Lesa Semmler

As the Minister alluded to, one of our priorities of this government is to increase resident healthcare staff by 20 percent. I would like to know if there is some sort of plan that is in place in human resources to fix the system to make it more appealing to indeterminate employees rather than locums and terms, especially in our highly-needed healthcare profession.

This is something that I have asked previously, so I guess I'll just move on to the next. Within this budget, knowing just kind of what I was talking about today in my Member's statement and with the nursing shortage, can the Minister tell me: do you know how much we spent in the past year alone on job shares and flying people in and out, and the travel costs for health positions? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance, where the human resources department falls under. Can the Minister confirm or explain if term contracts cannot be extended up to 48 months any longer, where this could ensure a longer commitment from some of our healthcare professionals? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I just never knew that we budgeted overtime. Can you tell me, in the previous year, was there a change in the main estimates? What was the increase from the main estimate to the end of the year that we needed to increase, if there was anything, for overtime, in the cost to the health authorities? Thank you.

Thank you. Just looking at the allocation on the information items kind of attached to the active position summary, I'm just trying to figure out, with the position summary and the salaries, is overtime included in that number, or does that come later? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What I'm looking at is: can the Minister tell me, for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services, the $295 million, is that all salaries? Or what is the breakdown of that number? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Just to touch on here, I would like to know, since it falls under here and now that we're sitting under this, there have been a lot of concerns raised with medical travel and some of the places where they have to stay where there is not enough food for some of the residents who I've gotten complaints from, so how do we assess that? Is there an assessment over these places or questionnaires that go out to people so that we know that we are providing enough funding so that, when people are travelling for medical travel, they are meeting the needs of the clients when they are...

I'll move on to the next section. The medical travel benefits, we've got $19 million and then $15 million and $15 million. The $15 million for medical travel benefits, is this just for non-government travel, medical travel benefits? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just kind of confused, just knowing my process now. The main estimates in 2019-2020 were the same as the revised estimates, so there was no supplementary appropriation in that section to my knowledge. I'm trying to figure out what exactly did we spend, or what are we not spending, or where did we cut $2 million out of this budget? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes. Looking on page 183, the extended health benefits, can the Minister explain how, this year, they expect it to be less than previous years? Thank you, Madam Chair.