Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was already consultation done within Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are many shelters that are in Yellowknife and have been for many years. You know, there are many of our Northwest Territories residents, a large population of Indigenous people that struggle from historic traumas, and they are not a road. And so what we are doing here in Yellowknife is -- you know, the federal government gave a large sum of money to the Northwest Territories to specifically, in Yellowknife, to build, to replace, to provide a space that -- you know, that was worked with the Indigenous advisory board. There was consultation as what it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to, you know, say to the Member I as soon as I found this out, this was a priority, this was something that I brought made sure that I had all the information as to what happened and to direct the department to come up with what the resolution is, and I hear the Member. I don't believe that it's you know, and I've heard from constituents and other constituents of other Members that, you know, this is not a sustainable for them already having to go through cancer treatment and going through this process, adding on having to travel...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community wellness and addiction recovery fund is an area where that can be targeted for youth. Also, we do have the community suicide prevention fund, and that can also be targeted to youths or adults in any communities. And those are currently taking proposals for programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think what it is is there are approximately there is about 50 residents that are impacted and 11 residents receiving active cancer care. All of their plan of cares are different and so what the ask is that because of the I mean, and we've all heard it in this House the process of transferring blood work and records down to Alberta Health Services, well, their system doesn't speak to our system. That way the oncologists don't have the information because when we send it down to them, it's not being entered into their system on a timely manner. So what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in April, we were notified by Alberta Health Services that effective May 1st that they would no longer be providing virtual care and allowing for the hematology oncology patients here in Yellowknife to do their blood work. Under the standard of practice, they felt that their patients weren't being able to be serviced virtually, and so they made the decision to have all of the patients have to go to Alberta and be serviced through their oncology department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, Mr. Speaker, you know, with all of the work that I've been hearing from the Member that the Sahtu is doing to try to provide wellness and the workshops that they're doing and the collaborating that they're doing, I really commend them for that because, you know, we hear so many times that our leadership are not supporting our youth and our residents and, you know, here we are, we're trying to work together, and they're working together. So I really appreciate that. And, you know, I know that we have a bilateral coming up with SSI and, you know, I can if there's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And this is the question that I keep asking the department, what is the timeline. This is what I heard from your constituent, from my constituents, is I can't sustain doing this. We cannot and, you know, put aside the medical travel, it's the like, the things that you said, the things that you know, the stress of having to travel, you know, the some people are still working and trying to do this, so there is recruitment, so, you know, the Alberta Health will have to recruit an oncologist and then we will have to recruit an oncology nurse here in the territory to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did commit to get the many ways that we do this and I there is way to do it and I am not going to sit here and explain from this health centre we do it this way and sometimes if they are coming in from a small community they may go in a secure with a practitioner. The patient may go. There are multiple different ways, and depending on which physicians and, you know, so. This is the coordination of our special clinics when they refer, they have their processes and so if there are individual so there doesn't seem to be an issue, because it hasn't come to light, and so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we send thousands of people to Alberta so if a Member wants to know about a specific instance, is this something that he has multiple constituents that are coming to him and so if he wants to bring this forward to my office, I would gladly look into it. Thank you.