Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I just would like to understand why legal aid clinics is substantially higher in this budget than the Legal Aid Commission itself. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you look at trends in public health care systems that use agency nurses, private health care, it always starts small. It's always a department here, a hospital there, a clinic there, and they start and it keeps ballooning, ballooning, and ballooning, and soon it's $65 million to provide a service that used to cost $10 million. And this is the case in Ontario, in Quebec, in large centres. It's the case in smaller provinces as well. I am watching the time, so I will wrap up here so the Minister can respond. But if you put an agency nurse into a small community, you will...

Thank you. And that's fair, and I will be less pointed about the hypothetical wellness centre that is not before us, Mr. Chair.

So for those positions, what is the current plan? The Minister did speak or the Premier did speak to how they want to minimize any impacts to employment. But what is the current plan with these? Because they are specialized roles. So are they going to be transferred to other correctional facilities? Are they going to be laid off? Do we have a human resources plan to for these individuals who have affected who will be affected by this closure? Thank you.

Can the Minister be more specific in terms of a target? Like, ongoing doesn't give me much comfort. Ongoing could be 30 years from now. So I'm wondering if we can get a fiscal year that meets the department's timelines, because of course, it can't offer this training indefinitely there are budgets attached to it, there's staffing attached to it. So can the Minister give us a fiscal year when this when the changeover will take place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So of the 15 fulltime employees, the 17 relief employees, those are correctional officers who have been trained or who have received training as correctional officers, is that correct, Mr. Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I look forward to the conclusion of collective bargaining, then. Hopefully we have clarity on what we can provide to frontline health care professionals.

So I'll turn to the midwifery cuts and also to the need for agency nurses to staff obstetrics at Stanton Hospital. Why is the department having such a hard time providing birthing services in the Northwest Territories or investing in birthing services? Because it seems like we're not really interested. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on the subject of the Fort Smith centre closing, can the Minister provide more detail on what the plan is with this new wellness centre? Because we haven't seen any concrete details or terms of reference or scoping. So I guess I'd like to know is this just kind of an idea, like hey, maybe we could turn to this, or is it an actual plan that they thought through and are developing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so I know that there's sunsets to oh, and I'm not sure if they're here. Anyways, so just related to labour market supplements to recruitment to referrals to recruitment and retention, period. And it's close to $3 million. So how is the department making up for this? I know we're in the midst of a bargaining process so is there a plan to bring something is there a reserve being set aside in case there's a need for this resource to be brought back once those negotiations are concluded? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

How many agency nurse contracts have been utilized since 2021 by individual nurse;

How many agency nurse contracts have been utilized since 2021 by contracting agency;

How many agency nurse contracts have been utilized to support community health centres and Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority operations outside of hospitals in Yellowknife, Inuvik, and Hay River since 2021; and

How many individual agency nurse contracts are represented by the $4.4 million expenditure on agency nurses in fiscal year...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And for the record, that was not a trick question. I was sincerely trying to because I can't see another solution to this that's not that won't take a significant amount of time, and we need some short to mediumterm solutions to the organized crime element of this problem while we continue to invest in those longterm foundational changes in resources that our most vulnerable citizens need.

When it comes to the provision of those integrated services, how are the police going to be used or policing services going to be used to complement that, specifically around the...