Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If Mr. Speaker would be kind enough to let me respond to this one, so I might need a little bit more time but if not, you can let me know. Because I think a lot of these answers, to fully understand how nurses are regulated are going to take a lot more time than I have left. So what I will say is that nurse practitioners are regulated through CAN. The nurse practitioner scope of practice is defined by legislation and applies to standards of practice through CAN. Operationally, nurse practice is aligned with the role for which they are hired. So, example, a nurse...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do provide mental health counselling across the Northwest Territories; however, there are some vacancies in some regions and that we continue to struggle with as many of our counsellors within our program, as the Member has said, you know, they are clinical counsellors and they should have -- be able to register, and we encourage them to register as soon as they are hired on under that, which also then, like the Member says, provides a barrier. Some of the people that have been working in our system for years. But we do provide virtual telephone counselling and fly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while there's limited access to care in small communities, patients often have to travel elsewhere. And with our limited, you know -- Members of this House have brought up many times other alternative measures that we are looking at right now as virtual care and also with the public administrator going into each of the regions to see what is actually needed and what can be implemented as soon as possible in those small communities that could help promote the health of the people in those communities while reducing their need to always have to travel into...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within health and social services, there are core services -- standards do exist throughout the Northwest Territories but right now, what's happening is we are reviewing those and focusing on updating a lot of those core service standards to ensure better supports and guidance for health and social services authorities implementing these standards, and that's one of the things that we are focusing on. And hopefully that these recommendations from that review will help to move these next steps forward by this summer that we will have that finalized. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I would like to say is I would like to welcome and recognize the healthcare providers that are here today. Their continuous efforts to caring for our residents and the work that we're doing in this House every day to try and improve that, it's the feedback that we hear from them. Like I've said in the House many times, this is a big aircraft carrier to turn and I'm trying to turn this aircraft carrier. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, and everyone is aware that, you know -- and I'm not going to speak for Alberta and their rules. And I know that their legislation does speak to puberty blockers before the age of 16 and surgeries before they're age 18. So when the Member speaks to top surgeries, yes, that's accurate. And also the conversation that I had in person with the Minister, and I am going to be going down to Alberta to meet with the -- you know, to schedule a meeting with the health Minister there. They have switched portfolios, so there is a new health Minister that will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this was one of the reasons why, you know, we have an anesthetist, we have physicians that have -- we have to have the backup for cesarean sections to be able to provide services for labour and delivery and, you know, our physicians also need to go on vacation. So with the locum, the new locum rates, we're hoping that we can encourage locum and aesthetics and, you know, and GPs to come up to help with our physicians so that they can take the time off that they need as well as the nurses. As long as I've been in Inuvik, the nurses that do provide the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the -- with the Member's question, what I can say, as the schedule as developed, we have been scheduling physicians, emergency room physicians. Beyond what the development of the schedule is, I would have to get back to the Member as the schedule is developed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this has only been implemented in the capital through the primary care clinic, the team-based approach, we are currently, you know, rolling it out in different areas of the territory. But in Yellowknife region right now, the nurse practitioners on the team do provide a full care with their scope to patients that are assigned to them. From the moving to -- from the old clinic space to the Liwego'ati, as it relates to nurse practitioners practice has not reduced their scope and historically nurse practitioners have not had patients specifically paneled to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, I'm not going to repeat my answer. And what I will say is that with the Indigenous governments, you know, we do sit at the Council of Leaders, we do have bilaterals. We do have the community wellness and recovery fund that we do encourage Indigenous groups to access if they want to provide other, you know, traditional counselling, traditional elders with their traditional healing aftercare. So I do know that many of our Indigenous groups have been accessing this funding. There are some that we are continuing to work with on being able to access this fund...