Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, for myself, I was a labour and delivery nurse, so I don't understand why nobody wants to be a labour and delivery nurse, so. But, you know, for the most part I know even when I was a manager trying to convince some nurses to go and train to be a labour and delivery nurse -- it's a specialty. It's just like any other thing people want to do. And, you know, and I think for a long time here once we -- one of the issues that we know that within the current obstetrics where we -- I mean, it's not a secret that there was many vacancies over COVID, and then that's when...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, under this area, what the -- the bigger piece of the deduction was the COVID endemic funding. So the sunsetting of this funding for the transition from COVID-19 to pandemic to endemic. So that's what a lot of that money is that's changed. So that's gone. There is the labour market supplement for NTHSSA and TCSA, sunsetting of the one-time funding approved to support recruitment and retention of health care professionals, and the labour market supplement HRHSSA sunset of one-time funding approved to support recruitment and retention of health professionals...

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I hear the Member. And, you know, I'll echo what I've said is, you know, what we are funded for and our core programs and services and what we provide to the Northwest Territories, the things that are not covered in other territories and provinces that we provide over the years that we have just -- you know, we have decided as a government, and many governments up until now, that this is something that we need to provide to our residents is why we are in the shape where we are. And every new thing that we ask for and we want to do that's not a core...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, when regions -- you know, depending on who is reaching out for those services in the different regions, for us, you know, we are working on the recruitment portion of it. But if there independent Indigenous organizations that want to access those funding, the boards that want to access those funding, you know, they can be way more strategic on how they're providing services in their regions. They're more flexible in how they can hire people. So right now what I can -- all I can really say is that the department is preparing a review of the speech...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It'll be details will come after bargaining is done. And, you know, I mean, I think there's not much more information that I can provide as I don't have that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the transition of the way that the program merged, like, works with ECE now, there was a reduction in the amount of CYCs available to -- in the program under health but that those dollars were transferred -- that's the operating dollars for ECE to use for their program. So, yes, there has been. They just been moved to ECE, the funding for those positions that have been discontinued. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, again, this is one of the things that's in our business plan. I know it -- you know, I've had asked questions because the timeline is long. We started rolling out the EMR before, way back when I was still practising. And we finally just got it into the last community in the Northwest Territories. So now that we have to replace the -- it is a multi -- I guess to explain it, there's multiple systems. And so I think what the Member's referring to is like right now, what we want to do is looking into -- when we designed the system, I think the goal is -- you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned the NTHSSA is working with the human resources to explore additional recruitment and retention options. Last month representatives from the NTHSSA travelled to the University of Toronto job fair to promote speech language pathologists opportunities in the Northwest Territories. The territorial manager of the occupational therapy also travelled to the national occupational therapy conference with a recruitment booth. The rehab leads are working continuously with a talent organization for recruitment campaigns, refreshing that they don't yield...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, and I really appreciate the Member for bringing, you know, one of the things that I think -- when I looked at this fund last week before I went out to meet with an Indigenous organization and community, was that the community wellness and addiction recovery fund was opened in two regional governments until January 31st of this year to apply for multi-year funding. Only three organizations had reached out. And so now that those three organizations has reached out, there is a little over $3 million in that fund, and it can be used for mental health and addictions...

Thank you, Mr. Chair.