Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we did the town halls throughout the territory, one of the themes was safety. You know, the safety of the frontline staff in all of our regions, our small communities, you know, they're -- in the health centres, you know, they go and the nurses have to go in. Sometimes they're there; they have to call in an extra staff member to be with them at night. We've heard from Hay River the concerns from the Hay River region. We've heard from the Tlicho. We've heard from the Stanton. And I would like to let the Members know -- and I can follow up with further --...

Mr. Speaker, making health care accessible to every Northwest Territories resident is a core mandate priority of this government. People across the Northwest Territories access our medical travel program, whether they are travelling to access health services in a regional centre, in the capital, or in the south. This means that a reliable medical travel program is vital to the Northwest Territories residents and to achieving this mandate priority.

In every community I have visited, residents tell me how difficult it is to navigate medical travel. This process can be confusing and frustrating...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will get the full details of that, and I will be glad to share that with the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those town halls are internal meetings with staff. Those are considered staff meetings. We did highlight in the -- so that way that they could freely speak to leadership. We have highlighted in the letter, and we have shared with committee, you know, the highlights of these and we will continue to work with staff through the public administrator as this is the operation of this arm. And right now, some of the things that he's doing is -- you know, as soon as he got off the ground, he and the CEO have travelled into the Deh Cho and they are looking at...

Mr. Speaker, yes, but I'd like to explain a little bit more. So we are already -- we have an established working relationship with the Northern Mosaic Network. They helped draft the Northwest Territories guidelines in 2020 and in April 2024, representatives from ECE met with Northern Mosaic Network to discuss and review an update of those guidelines which will incorporate new research that they're conducting with the University of Manitoba. And we look forward to seeing the recommendations that come from this work, and I am fully committed to continuing our collaboration. Thank you, Mr...

Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by the Member for Range Lake on March 5th, 2025, regarding Coverage Exemptions for Uninsured Medical Procedures. The Member asked if there anything a doctor can do to convince decision-makers that an exception or an appeal is warranted if a procedure is not insured.

There is a robust process in place to assess appeals or requests for exceptions related to services that are not considered an insured service.

From the Member's line of questioning, I gather that the process was initiated through a prior approval request however the outcome of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would only be -- as I said before, what we are focused on are currently bringing in regulated professionals under the Health Professions Act at this time, and so that would be -- you know, at this time I'm not going to be considering that, but it's something that we can discuss further in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. He'd have to be more clear when my response of what -- which part of my -- that I said "should". Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this -- the people strategy is to be released, as I get the fulsome -- you know, I had the highlights of it early on before it was being drafted. So as soon as I have the people strategy draft, and I'm more than willing to send, you know, as soon as I have it, to standing committee on social development to be able to, you know, have a conversation with them of what's in that document. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a conversation that I've been having with my staff and, you know, what happens across Canada, there are some jurisdictions that do have this, you know, and then there are areas that they -- you know, there might be some difference that they don't -- you know, they don't put it out on -- in public, so we don't have that access to the information. But what I can commit to is that looking at -- and I don't want to do a broad across the board, but what I would commit to is working with my staff to figure out in some of our higher priority areas...