Députée d’Inuvik Twin Lakes

Ministre de la Santé et des Services sociaux

Lesa Semmler a été réélue à la 20e Assemblée législative des Territoires du Nord-Ouest après avoir été députée représentant Inuvik Twin Lakes à la 19e Assemblée. Mme Semmler a été élue au Conseil exécutif de la 20e Assemblée législative des Territoires du Nord-Ouest.

Mme Semmler est née à Yellowknife (TNO) et a grandi à Inuvik (TNO), où elle réside encore aujourd’hui.

Mme Semmler a obtenu son diplôme d’infirmière autorisée dans le cadre du Programme d’études en soins infirmiers dans le Nord du Collège Aurora en 2000 et son attestation d’infirmière en santé communautaire de l’Association des infirmières et infirmiers du Canada en 2008. Elle a décroché son certificat en leadership du Collège de Vancouver en 2012 et son certificat du programme de perfectionnement en leadership du gouvernement des Territoires du Nord-Ouest et de la School of Business de l’Université de l’Alberta en 2016.

Pendant 15 ans, Mme Semmler a été infirmière autorisée de première ligne à l’Hôpital régional d’Inuvik, où elle s’est concentrée sur les soins de courte durée, les soins à domicile et la santé publique. Elle a également travaillé pendant un an au Service de santé publique à Yellowknife, et a été gestionnaire du service de soins de courte durée à l’Hôpital régional d’Inuvik, puis gestionnaire régionale des soins de courte durée après la fusion avec l’Administration des services de santé et des services sociaux des TNO. Plus récemment, elle a travaillé pour la Société régionale inuvialuite à titre d’intervenante pivot du système de santé pour les Inuvialuits, aidant les bénéficiaires inuvialuits à s’orienter dans le système de santé.

De 2012 à 2015, Mme Semmler a siégé au conseil d’administration de l’Administration scolaire de district d’Inuvik, dont elle a assuré la présidence de 2015 à 2018. Durant cette période, elle a également été présidente du Conseil scolaire de Beaufort-Delta.

Mme Semmler a également été membre de nombreux groupes de travail aux niveaux territorial et national, tels que le Conseil inuit d’éradication de la tuberculose, l’initiative de revitalisation des services de sages-femmes inuites et Hotii ts’eeda (Stratégie de recherche axée sur le patient des TNO). Elle a par ailleurs été membre de la Société régionale inuvialuite ainsi que de nombreuses autres initiatives liées à la santé.

En outre, Mme Semmler s’est portée volontaire à titre de membre du Cercle conseil national des familles de l’Enquête sur les femmes et les filles autochtones disparues et assassinées. Elle a ainsi eu l’honneur de prendre part à cet événement historique traitant du passé des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, œuvrant à ce que toutes les voix du Nord soient entendues et représentées dans le rapport final.

Mme Semmler aime lire, réaliser de petits projets de rénovation et faire de la motomarine dans le delta du Mackenzie avec son mari pendant l’été.

Elle est mariée à Jozef Carnogursky, son partenaire depuis 25 ans. Ils ont deux enfants, Jozef et Myja.

Committees

Lesa Semmler
Inuvik Twin Lakes
Bureau

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Boîte
1320
Bureau de circonscription

125 Mackenzie Rd
Unit 203
Inuvik NT X0E 0T0
Canada

P.O. Boîte
3130
Ministre
Ministre de la Santé et des Services sociaux

Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 62)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I will be having this conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 62)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the only -- within the legislation, but don't quote me because I don't have it in front of me, so I won't go into details. I know that there's traditional feasts that are exempted through this, otherwise I would have to get back to the Member. There isn't apparently any changes that it is -- or it hasn't been enforced previously. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 62)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we heard loud and clear from many users of the service is that there used to be a -- you needed a pre-approval just to be able to apply for this program. That has been removed. But what I would like to go back to is the expedient of the facility-based addiction program. There is a necessary -- you know, and I know that when people are ready to go, they might be ready today, there is a process still that can take -- you know, it can be up to -- once you have a caseworker, can take three to five weeks to get into a facility. The reason...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 62)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, June is the month of graduation in Inuvik. We'll be -- you know, when I get home, I'll be able to partake in the grade 12 graduation at East Three Secondary where we have a large graduating class, so I'd like to congratulate all of those grade 12 graduates.

But we also have our kindergarten graduation which is an amazing time for the littles to be able to celebrate them moving into their primary class. And one of the other graduating classes is the grade 6 graduation. In Inuvik, we have always historically had our elementary school and our high school, so...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 62)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: The 2025-2026 Health and Social Services Authority Budgets Summary. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 62)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the Member for bringing this to my attention today as I am currently dealing with the traditional feast one, so I will add that to the list that I will follow up and bring, and if there's more that you want to discuss this, I'll be willing to have this conversation further, if there's other things that we need to look into under this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 62)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, aftercare -- this is one of the concerns that we do have a gap in and so -- but what we do have the gap in is the living accommodations. For those who go out to facility-based addiction treatment, if they're going from homelessness then they're not coming back to a home, so we -- you know, we are working on a transitional housing after recovery program. We just recently announced that the one in Yellowknife will -- you know, and then the -- we have one kind of be coming online in Inuvik. But aftercare is just the support, so there are some of the facility...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 62)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the question and, you know, this is -- I received BFs on this. And so one of the things that I've asked my department to do is to look at the front-facing and, you know, when a lot of times when people are looking, you know, we tend to search online and so that was the first thing that, you know, we look at is how do we find what we service providers are offering. And it is very difficult on our website to find facility-based addiction treatment and how to access it. So that is one of the directions that I've given to the department. But...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, what I would like to say is the benefit -- pharmacy -- I don't know how to say it very easily without a lot of words in this time because our medical -- our extended health benefits is multiple programs together. So pharmacy goes through Alberta, and there is the changes that were made and they implement our senior benefits and our extended health benefits and our Metis benefits. But for each program, they're supposed to be simultaneously done. The one thing that we were looking at under Restoring Balance was how do we -- you know, if there's changes...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as long as I am the Minister, there will be no changes to the senior benefits as all of the benefits that are on the table -- like I said, even with the extended benefits, those changes, we're going to be doing the review so those discussions will happen later on this winter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.