Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the commitment that the government will be spending $50 million on housing during each of the next three years is significant. We have been working towards this since the beginning of this Assembly. This wasn't something that we just came up with a few weeks ago. And we've been engaged in advocacy for housing both through our committees as Regular Members and in individual meetings with the Minister, that I know many of us have had, trying to figure out a practical path forward on this. So we're starting to see the fruits of those labours, and I am...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the health authority tracking the number of expected retirements of doctors and nurses over the next three years in order to target its recruitment and workforce planning efforts appropriately? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hopefully we still have some healthcare workers that have hung on and are continuing to watch because I would like to ask some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services around healthcare workforce planning.

So we know that there are almost 50 percent vacancy rates for local family physicians and specialists in the territory, and the health authority has been saying that that might not be a problem because maybe we don't need that many doctors if patients are sometimes better off seeing another practitioner instead such as a nurse.

My question, first, when...

Mr. Speaker, I don't have anything more to add. I'll just ask for a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I want to thank the Member for Monfwi for seconding the motion, and I want to thank the Member for Range Lake for coming up with the idea for this motion in the first place, as a way to show nurses and healthcare workers that we see their struggle. We see the pain that they endure amidst staff shortages and increased demands trying to keep our healthcare system afloat and do right by the patients that they try to help day after day after night after night.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot run a good quality healthcare system if the majority of our nurses and doctors...

Mr. Speaker, I cannot support a return to the old affirmative action policy. But I also cannot give me wholehearted endorsement of the new Indigenous employment policy because I do not believe it can achieve its intended objectives.

Mr. Speaker, if this motion is asking me to take a position on which one do I support, the affirmative action policy or the Indigenous employment policy, I will do neither because I believe we are having the wrong conversation entirely.

The few constituents who did reach out to me about the Indigenous employment policy expressed a common concern, and I think it was...

Mr. Speaker, collective bargaining often ends up being a big fight. It pits employer against employee. It's seen as a zero-sum game where one side wins and one side loses. It's assumed that what the employer wants, in this case the GNWT, is to pay its staff as little as possible and get away with treating them badly. This assumption results in a very adversarial and confrontational process of collective bargaining. But what if we didn't assume that what the GNWT wants and what employees want is so different or so far apart? What if the GNWT and staff both have strong common interests, like...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following documents for the purposes of public discussion: First, A Draft for Discussion: Private Member's Bill: An Act to Amend the Public Service Act. Second, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Statement of Consistency for An Act to Amend the Public Service Act. Third, Explanation of the Proposal for a Private Member's Bill: An Act to Amend the Public Service Act. And, finally, Frequently Asked Questions on a Private Member's Bill Proposal to Address Concerns Raised by Nurses Regarding the Public Service Act - by MLA...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we also know that as of June of last year, nurse vacancy rates ranged from 23 percent to 36 percent, depending on the type of nurse. And that's alarming enough, but if nurses are now expected to take on even more of a role in seeing patients, if there's a shortage of doctors, is the Minister confident that we currently even have enough nurse positions established, let alone the ability to fill them? So in other words, could the gap between the number of nurses we have and the number of nurses we need be even greater than those vacancy rates are showing? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that notwithstanding Rule 2.1, when the House adjourns on Thursday, March 13, 2025, it shall be adjourned until Thursday, May 22, 2025;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to May 22, 2025, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice;

AND THEREUPON, the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall...