Shauna Morgan

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. And I -- I think the Minister perhaps anticipated my second question here, but. And I would just point out, you know, that home care clients may be a different audience or different group than specifically people supporting seniors with dementia and Alzheimer's.

But can the Minister explain what is done to consider the feasibility of opening up day programming beyond the live-in long-term care residents at our long-term care facilities and whether other, like drop-in clients could be included in some of that programming. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, today I want to pick up the ball on advocacy that was ongoing in the last two assemblies around reestablishing an adult day program for seniors with dementia. Many seniors at some stage of Alzheimer's or dementia want to continue living at home supported by a partner or family members, and we should be respectful of our elders' wishes. It also makes economic sense to support families to continue caring for their loved ones at home. It costs the territory much more to move elders into a long-term care facility. But many of us know firsthand how hard it is to care for a family...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wonder if the Minister could commit to come back to me or come back to this House with some information about how much funding the department had been willing to offer in the RFPs that it had previously put out for an adult day program and examine opportunities for that amount of funding to, you know, be added on perhaps to current programming in long-term care facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

As I spoke about in my Member's statement, organizations such as the Yellowknife Seniors' Society have been advocating strongly for the adult day program to be re-established in Yellowknife, particularly to support seniors with dementia and their caregivers. So what consultation has the department done specifically with organizations and families supporting seniors with dementia and Alzheimer's to assess the need for such an adult day program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I do look forward to following up with the Minister to pursue this further. But my final question is just that given that the women's centre has a policy now stating it can't safely support intoxicated individuals during the daytime, even if they rent a room within that space, if these folks are being turned away at the sobering centre and they can't go back to their room at the women's centre, is the Minister aware of anywhere else those folks can go if they're intoxicated to safely get off the street? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I wanted to ask the Minister about the policies of the GNWT-run day shelter and sobering centre here in Yellowknife around how and when they might restrict access to prevent individuals from using those spaces for reasons other than immediate safety threats. And I just wanted to especially note that the day shelter is the only co-ed space available in Yellowknife for social connection and community support.

Can the Minister confirm, do the day shelter and sober centre have policies to refuse access to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as I understand it, the role of the GNWT-employed scientists is to give their input and expertise internally before that gets fed into the process. Does the GNWT employ any traditional knowledge experts that the GNWT's scientists can engage internally with to have that dialogue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.