Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. No, I appreciate that. I had visions of nursing staff on top of giant frontend loaders, so thank you for that.

My next question, I'm wondering if somebody can help me out here. I just simply don't know what 1300 BGSM or 1600 BGSM stands for. So I'm just wondering if somebody can help me out with that one. Thank you

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I guess, first of all, congratulations to MLA Johnson. If you are a Yellowknifer and you don't know street names, it means you're properly acclimatized to be a Yellowknifer.

My question is for the Minister in regards to I just want an idea of why the Department of Health and Social Services is requesting money for a capital project that they don't really have kind of secure handle on what location's going to be used, what design's going to be used, when it will be completed, or what budget they're going to be requesting, given that this does not fall...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I'm wondering if Health and Social Services will commit to providing conditional employment contracts to potential nursing graduates in January before they are headhunted by other jurisdictions? In speaking with past graduates, they have noted that quite often in the month of June they are receiving casual contracts and are really having to put their faith in the GNWT to get around to providing indeterminate contracts to them. And so I'm wondering if we can bump this up to really make sure that we're not losing nurses to other jurisdictions. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I'm wondering if NTHSSA will consider funding Aurora College nursing student tuition for southern students who want to study and work in the NWT as a means to attract new nursing students? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate that from the Minister. I want to understand a little bit more given that it seems like Hay River's our best bet for longterm care outside of Yellowknife. I want to understand from the Minister if their intent is to move the facility because of where the flood waters came to, or is it to redesign, and if the Minister can confirm if the flood waters came up to where the existing location was expected to be, or what specifically is needing to change because of the flood this year. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And sorry, I'm having a hard time hearing Mr. Heath at times. I don't know if we can turn up his microphone; it could just be my ears, so I apologize for that.

So my concern is that given that this is at the planning stage, not the actual facilities will be done at the estimated completion time that, really, the soonest we're going to have additional longterm care facilities in the Northwest Territories would be the 20272028 fiscal year, which is another six years away from now. And a lot of these facilities are already late, I guess, or have been pushed back from when they...

No other questions. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my next question for the Minister is in regards to the request for a tractor for Hay River. And I just want to understand why a health authority would need to purchase a tractor and have one, I guess, of their own rather than potentially hiring a local contractor who owns a tractor to do whatever they're going to do with that tractor. And I'm just wondering if I can get more information on that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. I know that Regular MLAs will be watching for this to make sure that this does happen because it's really important to both the students and MLAs, that we're able to retain the students who are trained here at Aurora College and have most likely grown up here in the Northwest Territories as well.

Madam Speaker, currently public servants are being denied education leave for nursing as it does not fulfill their home department's mandate within the government. And so I'm wondering if Health and Social Services will work...

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. So Madam Speaker, I agree with the Minister 100 percent. There is much more retention for people raised in the North to stay and to work as nurses in the Northwest Territories. Given that there are 30 seats a year within Aurora College for nursing students, does the Minister know or are they currently lobbying Aurora College to increase the number of seats that are available to nursing students a year, and does Health and Social Services plan to expand the bursary program that they're currently offering to northern students to southern students as well...