Lesa Semmler

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Tlicho Service Agency staffs theirs when when they're on the verge of having no nursing and I know that, from my understanding and this is why I know that there's five, is because everybody time I come to the House I always ask my department, so how many agency nurses we have? Because I know this is going to be a question here. And so but I do know that, you know, the Tlicho Service Agency does utilize them to keep their health centres open and they have, you know, vacancies over the summer and so they may have to utilize those if they cannot find...

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since 2020, I think that is when we started using agency nurses, I don't have the number of the contracts and that's the level of detail that is. What we are doing is we're using nurses where they're not going to shut down services. And, you know, I hear that the Member this is something that, you know, he's raised many times in this House but then when you go out to the small communities and they're shut down and the services are we can't find a nurse, you know, those are the communities that, you know, may have to utilize a nurse. And so we can...

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, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to I have answered that but what I'm going to say, it is not a specific instance. I have since Minister, five months, I have received numerous and numerous and thousands and thousands of dollars that people have spent on, you know like, myself, if I had to fly out if my child was sick or my motherinlaw was sick or my you know, my family member was sick and I had to jump on a plane and go and be with them, you know, I would be outofpocket as well. But I do get these BFs constantly and so this like I said, I am looking at it. I know that there is an area...

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can review it, but we do have the exception policy. So the role of the health care practitioner is to make the assessment, provide the recommendation for an escort. That recommendation must be explicit to the reason for a request. A lot of times the request is care and compassion, and I get that you know, if I could give everybody a care and compassion escort, you know, I would not be liked by my colleagues very much. You know, because it's going to be like, the amount of people that are travelling in the Northwest Territories I think we provided a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now I can't commit to a secondment but what I'm willing to do is work collaboratively with SSI and other Indigenous governments to implement programs to support mental wellness. I'm also committed to supporting Indigenous governments and communities advancing these wellness solutions that are grounded in cultural communities and their perspectives. I welcome the opportunity to learn more about the vision. And I know that the Member has got some work that they'll be doing next week in their region, and I look forward to hearing and seeing what's coming...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker and I thank the Member for raising this concern. You know, the more and more we talk about this, the more and more it becomes normalized, and we're able to work together to try and find solutions.

The Department of Health and Social Services, two programs currently available. We have the community suicide prevention fund and the community wellness and addiction recovery fund, which is a fund that we actually, from recommendations last government, was asked to be put together and have less it's more flexible for Indigenous governments to access.

The community...