Welcome to your House, and thank you very much for allowing us to represent the people of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I would like to extend birthday greetings out to a special lady who is 85 years young today. Colleagues, I'd like to wish my aunty Mary Effie Snowshoe who is celebrating her birthday today. She's from Teet'lit Zheh.
Mr. Speaker, we have all seen the effects of climate change in the North and, specifically, in our communities. The erosions of the shorelines, wildfires and drought, just to name a few. What is the government doing to address the seriousness of climate change within the Northwest Territories and the impacts on the Indigenous peoples of this land? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I think as we have all seen over the last couple of years specifically, climate change has certainly played a large role in things all across the territory between floods and wildfire and, you know, a lot of challenges have been faced. The GNWT specifically is taking action with partners all across the territory in the North to mitigate and adapt to climate change. We invest significant resources to address climate change, including implementing actions identified in our climate change and energy action plans. ECC is also the lead on climate change and is using a coordinated interdepartmental approach with priorities that include transitioning to a lower carbon economy and privy climate knowledge in the North and building resilience while adapting to the impacts of climate change. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Education is very important in teaching our residents about climate change. It is especially important to engage with our young, with your youth, because they are the ones who inherited this humancaused disaster. What is this government doing to educate our young people on how to adapt to climate change? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECC will continue to work with the GNWT climate change outreach plan to increase climate change awareness and increase capacity toward climate change all across the NWT. And I don't want to speak for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, but ECC would certainly be interested in pursuing conversations around ensuring that we are addressing the issue of climate change and how it relates to youth. So I will commit to having that conversation with the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How is the government using traditional knowledge from the Indigenous peoples to adapt and combat climate change? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I think ECC certainly has taken the approach that incorporating traditional knowledge is a really important area of how we do our daytoday work in all areas throughout the department and certainly is a big component in how we approach climate change, ensuring that we are hearing all of the voices from all of the communities and affected people across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Final supplementary. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the department have a website where the residents can go to get information on funding to assist in education or alternative of any of these solutions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the specifics of that request with me, but I commit to providing that information to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the issues we're having with escorts for elders travelling to Yellowknife or Inuvik or Edmonton. I'd like to ask my colleague, the Minister of Health and Social Services, what the department's doing to look at dealing with the issue of the onerous bureaucracy that these elders have to go through to get an escort to escort them out? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
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 has mentioned in the statement, that can't speak English, then that should be put in as a request as there is a language barrier and that would be fall under our policy. But if it is put in as an elder and because of their age, that doesn't meet our criteria. If it's an Indigenous person, it doesn't meet NHIB's criteria. Right now, there's an actual program I think it's a pilot program that's being funded by ISC, Indigenous Services Canada, with Inuvialuit. So Inuvialuit members can go through their office and request for if they are denied through NHIB criteria, they can apply through them to have compassion escorts or, you know, and so. But that is directly a bilateral between that group. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I understand there's a policy for this. What I'm saying is that if you have an elder, is there not a way and I get that, you know, there is the different plans out there. But, again, you have an elder who whether they're going down to have a hangnail removed, it doesn't matter. If there's an elder and they don't speak English, they need to be navigated, they need help navigating even to get to their appointments, is there not something we can do to kind of streamline that so, again, that paperwork is not being done. If there's not anybody in and medical travel is medical travel, and I'm sure the Minister has heard many, many questions on medical travel. Is there not something we could do to streamline that so when you get to the situation of you have an elder in the community, it's just automatic there's an escort in there.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if there are you know, I guess, again, if it's an elder, you know I hear the Member. I know of many stories, you know, and I'm not going to deny that this is something that we are aware of. We know this is a gap in our policy, and that is why the medical travel policy is its own target in our you know, in the business plans. And so this is one of the areas that I really want to focus on. I want to use some of the information I will learn probably from the bilateral with Inuvialuit, and also to be able to hear from we have the Indigenous patient advocates who are constantly hearing this. They're taking the data. We know that this is an issue. And I'm not going to say in this House that it's not a gap, but it is, and I recognize it, and I am working towards trying to figure out ways to deal with this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm very happy to hear that. And I know the Minister realizes that this is not this is not a new concern, something that's been just brought to the forefront.
Can the Minister elaborate a little more, I guess, on medical travel and the plan? Is medical travel in its entirety undergoing a review, or are we just looking at kind of the escort side. Maybe the Minister could speak to that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I will say that I want the entire how we move patients in the Northwest Territories is what the focus I want to look at. How we move them, who's moving, what are the things that we cannot have to move people for. Is there ways that we can put things into communities that it's going to be less expensive in the long run. It's more of a fulsome review of how we move people for medical in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you. And that is, indeed, excellent news, and I'm sure it's excellent news for those that have been struggling with our medical travel system for the past several years. Just, again, a final question. I mean, likely it's a redundant question given how this government has now been approaching what we do, but she will be engaging and consulting with all Indigenous governments on this plan, I assume? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. Medical travel is, I think, probably one of the standing agenda items with Indigenous governments. Every Indigenous government that we speak to will raise this issue. I am committed to continuing to work with Indigenous governments and hearing what their concerns are with how we move patients.
They've also stressed the issues from the Council of Leaders to Indigenous Service Canada, how we move patients. So it's not just the government policy part. It's the work that we're doing on the NIHB medical travel policy with you know, in collaboration with Indigenous governments. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of health, more so specifically to the challenges obstetrics has had over the years and the midwives. So, Mr. Speaker, my question specifically goes directly to the issue of what evidencebased evaluation's been used to reprofile the midwifery money to other purposes? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. A little bit on the line there but I'm going to go to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
The work that's being done in the obstetrics unit is guided by, you know, the staff feedback that was done. So I can speak to that.
As for the midwifery area that you know, midwifery, the positions that in Yellowknife that have been there you know, I think that is a separate discussion. The obstetrics stuff that's been going on and trying to maintain our basic service and trying to fill that gap on the obstetric, there has been work. There has been like I said in this House before, the staffing complement has changed, and that was at the recommendation of the staff the previous staff that had put forward. And so we are trying to accommodate that and provide training on that unit so that way we can build up the capacity there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, tieing it back to the obstetrics issue, again we're talking about children in the context of birthing and supporting. How do we meet these needs through locum nurses and how does through the evidencebased process, how is it defined as cheaper or smarter? Thank you.
I'm not sure how I answer quite that cheaper and smarter, providing health care services in the Northwest Territories to, you know, birthing people that are waiting to have babies is always going to be cheaper. Having staff that we can, you know using locums, bringing locums in, they you know, that's been one of the areas that we you know, even with locums, that is we try to hire fulltime first and then if we can't hire fulltime, then we go to terms, which locums are more for physicians. That's the term they use for physicians. We use terms, term contracts with nurses, which are fully they fully fall under the line of the collective agreement when we hire them. They're the same pay, the same benefits, but they provide the service. This is an expertise area that needs extra training. And we need specialized nurses that can work in this area so that women can have safe births. We also have accreditation which also looks at how our policies in that unit are safe practice. And so those are done in Stanton and in Inuvik to make sure that those birthing services are safe for the Northwest Territories' residents. And the less risk that we have, the safer, the less cost it is. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister says they've tried to hire the positions, but I can assure you the midwife advertisements for hiring has gone silent for some time. So, Mr. Speaker, back to the evidencebased question, what evidencebased analysis has proven this proven these solutions that the Minister has claimed to make are proven as facts? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, evidencebased or not, we need a basic delivery service. We need birthing services. We need a birthing service that is going to be staffed. That's what we're working towards. And that is what we are focused on in getting a birthing service in Yellowknife that we can you know, stabilize. Adding you know, expanding midwifery is an extra, like I said, in Yellowknife. It's not an extra in Fort Smith, and it's not an extra in Hay River. And, you know, it expanded from Fort Smith to Hay River. It even expanded in Fort Smith, the more midwifery. And so right now, we're having a hard time even keeping those positions filled, so we need to focus where there's no birthing services. And that's what I'm doing, and that's what I'm committed to doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the Minister responds to saying evidencebased or not, does that draw the question that the department doesn't use evidence to make these decisions, or do they just make the decisions off the side of the table? Could the Minister clarify are they using facts or fiction to come up with these results? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Point of Order, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member I believe the Member was questioning whether or not the Minister was using fact or fiction, essentially telling mistruths. But I may have misheard the Member and if I did, I apologize. But from this side, it sounded like the Member had crossed that line. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Can we stop the clock for a second, please.
To the Member, Yellowknife Centre, can you please clarify, please.
Actually, you know, it's fine. I'm comfortable with taking the context of fiction away. I don't feel like I want to tie Assembly time up so I withdraw the point of fiction, and basically, I'm back to the point I'll withdraw it, but I'll say are they using facts or creativity to make these decisions? Thank you.
Member, thank you. Member, can you please clarify what you just what are you trying to achieve, please. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Are they using facts to come up with these decisions? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Wow, okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are also for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Could the Minister please confirm if the majority of need for agency nurses is in obstetrics? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, we only have two obstetric units in the Northwest Territories. One is at Stanton, one is in Inuvik, and that is currently where they are. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that clarity.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm although I did hear her say a little bit about this in an earlier answer, so I'll reframe my question on the fly. Can the Minister confirm how local nurses are being able to be or will be able to be trained in labour and delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
