Thank you. And thank you to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, the Government of Alberta has begun telling the residents to conserve water and that they've launched water sharing negotiations with all of their water licensing holders. Can the Minister tell us if the NWT is in a similar boat and our residents will need to begin conserving water usage like Alberta? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any decisions on water conservation will be informed by our snowpack assessments that we do annually and water levels of source rivers. Information would be shared with communities and with multiple parties involved in this discussion and further action. ECC will continue to assess water conditions and distribute monthly monitoring bulletins to the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the process of medical travel can be confusing. Depending on what treatment you need, intake can be different and it's also not really clear to some folks who are not employed by the GNWT as to what stream of medical travel they fall into. From personal experience, the forms for medical travel are also confusing and duplicate information.
Can the Minister explain if there is any work underway to improve standard operating procedures or communications with the public for the different streams of medical travel? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Great Slave. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, medical travel, you know, in the Northwest Territories, we're moving 44,000 people at any you know, to be able to access care so it is very, very complex. And so when we think about the when I you know, as a Minister now that has to oversee this, there is medical travel that are for noninsured health benefits clients, so those who are Inuit or Status, you know, who hold a status card. Then there's extended health benefits and medical travel for those. Then there's Metis benefits for those who qualify and then the travel benefits for them. And there's the GNWT, which the GNWT administers for the six you know, whatever the amount of employees that we have and their benefits, and that is removed from the department of health now. And then there's those who don't fall in any of these categories. So with that there's things that need that are currently being done. So I just needed to make sure that people are aware that there's five different areas that this happens. So work is currently being done to review several areas.
One of the things that we've heard on and on again is the exceptions policy to streamline decisions for benefits for individuals that have undue financial hardship or extraordinary health needs and a unique situation. So that's something that's being reviewed, working collaboratively with the federal counterpart to clarify and improve the administration of the noninsured health benefits, which is very complex. They're reviewing the boarding home services and, you know, this is time like, these contracts are coming up within the next fiscal year. Gathering information from Indigenous governments because they're hearing from their residents, so. And working closely with our counter parts, you know, with like all of the airlines and the people that move people throughout the territory. And, again, like I said, yes, and shifting all of the benefits for medical travel out of health and social services to GNWT for those that so we only have to deal with the nonGNWTs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm curious if the department has been looking into any of the most high need areas for medical travel, and what I mean by this is the areas of medical requirements that have a lot of subscription or uptake. So what I'm curious about is does the Minister think that we could bring specialists to the North to remove long haul burden on folks to go out of territory which is also a high cost for the GNWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to apologize to the interpreters. I know I've been talking quite fast and I've been kind of given the notice.
So, Mr. Speaker, this already occurs in many instances. You know, we have urology, pediatrics, cardiology, neurology that come here. We continue to explore opportunities to further develop sustainable interritory programs as well as remote services to supplement or replace outofterritory services. The priority is to deliver sustainable and high quality services. And you know, the medical travel and the people that are travelling not necessarily are related to specialists, there's lots of other like, for surgery, for different things, so. And we are monitoring this. And the department, we are currently reviewing everything right now within the medical travel policy because we do know it is very convoluted and complex. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And it's really wonderful to hear from the Minister that they're looking indepth to a lot of the issues that I'm highlighting today.
Mr. Speaker, I'm also wondering, though, about improvements to processes that complement medical travel. So right now if someone accesses a practitioner on medical travel in the south who recommends lab work as an example, they then must get the lab requisition redone in the territory so they can have those services completed in the NWT. The question is, can the Minister speak to what work could be done to streamline this process to change southern requisitions into NWT requisitions that can be fulfilled without the need to then go and book an appointment with the overtaxed medical practitioner system that we have? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I think that the problem like, this is an issue and this is an ongoing issue because even though we are the Northwest Territories and we do referral service to Alberta health, their practitioners are not able to and the Member has stated are not allowed to like, you can't take their requisition because they're not licensed in our territory to go in and do the blood work here. And I know that there's back and forth. It's the same thing. Like, we can't take ours and take it down there and get blood work. So you know, there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes to try and work on those types of things. You know, and I think the when I look at all of those issues, these are complex. And it has a lot to do with patient health information and the legislation around that too. So when you get your blood work done and you get services done in Alberta, they tend they'll send the patient all of the information and then the patient themselves needs to bring that to their practitioner. So I hear the Member where they're saying, and the things that we're doing behind the scenes is trying to figure out ways to mitigate that because we know it is a tax on our getting in. And there's different legislation, things that we've all talked about in the past government and this government that's going to try and help that. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Great Slave.
(audio)
Further to the statement that I made a couple weeks ago. It's for the ECE. Can the department increase the senior home heating subsidy rates? That's a question for the Minister.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now the rates are not intended to cover 100 percent of the seniors' heating costs. They aim to help with 80 percent of the heating costs. In early last year, there was a review done on the seniors' home heating subsidy, and it was done to review the amount that was being provided to seniors and to see what we could do from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in order to either increase that amount or create certainty for seniors. And so what was done at that point was providing costs over the month to seniors in order to ensure that they weren't running out in the coldest months of the year and so providing more certainty. And at that point, when we looked at what we were able to do, we put a little bit more money into the funding. Those funds then were able to be absorbed within the department. And if there's any desire to see additional funding going into the seniors' home heating subsidy on behalf of Members or on behalf of the public, it would need to be additional funds to the program that would need to be approved through the Legislative Assembly because we've stretched our budget as far as possible from within the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, are there barriers for the department to permanently increase the subsidies rate?
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, currently we budget about $2.2 million for this subsidy every year. We added approximately half a million dollars using internal resources in 20222023 and then again in 20232024 in order to acknowledge that heating fuel costs have gone up. While we recognize that heating fuel fluctuates throughout the year and when it is higher than usual, we do try to put more funding into this subsidy. But like I said before, we cannot afford within the department to continue to fund from within. We would need to have increases done to the program as a whole, and those dollars would have to be approved by the Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm how many Tlicho residents are denied because their income exceeds the income threshold? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that while 59 applicants were approved from Tlicho region, there were 13 people who were denied for the seniors' home heating subsidy and that is because their income was over the income threshold. And what I do want to add here, because I want to acknowledge that some residents participate in seasonal employment, if somebody is denied because their previous year's income is too high but their income or their employment has changed in the following year, they can actually seek a reassessment from the department so that their income threshold is reflective of where they are actually at in their employment journey. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Mr. Speaker, are there barriers for the department to increase the income threshold? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would say the biggest barrier is budget. If we want to be able to provide more than the aim or the goal of 80 percent of heating costs to low and moderate income seniors across the territory, we would need to increase the budget for that. If the goal was to provide 100 percent, say, of subsidy for the cost of heat to seniors that are considered low and moderate income and who are not on income assistance, we would need to make sure that our budgets do reflect that and that the policy of the program reflects that as well.
Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a followup question to the Minister of health from some of my questions yesterday.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister has said that there will not be job losses associated with COVID COVID funding sunsetting but it is not clear to me what changes may occur to where staff were placed in the system. Can the Minister describe in more detail what changes are proposed and how that will affect frontline operations at Stanton? Thank you.
Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the funding and I guess I tried to explain this yesterday that the COVID funding that has come to will come to an end as of March 31st, there are going to be funding for was there for positions but like I said yesterday, there's no job losses because we've been increasing those numbers on those units with casuals and float and relief workers. And, you know, specific to the concerns that, you know, the Member is raising is the new funding that we had that I announced yesterday is to replace a lot of those positions that you know, to incur some of that cushion for those positions that COVID funding is ending, so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So can the Minister describe to the House what the department is going to be doing to ensure that frontline staff, particularly nurses, are continuing to be supported in their roles in our hospitals in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in any one of our hospitals, not just in Stanton, but in any one of our hospitals, so Inuvik and Hay River, you know, the thing is they all have a manager, they all have someone that they have level of acuity. So any given day it's not the same every day. And so the beginning of every shift, you know and if we're going to get down into operations, the beginning of every shift there is a level of care that's needed for those patients. I mean, I can talk about this all day. I don't know if the Speaker will give it to me but what I can say is that, you know, these patients that the patients that we have and the conversation that we've been having is nursing assistants from the Member's statements yesterday. You know, there is a higher level of patients that need and we call ADLs, activities of daily living. So those are patients that high needs for their you know, they need help with assistance with eating and bathing and those types of things. Those patients are sitting in our medicine units and our acute care units and they you know, and so we need extra nursing assistance to do that, and that's what this money has been providing. And with the new funding, you know, there are positions there that are going to mitigate that. So if there's a concern that there's not going to be adequate staffing levels, like I said yesterdaywe will not compromise patient care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions, the time is up, Members. Oral questions.
Written questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item number 7 on the orders of the day. Thank you.
Member from Yellowknife Centre is requesting that we return to item number 7 on the agenda. Any nays? Written questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to the orders of the day, item number 5. Thank you.
Member is requesting us Member from Yellowknife Centre is requesting us to return to item number 5 on the orders of the day. Are there any nays? Seeing no nays. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to return and thank you, colleagues, by the way to recognition of visitors in the gallery. A near and dear friend of mine, their son is a page today. And he wasn't in the gallery earlier when we did it, and I wanted to recognize him when he was here, Mr. Seth Gordon. Thank you very much for being a page in the Legislative Assembly.
I thank all the pages for doing the great work. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too want to recognize the former Dene National Chief Noleen Villebrun.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, February 23rd, 2024, I will present Bill 2, Missing Person's Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I now call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Rodgers.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.
Thank you. Thank you, committee. We will proceed with the first item. Okay, thank you.
There's a motion on the floor to report progress. The motion is in order and nondebatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Okay, motion carried. I will now rise and report progress. Thank you.
Carried
May I have the report of the Committee of the Whole. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Minister's Statement 420(1), Minister's Statement 520(1), Tabled Document 2820(1), Tabled Document 2920(1). And, Mr. Speaker, I move the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member. Do I have a seconder for the report of the Committee of the Whole? Member from Range Lake. The motion is in order and nondebatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? Motion has been carried. And the report of the Committee of the Whole has been concurred with.
Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters. Reports of committee of Committee of the Whole oh, I guess that was just said. Sorry. Reports of the Committee of the Whole.
