Lesa Semmler

Yes, I do.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is -- you know, I hear the Member. And, you know, we've started our bilateral agreements as a Cabinet meeting with -- you know, we'll be meeting with all of the different Indigenous governments. And this is one of the topics that I'm sure will be on the agenda when meeting with the Indigenous groups in the region and how do we work together. I know that the -- you know, that they have very good leverage on federal funds up to date to be able to do the things that they've done with their centre. How they run programming and how we move forward, you know, I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is where the sunsetting is, so the labour market supplements and the COVID endemic funding. That is what is the decrease within this department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You'll find doctors under all three authorities and so that -- here, well, you'll see grants, contributions, and transfers, when we transfer those dollars from the department to the health authorities and later on you'll see in the activities where we -- the health authorities later in the budget, so. But we do have a list of all of the different, like, FPTs, and I think we have a subtotal of 56.5, yes, regular physicians.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 59-20(1): Retention Strategies for Health Care Professionals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can't commit to phasing them out, and the reason why is I -- you know, I mean, somebody might go on mat leave. You know, somebody might move away. I can't tell the future of what the future of that staffing model will be. You know, we phrased out the -- by utilizing a lot of our education programs, the agency nurses in the operating room but, you know, every time somebody leaves and we don't keep them, you know, there's an opportunity that that service could shut down. And as many -- like as I mentioned in the House this week, is that some of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there has been a number of reviews within this department, and one of the most recent -- you know, we have the governance review. And I have mentioned it in this House, and we're finalizing reviewing that. It was an outside independent review of the governing structure of the NTHSSA. And within programs and policies, I think that's one of the things where when I look at with programs and policies, this is where the direction of the mandate, the direction of the business plans, you know, this is our job as the -- as the Legislative Assembly and, you know, the...

Sorry, Mr. Chair. Just trying to get that. Are you asking -- I'm going to have to get back to the Member unless he can clarify which line item are you?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within our medical travel policy, it, you know and I'm not sure if I mentioned it in this House before but there are many streams in our medical travel policy. There are the NIHB clients who fall under the NIHB rules. There are the Metis benefits. There are extended health client benefits clients that all fall those ones fall under the GNWT medical travel policy.

When it comes to regards to escorts, Mr. Speaker, there are certain criteria in the escort policy that must be you know, that the person whoever's travelling, if it is an elder, as the Member...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can review it, but we do have the exception policy. So the role of the health care practitioner is to make the assessment, provide the recommendation for an escort. That recommendation must be explicit to the reason for a request. A lot of times the request is care and compassion, and I get that you know, if I could give everybody a care and compassion escort, you know, I would not be liked by my colleagues very much. You know, because it's going to be like, the amount of people that are travelling in the Northwest Territories I think we provided a...