lost in the weeds thinking that priority setting is an exercise to outline what the government does for every single item we want to see some form of growth on. But it isn't. It is a question of what you want your collective legacy to be.

M...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, dissolution of the 19th Legislative Assembly.

WHEREAS under section 11(1) of the Northwest Territories Act (Canada), the Commissioner may dissolve the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS under section 11(2) of the Northwest Territories Act (Canada), writs for the election of Members of the Legislative Assembly are to be issued on the Commissioner's instructions;

AND WHEREAS under section 2 of an act to Postpone Polling Day for the 2023 General Election, notwithstanding subsection 39(5) of the Elections and Plebiscites Act, polling day for the 2023...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that Yellowknife North and Yellowknife South like to lay their claim to fame to Ms. Sarah KalnayWatson but she is, in fact, a Kam Lake resident. I've known Sarah since we were in grade 5 and her parents moved her from Ontario to Yellowknife, and I reaped the benefits of that.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to acknowledge in the gallery Taylor Maxwell. Taylor Maxwell, I've known since she was a preteen. She is our committee clerk intern, but we like to call her clerk of everything because we have a lot of expectation on our interns, and she has...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of health and social services.

Mr. Speaker, in February of this year, the Minister indicated that the midwifery program implementation was being held up by staffing challenges. Can the Minister provide this House with an update on recruitment for the midwifery program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've spoken in this House many times about the vital importance of equitable and accessible health care provided by supported health care workers. Canadians en masse are working to access health care. They are waiting for elective surgeries, access to specialists, testing, and treatment requirements of cancers, chronic disease, and STIs, and a surge in addiction and mental health support needs. In addition, special treatment programs like audiology, speech pathology, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy appointments put off over the pandemic further...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I listened to what concerns the health Minister raised, and I think that they're very valid concerns. And I wanted to address some of them here before I move on.

I think one thing that is very valid in the Minister's concerns identifying that there is a small number of dental hygienists that live in the territory. And most of them live here in Yellowknife. They're serving Northerners. There's a very small number of them serving over half of the population of the Northwest Territories. And so I agree that it's not fair to put all of this on them to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I believe what the MLA is referring to is the ability to do travel and engagement on multiple pieces of regulatory work or legislative work at the same time. I mean, we as far as committee have done that, where possible, have kind of travelled on multiple pieces of legislation. That being said, it would depend on how the department chose to handle that work. If it was different staff that they had on it or at the end of the day if they chose themselves to contract that work out. And so as far as, you know, how things work in department land, I'd have to leave...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the original date was a lot more ambitious in the original bill that I had proposed and proposed to committee and originally tabled. I can only speak to my experience with committee. My experience with committee was when I met with committee during clause by clause, they had proposed to me a new date that was more realistic, and I agreed to work with committee and concurred with the dates. As far as committee's discussions with the department, that would have to come from the deputy chair. Thank you.

Yes.