Kate Reid

Wow, okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are also for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Could the Minister please confirm if the majority of need for agency nurses is in obstetrics? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a letter from the Union of Northern Workers to Members of the 20th Legislative Assembly on the Use of Agency Nurses in NWT Healthcare. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I will do my best to not break your rules today, but I'm going to go back to what I was asking the Minister of Health and Social Services yesterday.

My first question is whether or not the Department of Health and Social Services has asked Indigenous midwives about what would support the growth of midwifery in the territory, specifically in our smaller communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister speak to whether he'd consider expanding or reenvisioning the NWT alert page to draw from GNWT corporate communications or any centralized mechanism that would be able to consolidate all relevant and robust public safety information in a mobile app, like the BC wildfire app. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I'd like to talk about how we communicate. I'm going to talk specifics. The Northwest Territories emergency plan from April 2024 has an appendix B, which is the emergency communications protocol. One sentence on page 6 of the protocol reads: Within this model, departments and agencies are expected to implement their own communications tactics based on their own business continuity needs during an emergency.

Mr. Speaker, I'm hearing general concern that this will give GNWT departments the leniency to silo themselves in future disasters down the line. It's also a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. I realize these are last minute questions, and I appreciate that. I hope she can get back to me on maybe some of the history of what the department has done to talk to Indigenous midwives.

My next question is why have midwives not been considered in the recruitment and retention strategies that have been applied to nurses and physicians? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure that really gets at the heart of what I'm getting at, but I'll try and ask my next question, which is will the Minister ensure that coordinated plain language information, including evacuation notice alerts and orders, fire bans, road closures, wildlife or sorry, pardon me, wildfire perimeters, air quality measurements, which are already there, road construction, campsite closures, by way of list of a small sampling could be made available through the NWT Alert Site? That's the new site that they've put up and stood up, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of MACA.

Under the NWT Emergency Plan, the communication incident management team is only activated in state of emergencies. Can the Minister speak to what coordination will be stood up when communities have urgent concerns on public safety that may not yet be classified as emergencies? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister implement an urgent care walk-in service for four hours per day? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, I'll modify my question. Will the Minister look at a policy change that would increase nurse-to-patient ratios following the BC model? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.