Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I'm going to come back to a topic I brought up earlier which is fertility. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the public sector if she would be willing to consider allowing GNWT employees to use their special leave for in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments? Currently they are not allowed to but it is my understanding it can be used for adoption. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I type quickly but not quite fast enough to find this in time. I think there is there are a variety of these provisions that allow public servants to take access. I mean, there's certainly special leave. There are as I said, there's a number of different leave provisions and I want to make sure I give accurate information here rather than just speaking off the cuff. So, Madam Speaker, again, I'm happy to provide information to this House, to the Member, about what different leave provisions would be available for public servants. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. And I do appreciate that I was throwing the Minister for a bit of a curve ball there this morning or this afternoon. However, I've been overwhelmed actually by the response I've been getting from people that have been reaching out to share what are very difficult and painful and financially burdensome stories about their own fertility journey. So I don't know that I have a question if the Minister hasn't found the answer to the first one yet in the meantime. But I do really want the government to consider allowing flexibility with the types of leave so that people can use it towards fertility treatments. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, part of the hesitancy is I want to make sure that whatever I'm saying is accurate and compliant with what's in the collective agreement and with what is in the public service manual. So just ensuring, you know, that I am accurate with that, I would certainly say that, you know, each individual public servant does have the ability to go and speak to their supervisor and is able to speak to their supervisor about what their circumstances might be, including medical circumstances, and it would certainly be my expectation in line with any other time for the public servants or for public service that their supervisors would be amenable to utilizing whatever available leave there is and doing so with keeping in mind flexibility and keeping in mind the need to be adaptive to the circumstances of the public servant. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
