Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table "Virtual Care, Recommendations for Scaling Up Virtual Medical Services, Report of the Virtual Care Task Force, February 2020." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Does the Department of Health and Social Services have, or will it be developing, a virtual care strategy so that Northerners can have a clear understanding of the GNWT's view on its future role with Northwest Territories' healthcare system? Thank you.

I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to what the top three reasons for the increase to medical travel costs are.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I guess I was looking for our worst-case scenario, rainy-day scenario, but within the forest management budget, most line items are going up, and there is one notable line item that has come down; it's materials and supplies. I'm wondering if -- oh, sorry, that's purchase services. I'm wondering if the Minister can actually speak to why that line item has come down substantially. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, medical travel is a necessity of life in the North. The prohibitive cost of delivering all services to all 33 NWT communities, paired with the global shortage of healthcare workers, requires Northerners to travel to larger centres to receive specialized care.

Virtual care, specifically Telehealth, has been part of our northern care landscape for decades, helping the North increase client access and reduce costs to our healthcare system. Canada was an early driver of virtual care, but quickly fell behind other nations. Given our growing medical travel costs and the spectre of...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Further to my colleague's questions, if we do have a bad fire season, and it is our responsibility to pay for it, and we blow this budget, how do we end up paying for a bad fire season at the end of the day? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I guess more of a comment. There are definitely businesses within the North that want to be able to share knowledge and expertise with communities and see the value of making sure that we're all as green as we possibly can be, and so there are people out there who would really like to be able to participate in stuff like this. My last question is in regard to banning single-use plastics and how the federal government has a goal of attaining that by 2021. I'm wondering where we are as a government to be able to achieve that alongside the federal government...

Thank you. Is making sure that we're using trucks that are coming into communities, to the best of our ability, to make sure that we don't have vehicles that are coming in for government purposes, leaving empty, are we leveraging that medium, as well? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Is the intent, then, to also be able to implement policies and legislation that not only hold our contractors to account, but also hold our own practices within the GNWT to account as well? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm going to switch over to waste management now on the same page. Currently, the NWT has one of the highest per capita waste disposal in the country, and so, I think having this conversation is a very important one, especially where a lot of the waste in our smaller communities is generated by either the government or government projects, but especially through construction waste. I'm wondering if ENR currently works with other departments to make waste management part of their procurement practises. Thank you.